Backpacking Stove Fuel Types - How to Choose (Guide)

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Rob Johnston

Editor & Article Writer for Outdoor Wilds

Backpacking Stove Fuel Types - How to Choose

At first glance if you’re new to the world of stoves, the choice between backpacking stove fuel types can seem rather confusing.

In this article I take a look at the 3 main types of stove fuel used for hiking and backpacking to help you choose which is the most suitable for your backpacking trip.

The 3 main fuel types your likely to come across are:

Liquid Fuel
Gas Canister
Alcohol Fuel

Each fuel has both its advantages and disadvantages which I’ll now go through each in turn. Taking a detailed look at all the key considerations for the 3 fuel types.

Liquid Fuel

Liquid fuel stoves require a fuel bottle which is refillable. The bottles are specific to the task of supplying fuel to a stove.

For example, MSR sells bottles in 3 sizes, 11 oz, 20 oz and 30 oz.

To give you an idea of how long a bottle will last.

A 30 oz bottle is enough for 4 people for 3 days generally speaking.

Types of liquid fuel

The fuel typically used is white gas, although alcohol, kerosene, plus diesel and petrol will work in a pinch.

A word of caution here though. I would strongly suggest always using white gas when it’s readily available in parts of the world like the United States.

If you’re travelling around the world, kerosene is going to be the most easy to find. It is a dirty, smelly fuel which is difficult to light. But due to its availability most people run their stoves on kerosene when in less developed countries.

I personally wouldn’t use any other type of liquid fuel other than white gas in my stove, unless I was in a survival situation.

If you’re going to use alcohol, gasoline or diesel, read the instructions from the stove manufacturer beforehand in regards to fuel types that are safe to use.

White Gas

White gas is the ideal fuel for liquid gas stoves. Buy enough for your needs at a time as it does start to degrade once exposed to air.

Both Coleman and MSR offer their own mixture of white gas fuel that is cleaner and more efficient. You’ll have less fuel line clogs and general maintenance to do when using a dedicated white gas fuel.

Advantages of Liquid Fuel

Disadvantages of Liquid Fuel

For more information about what type of liquid fuel to use, take a look at the MSR website. It also includes a fuel table with a list of names for the different types of fuel around the world, by country.

Gas Canister Fuel

Gas stoves are more common, convenient and easier to use compared to a liquid fuel stove.

Fuel comes in canisters available from outdoor stores almost anywhere in the United States and Europe.

Most canisters have a threaded opening at the top that allows you to screw the stove directly into the canister. That’s all you need to do, and you’re up and running.

Jetboil Jetpower Fuel for Jetboil Camping and Backpacking Stoves, 100 Grams

There are other types of canisters that require an adapter to fuel your stove. I’ll cover those in a further article.

The fuel inside the canister is a form of Isopropane (IsoPro) blend of propane, isobutane and/or butane. Which in essence is a class of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

Fuel is a pre measured and pressurised amount of gas that comes in 3 canister sizes.

A quick mention about CP 250 canisters that you’ll see in portable tabletop stoves. These tend to be butane or a mix of isobutane, but this type of stove is rarely used for backpacking due to it’s bulky size and weight.

The most common sizes are:

100 gram – 3.5 oz.
230 gram – 8 oz.
450 gram – 16 oz.

The weights refer to the amount of fuel inside the canister. The canister is an additional weight.

How Much Gas Canister Fuel to Take Backpacking

How long a canister of fuel lasts is affected by the environmental conditions to a fair degree. Air temperature, wind and altitude all have an impact on how long it takes to boil water.

Let’s take a typical example of a solo 2 night backpacking trip as a guide to how much fuel to carry with you for the trip.

Number of boils

In essence, working out how much water you need to boil will indicate how much fuel is required to carry over the 2 nights.

As an example we’ll assume you’re going to eat one dehydrated meal a day, plus one hot drink. An average dehydrated meal takes around 500 ml of water, plus a hot drink is the same. So we’re looking at boiling in the region of 1 litre of water a day.

Now we know how much water that needs to be boiled per day, it’s a matter of testing your stove at home.

Weighing the gas canister

Weighing the canister before and after boiling 500 ml of water using kitchen scales will tell you how much fuel has been used.

To sum up, an average stove from MSR, Jetboil or any other major stove brand will allow you to achieve around 10 x 500 ml boils from a 100 gram / 3.5 oz canister.

So, for our hypothetical 2 day solo backpacking trip a 100 gram canister is going to be plenty of fuel to carry with you.

This is of course a very general guide. You may achieve 12 boils or as little as 8 depending on the stove and environmental conditions. But most people have a target of 10 boils from 3.5 oz canisters.

Advantages of Gas Canister Fuel

Disadvantages of Gas Canister Fuel

Not all Gas Canisters are Equal

There are many different brands of gas canister available to buy. But are they all equal? It’s a good question and the video below by Aaron Villery may shed some light on the subject.

I’ll let you watch the video to see the complete set of results Aaron’s test produced.

In summary, nine in total 230 gram canisters were tested for burn time and boil time, along with maximum temperature of flame.

16 oz of water was used for each boil time. The Coleman came out on top with 65 boils and the SnowPeak came last with 48 boils.

The tests were all done under the same conditions, it has to be said it wasn’t a laboratory test. So I’d take the results accordingly. An interesting test none the less for regular users of gas canisters.

How to measure remaining fuel inside a gas canister

In the video below Liv over at REI shows you how to measure the amount of fuel left inside a gas canister.

The procedure is very simple. You’ll need a large pot, a set of kitchen scales plus a sharpie to mark the sides of a full and part full canister.

Alcohol Stove Fuel

Our final fuel type is the alcohol stove fuel. My first stove, many years ago now, was an alcohol burner which to this day I still use for the occasional backpacking trip.

Sometimes called a spirit burner, this type of fuel stove is extremely simple to use, with very little or no maintenance.

Names of alcohol fuel around the world

Use alcohol based only with these burners. The names of the fuel vary around the world. The list below covers the typical names to look for when travelling.

Methylated spirits or bioethanol spirit (UK)
Ethyl alcohol or Denature alcohol (USA)
Alcool a brûleur (FR)
Brennspiritus (D)
Alcohol de quemar (SP)

There are several key advantages of using this stove type compared to gas canisters and liquid fuel stoves.

For short solo trips these stoves are ideal. The burner weighs less than 100 grams and the amount of fuel to carry is easy to calculate.

How much alcohol fuel to take backpacking

I suggest carrying the fuel in a dedicated fuel bottle that is leak proof, has a flip top spout, plus ounce measurements on the side.

I usually carry 5 oz to 8 oz of fuel for a 2 day solo backpacking trip. As a general rule of thumb; 1 oz of fuel to boil 500 ml of water. 500 ml being enough water for either a hot drink or a dehydrated meal.

The downside to alcohol burners is that they’re very slow and inefficient. Wind can play havoc with the flame so carry a small wind shield to help with burner consistency.