Try Mixed-Fuel Stove In Higher Elevations

Sun., Aug. 29, 1999

Dear Gear Guy: Several folks around here have claimed that stoves running a butane/propane mix do not work above certain elevations. The claimed “threshold” elevations have varied from 2,000 to 7,000 to 15,000 feet. If this is so, and assuming it is, what is the falloff in performance with elevation?

Errol Lloyd, Reisterstown, Md.

Gear Guy: It’s not the elevation so much as the temperature, Errol. That’s why you’re hearing so many different elevation thresholds. In fact, there’s enough oxygen in the air for most stoves to burn well up to 15,000 feet or so.

But once it drops below freezing, butane can get downright sluggish. That’s why most makers of canister fuels cut it with propane, which works to well below zero. Straight propane, in fact, is a wonderful cold weather/high altitude fuel, but requires a bulky canister. Anyway, among canister fuels, the mix used by Peak 1 in its “X” stoves works pretty well in cold weather and at higher elevations. The new Primus Hi-Powered 3243 also is pretty good in cool weather.

That said, white gas is the usual choice for all-temperature/high-altitude use. If you want to use it when conditions dictate, but want the convenience of canister fuels, then the Primus MFS (Multi-Fuel System; $100) can do that. It uses an adapter to make the switch from fuels that splash to fuels that are under pressure.

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