Boiling water is number one, and it hard to miss with any stove. The main importance is fuel efficiency. The soda can stove i just got uses just around 20-25ml of fuel to boil 2cups. The cat stove i made uses 15ml. The con of my cat stove needs a pot stand, the soda doesn't. Today i baked bread using both stoves. I also got the cat stove to "simmer" by adding a strip on foil blocking the air holes, to make it burn long i am going to JB weld a round piece of oven liner to seal the bottom.
I am not sure if ill get a white gas just because of all the thing that can fail on it. Which is why I am still not ruling out the canister stoves either. I have never be winter camping or touring i hear that canister stoves dont perform well at cold temps, can anyone provide more information on this?