cave stoves
Stoves are not generally taken on day-trips in caves unless the cave is extremely cold and there are plans to stay for a long period of time without traveling, such as on a survey trip. In most cases a stove will only be needed for extended camping trips underground. The basic classes of portable stoves are cartridge/canister, alcohol, white gas and biofuel. There are rarely sources of biofuel in caves, and there have been a number of safety issues with white gas stoves in caves, and they can produce soot during the priming process. For these reasons white gas stove use in caves is discouraged. There are pros and cons to alcohol and isobutane canister stoves in terms of cost, weight, size, fuel efficiency, and the time needed to boil water. The video below is an exhaustive comparison of two types of alcohol stoves, a traditional canister stove, and a high efficiency Jetboil canister stove.
When it comes to cost and base-weight, alcohol stoves have a big advantage over canister stoves. For “system weight” I’m including everything except the fuel itself. I include the weight of the MSR Titan Kettle for the Snow Peak and alcohol stoves, and for canister stoves I include the weight of an empty fuel canister. For cost, I include the MSR Titan Kettle for stoves other than the Jetboil, which comes with a pot.
…however, when it comes to performance and efficiency, canister stoves way out-perform alcohol stoves.
Depending on the length of trip, and how many people will be sharing the stove, there is a cross-over point when it comes to total weight of the stove + fuel. For short trips with small groups, alcohol stoves make more sense. For longer trips with bigger groups then canister stoves become increasingly beneficial.