I think the "tinkering" idea is a good one. I have had so many of the Pepsi can type stoves that I have forgotten what most of them even look like. I have totes full of them in my garage/laboratory...L.O.L. I have done some serious tinkering too. I have probably thirty different configurations of the little Pepsi can stove and none of them work exactly the same, and I have some pretty elaborate set-ups too.(some are such that I would not take them on the trail) I think that the most important thing in a Pepsi can stove is the wall that you build on the inside of the stove that allows the fuel to burn as a gas rather than a liquid and it just seems more efficient. I have a couple of them that will boil 2 cups of water in around three minutes. Then I have others than work great but take as long as 10-12 minutes to get a good boil. Who's in a hurry any way?? Not me. I usually start my stove first and get the water on it while I am setting up my tent. The time works out just about right. Usually by the time that I have my tent up I will have boiling water and it all works out nicely. The choke hazard that Tinny sells at MiniBull is very efficient but doesn't have real good boil times. It usually takes around 10 minutes to boil three cups of water but it takes very little fuel to do so. The thing I like about the choke hazard is that you can boil if you want to do a little cooking rather than just boiling water. It cooks pasta and rice real nicely but it does take a little more time to do so.I guess where I will be going and how long I will be out and what the general weather will be like is what would determine what stove that I would carry with me on any given trip. So times I carry two stoves and that varies as much as the one does. I may carry an alky stove and then as a backup I may carry the pocket rocket with a couple of small canisters, again depending on where I am going and how long I will be out. A lot of times I will carry identical stoves so when the fuel runs out on the first one and I am trying to actually cook something, I will have the second one to continue the cooking process...sabre11004... goodjob
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The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there 1!!!!!