Made My First Penny Stove!

After searching and searching I finally went out and bought a 6 pack of Heineken and made my first penny stove. Construction was easy while following the zen website's instructions.

So I made it, used it and got water to boil after just 7 minutes. Pretty happy with that result for a first stove. Once the 6 pack is finished (prolly tonight haha) I'll make another and try some variations with the burner holes to see if I can become more efficient.
But at this point I considerably cut weight in terms of the stove since my stove I used before this was a MSR Pocket Rocket (which will be hard to leave behind...I was a very happy hiker/camper with this stove)

I've been very happy with my Penny Stove - hopefully you will be too. I think mine boils a bit faster than yours, around 5 minutes. My favorite thing about it is how trouble free it has been. Someone else on this site once mentioned that they burn so hot that they sometimes melt themselves down over time (my interpretation of their comment, not their exact words), so you may want to bring a 2nd one for backup after a while.

You might want to hang onto the MSR for longer trips, apparently butane canister stoves are more weight efficient for longer trips than alcohol stoves (BPL article).

I've been using a penny stove for a looooong time, and never melted it down. I think that's just internet FUD.

And I very much like mine.

As for more weight efficient - for *me* (not a BPL article) I find that with *careful* choice of the right size canisters, my little isobutane stove (snow peak) will start me with a lighter max weight than alcohol once I am over about 6 person days of cooking, boiling in the morning, and the evening, 3 cups of water each time. I do use both types of stove, depending what I am doing. I also use white gas in winter.

Yea I'm curious as to which I'll bring now for long distance trips (lasting a week or longer). I have 1 week left of hiking on the Long Trail and I think I'll bring both but primarily use penny stove to test it out and just bring the smallest butane canister available as a back up plan...willing to bring extra weight as I haven't truely tested the alchy on a trip...just on my back deck haha and coffee in the morning is a MUST for me haha.

Thrilled about the idea of a lightweight opprotunities of the alchy though.

Well it's interesting, because I often take alcohol on trips of 7 -8 days. If I'm sharing a stove with two on a trip of 5-6 then I take the snow peak canister. Yes the alcohol is by the numbers lighter in max weight than the canister stove for me on an 8 day trip, but there are other factors:

1) average weight of the alcohol system is still less.
2) there is pretty much *NOTHING* that can break with an alky stove - and I have had lindal valves fail on isobutane canisters.

And heck, go with whatever you are most comfortable with. In the end you should remember, it's about the hiking, not the stove (I can hear all the stove addicts screaming inside..)

I am about to do the Long Trail in two weeks. I can not wait. Before hand or afterwards we are headed to the brewery

I have been saving my soda and beer cans this passed week and will be making a penny stove (s) tomorrow. Also I am gonna try a pressurized stove - gonna try Tinny's Atomic. Don't have a rivet tool however, so I am going to research on other ways to plugging the hole.