Thread: Cooking systems - Light vs cost

Originally Posted by Nibblet

Be curious to know if a neoprene sleeve or something would help?

Off the top of my head I don't think it would - its a while since I studied thermodynamics but essentialy the evaporation of liquid to gas inside the canister requires energy, which it has to absorb from the outside to maintain operating pressure. Thats why the outside of the canister feels cold when its running, and can ice up even when the air temp is well above zero - its the temperature drop inside thats cooling the outside. Some people use little heat packs which you can stick under the canister if it gets too cold, simple solution but seems to work as it doesn't take a lot of heat to keep it the gas evaporating. Even wrapping your hands around it (which obviously gives you cold hands) or sitting the canister in a pot of slightly warmed water can sometimes be enough to get it cranking.

Liquid fuel stoves don't have that issue because you pressurise the fuel bottle with the pump to make the liquid flow, and then its the heat of the stove that evaporates the liquid to gas (which is why you have to prime/pre-heat them to get started). IIRC they're also a fair bit more efficient/cheaper to run, a 1l bottle of fuelite/white spirits for will give a heap more use than a 230g gas canister and not cost much more. If you're burning a lot of fuel doing things like melting snow for drinking water then it can make quite a difference.