How to Choose a Cartridge Stove for Cold Weather?

In case you didn't know, cartridge stoves do work in extreme cold but not all of them. Some don't perform well and some don't work at all in such conditions mainly due to the fact that fuels need to be in vapor form in order to burn. A fuel that has a boiling point of 31°F in a surrounding temperature of below 31°F will be in liquid form and hence would not be able to burn.
Cartridge stoves have a reputation for not performing well in cold weather. This is understandable because a cartridge stove burns vapor which means that if the temperature is too low (below boiling point) there won't be any vapor to burn.

Fortunately some cartridge stoves are suitable for cold weather. It mainly depends on the type of fuel used but the design also plays an important role. Here are some things to consider when choosing a cartridge camp stove for cold weather:

Type of Cartridge

There are at least 5 types of gas cartridges which is distinguished by the type of connection. First there's the bluet puncture cartridge. This type of cartridge is difficult to connect if you are a beginner and once the cartridge is punctured, you cannot use it another time. Fortunately the puncture cartridge is not a common as it was before and it's obsolete.

Another type of cartridge is the pressure pack spray can used for re-filling lighters or running table-top camp stoves. The cartridge is filled with n-butane which is useless in cold weather.

CampingGaz is a newer type of cartridge and it's a twist-click resealable type with a unique unthreaded connector. This one is only available in France and some parts of Europe.

Then there's the generic screw-threaded resealable cartridge that contains a mixture of n-butane, iso-butane and propane in variable amounts depending on where it is intended to be used. This type of cartridge is common in the US, UK and Australia.

A similar type of cartridge is the Coleman Powermax, also resealable but the connector is unthreaded. It contains a high percentage of propane and is quite suited for cold weather.

Fuel

A combination of two or three types of fuel are used for cartridge stoves. Each type of fuel have different boiling points. Above the boiling point, the fuel is in the gas state. The higher the boiling point, the less volatile the gas is and the safer it is to use.

The fuels used in cartridge stoves are n-butane, iso-butane and propane. N-butane boils at 31°F (-0.5°C), iso-butane at 10 °F (-12°C) and Propane at -44°F (-47°C). N-butane is useless in snowy winter and iso-butane is unreliable. With a much lower boiling point, propane performs much better at a much lower temperature.

Burner Head Size and Power

Many cartridge stoves have small burners but gas stoves suitable for winter generally have large burners. This is because the larger the burner head, the greater power it produces. The more the power output the less time it takes to melt down snow. This of course can be controlled to a simmer and it's safe to say that all cartridge stoves are good in this.

Probably the biggest myth about camping stoves is that cartridge stoves are not as powerful and liquid fuel stoves. The truth though is that propane and butane have much more energy per gram than both petrol and kerosene. In many cases, a cartridge stove has more power output than white gas stoves.
Propane Stoves
Choose from a variety of propane stoves including table-top camp stoves
 
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