I bought my first real backpacking stove in early 1972, a Svea 123 that uses white gas. Before that I cooked on wood fires and a U.S. Military canteen stove. I used wood, solid fuel and alcohol in the canteen stove. Sometime in the 70’s I bought a butane canister stove.
Today, 40 years later, the same kinds of stoves are the options available to the backpacker. There have been some minor improvements in stove efficiency and weight reduction, but nothing revolutionary. Since there have been so few advances in stove design, I am often perplexed when I see backpackers constantly buying, testing, and spending so much time playing with stoves. Seems like they would be better served by buying a couple proven stoves, and with all the time saved by no longer playing with stoves, the time could be used to actually go backpacking.
So I thought I would save everyone some time by reviewing some stoves so we can end The Great Stove Debate and get out into the wilderness.