It's the internet, right? You see a lot of gear-related claims being made, but often without any supporting evidence to back them up. My goal is to examine these gear legends one by one to separate the facts from the folklore, provide objective analysis with factual references, and hopefully have some fun along the way!
The old MSR heat exchanger... Memories... That "boat anchor" is really good with one pot. It was designed for use with that one pot for the purpose of melting snow and ice into drinkable water, which takes huge amounts of fuel. It was typically used with a 1.5-2 liter pot, with an MSR XGK or XGK II stove. These stoves burn anything from white gas to kerosine to diesel fuel. They are very loud, sounding like a jet engine throttled up during takeoff! Back in the late 80s early 90s, that was the most efficient way bar-none of making water from snow and ice. The weight of it made it something only used for situations that required a lot of water from snow and ice. Not surprised whatsoever that it doesn't fare well when compared to more modern designs...
FYI... I just came back from a backpacking trip and tried the recovery recipe you offered, then consumed after each day of backpacking, within 30 minutes of stopping and to be honest, I'm a bit amazed at how well this has worked. I never had any of the usual soreness and aches that I usually have. Even my calves are ready to continue! Once again, your wonderful teaching method, and your thorough research proves that you are an undervalued resource! Please keep up the excellent channel you have here! Thank you!
Please be careful with windscreens and canister stoves! One of the few problems with canister stoves is the possibility of bursting/explosion if the canister gets too hot. Back when these stoves were in their infancy, people used aluminum windscreens such as those used for the MSR Whisperlite white gas stoves. People would wrap the aluminum windscreen tight around the canister and even the stove, which sometimes resulted in the canister being heated and bursting, causing a huge fireball and possible injury to those nearby. These windscreens that are designed for canisters often have parts designed to keep the heat away from the canister, for just this reason...
As we all know by now, Titanium is not a great transmitter of heat. It's the metal, not the pot design... What about our venerable old friends the Aluminum pot? Aluminum is generally considered an excellent transmitter of heat. Would the old aluminum pot be a more efficient pot? Not only that, but there is also the issue of painting the bottom of a pan with flat black high temp stove paint. In the old days with whisperlite and other white gas stoves, the aluminum pot with its bottom painted with flat black (wood) stove paint was by far more efficient than anything less than heat exchanger type pots and mods. Yet another question is does that same high-temp flat black stove paint withstand the concentrated heating of stoves such as the Pocket Rocket? Hopefully planting a few more seeds for another skeptic... wink...wink...
Indeed! I do have plans to test titanium vs aluminum vs stainless steel, as well as blackened pots. Just need to do HX pots in the wind first (so I can compare them to stoves+windscreens for efficiency and weight).
@@GearSkeptic Absolutely LOVE your work! Stumbled upon your channel and have been "devouring" it! A lot of us seasoned backpackers have thought about these issues, but not enough to go to the trouble and precision of testing that you are.
Okay so, in 2024 some of these options aren’t available anymore like the Sawyer S3. I’m looking for a reliable backpacker water filter capable of making my water safe to drink. I camp/prep in an area where most of my water sources are near agriculture operations. What are my options?
The First Need and the Grayl are the only other ones I know of with actual chemical removal numbers. With other filters that may have an activated carbon element, you are basically taking it on faith.
@@GearSkeptic Awesome thank for the quick response sir! The First Need seems like the best bang-for-buck and the actual lab testing seems more trustworthy. The Grayl has a lot of unclean nuance surrounding how to use it and how long it’s actually good for as you’ve shown. Out of curiosity, a lot of my bodies of water are typically still water (ponds and small lakes), obviously the further away from any agriculture operation the better, but do you think the First Need would be sufficient in making this kind of water safe to drink where the chemical aspect is (hopefully) low? Thanks for your time!
I would trust it. It has been around longest, and was actually the only one that was tested by scientists not hired by the company itself (so I believe the results).
The level of detail is incredible,, I watch something like this and laugh at the other specifications readers videos. Open the box and read me the specs or the script from the manufacturer
I'm not sure if energy consumption is a good measure for the comparision of footware weight. It could have an effect on the strain of the muscles so they should measure lactate.
Haven’t watched the video all the way through yet. My guess is that heat exchangers are rarely if ever worth the weight for the minimal improvement in efficiency. I have a MSR wind burner and rarely take it unless I need to melt snow in the winter. It is way too heavy.
Interesting, I'd always heard the 5-1 number quoted but never really thought it was supposed to be taken literally, so I'm actually a little surprised it was true even if only at high speeds. Disappointed to see no one test climbing or elevation gain though, I'd guess that a significant part of the increased effect at higher speeds comes from actually lifting your feet during running strides, rather than just swinging your leg forward, which would also apply to simply walking uphill.
Another great video, I appreciate all the work. I think the MSR heat exchanger ring is more aimed at liquid fuelled stoves like the whisper light or dragonfly with their wider flames. I would love to see a canister stove with a wider flame compared as well such as the Optimus Crux. Perhaps they benefit from a heat exchanger more than a narrower flame. Of course the HE pot can’t be too small or the flame may hit the wrong part of the HE. The cooling effects of wind on the pot will also be compounded by any decrease in temperature. I think that consideration is also easy to forget when we are laser focused on efficiency in static temperature wind comparisons. Tiny variables affect performance, sure but they are insignificant compared to real world variables. I work 4 seasons in the wilderness and often make a coffee, porridge or soup on a cold day. I dislike the waste of canister stoves and so rarely use them but I have often thought there are many weaknesses people forget, especially in cold weather. Larger fuel tanks have more fuel mass when new and so if kept warm take longer to lose their heat and fuel pressure. Unfortunately they also remain as a “partial” canister longer. To make sure I always have fuel I would carry two canisters so I could run one completely empty before using the next. On a camping trip it’s easy to measure and pay close attention but not so much when its part of a work kit. That’s obviously more practical with smaller sized canisters.
Lighter isn’t always better when you are going to use a stove many times. In something already so lightweight, setup and takedown time as well as durability are huge factors.
My two college chemistry for science majors classes and labs were very useful. One of those labs included a demonstration of food calorie measurement. I learned that the method for determining calories in food is not the same as our bodies use food. Our bodies turn food to energy and nutrients in water based chemical reactions. Calorie measurements for food literally burn food in air to heat water (tends to favor fats/oils). I realized this massive disconnect many years ago. To my knowledge there is no real research into how human bodies actually use food (water based chemical reactions under 100F) versus how the food industry guesses at how food works (open air combustion). This oversimplification of food energy value ignores nutrition (fats are required for brain function).
Planning my first thru-hike of the Tahoe Rim Trail next summer, and this video is incredible!!! I downloaded the pdf of the spreadsheet, and it will be my go-to reference for life. Thanks so much for your contribution to the backpacking community :)
Great info once again, you’re a wealth of information. Thanks! I can’t help but giggle when I see your videos, your moving hands remind me of a muppet back in the day, but I can’t remember the muppets name.
What a great resource you are, thanks so much. It’s made me rethink doing any thru hike. I’m gluten free, have a walnut tree nut allergy and egg allergy. Unfortunately, I’ve done so much food shopping to read all the labels of bars, I couldn’t find one that didn’t process tree nuts, so bars are out. A lot of candies are out, a lot of chocolate is out because of processing tree nuts in the factories. I’m still looking for a tree nut free chocolate. If only the FDA could redefine their nut allergies to what nuts instead of peanuts or tree nuts.. what tree nut? When I email the companies to ask if they process walnuts, I get a copied and pasted typical FDA write up about “ may contain”, instead of answering my question. So frustrating! I can’t buy any of those products because they’re not specific. But I read somewhere that all tree nuts are processed in the same facilities before being shipped to companies. But I did find a company that only processes cashews, so I buy from them. I can have peanut butter but not eat peanuts because of cross contamination, weird I know. I figure I could make my own trail mix of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cashews, and dehydrated peaches, apricots, and cranberries with gluten free pretzels, dried coconut and a tree nut free chocolate. I figure that I would buy a dehydrator and when I cook meals, make a lot extra and dehydrate the meals, and add instructions to each meal, and freeze. Dehydrate vegetables and fruit also. I think I will have a huge issue with my caloric intake.
So to get %100 perfect safety you can simply filter with an MSR Guardian and then boil the water. Overkill to reach boiling temperature, but at any rate, this would mean %100 safety right?
Great channel. Unsolicited ask: Oxygen transfer rate (OTR) on name brand odor barrier bags! Aside from the empirical testing, also a dog sniff review at a local dog park or similar?
Another thought is that if you have a lid on your stove, then the only way to know that it’s done boiling is the steam coming out of the holes of the lid, besides checking it periodically. That means it is boiling longer than the 200 degrees in your test, which strengthens your argument that a lid isn’t worth it. Especially if your pot is much larger than the water volume, as I found out this weekend with my own test with a 1.4 liter pot and two cups of water.
Great video. One question is how windy does it get on the other side of the tent, or in a partially opened vestibule? In other words, what is the highest realistic wind speed that is encountered while backpacking?
It's a good question. Obviously the weather can vary and winds could get very strong. I would like to know how much protection a tent provides, but I don't have a fan setup that could put good, consistent wind across an area that large. I may have to look into a larger shop fan (or multiple fans)
Wow, thank you so much for this very informative series! Got a quick question, if I opted for the Frog Fuel instead of the Whey, would I still have to mix it with the dextrose and sweetened coffee? Like does Frog Fuel stand on its own and accomplish the same results as your mix? Next question, using your recovery drink recipe, how much water do you add? I hope you have a quick minute to answer my questions. Thank you so much, I really enjoy your videos.
Thanks much! For my own mix, the water amount is somewhat flexible, but I use about 16oz. Any less and it gets very, very sweet. Frog Fuel is just protein, so you need your sugars from somewhere. I use it with Gatorade, because the electrolytes are also good if you are sweating. One liter of Gatorade makes a good ratio if you squeeze one Frog Fuel packet into it, and their citrusy flavor profiles go well together!
@@maryhurd5868 it dissolves well. All of the ingredients stir in easily with just a spoon (or you can just tip a bottle back and forth if it has a cap).
I recently just about deleted myself on what was supposed to be a real Sunday stroll of a hike. Here's the story as a warning to others. It was my first hike of the season, near home, recovering from a hideous oral surgery. And these are just little mountains, I thought. The *trail reports* I read were for the peak of Mountain X and some nearby high points with antenna masts. My *map* said "here are the antennas, and here's the peak of Mountain X." Clear enough. I was just doing maybe an hour run with a quick side mission to Mt X tacked on for laughs. I made it to the antennas with plenty left in the tank, why not "bag a peak?" Turns out that what almost everyone, including the trail reports, calls the peak of Mt X was off to the East, at the end of a paved road, with a parking lot, an easy walk from the antennas. What my map labeled as the peak of Mt X was in fact the high point of the whole ridge, the Mt X massif as it were, and it was off to the west over a long, rugged, rotten trail. Locals, park rangers, and everyone but my map called this point by a different name, let's say "Mountain Not-X." I realized something was off in plenty of time to turn around, but then I did several dumbs: I went for it anyway; it was a heat advisory day, so it was ok in the morning but then became an oven; and because it was just a cardio run plus cakewalk, I hadn't brought water. Later, on the Not-X peak (just some scrubby woods with a survey marker) I texted my wife with another error: the way back would be easier because it's downhill! Wrong! It's not the Rockies! It's all up and down and steep as hell, endlessly! Uphill both ways! Good lord, the walk out was maybe the most miserable I've ever been. I'm lucky I didn't keel over within earshot of city traffic. Nobody else was up there. I'm too old to be this dumb. Anyway I came out a little ways from where I parked, sat down on a curb, and waited for my wife to bring water. My house is like five minutes from there. 🤷🏼♂️
Note: a lot of my overconfidence came from being new to the local topography and severely underestimating it, because you see I'd lived and climbed in the Rockies, I was a certified Fourteener guy, I signed the CMC roll on the peak of... Etc etc. Where I live now, the altitudes are low, and really the mountains look like gentle wooded hills, not even mountains. Welp: they are rugged and brutal in a whole different way, as I soon found out. You cannot judge the difficulty of a trail here by net elevation gain. And none of the things I thought were dangerous were in play: it wasn't wet or cold, I was never lost (just misled about local toponyms 😂), I hadn't tried to climb anything or shortcut a switchback, I was so close to help that I could see a couple of hospitals below through breaks in the foliage, etc etc. No, this was all me making dumb decisions and nearly getting dropped by heat exhaustion.
