The "Super Cat" Stove

Over the last couple of years my determination for having the lightest cook set has sort of taken over on my backpacking priority list.  I guess there is one drawback of ultra-light backpacking, I have become addicted to tinkering and unable to leave well-enough alone.  During my countless hours of reading reviews of various stoves, I stumbled across a couple that were light, proven, and backed by a tremendous audience. One was the rightly named the "SuperCat" and the other was the traditional "Pepsi Can Stove".  Just as the title of my blog states I am going to cover the SuperCat in this blog and save the "Pepsi Can Stove" for another update.

Normal stove on the left and simmer stove on the right.

 So what was important to me in a stove? Beyond the obvious weight I wanted a stove that was inexpensive, field-worthy, packable, and did not sacrifice my boil times. When I first began reading about the SuperCat stove and how it only cost $.39 for the Fancy Feast cat food can, I was hooked. I did what the website said, grabbed a clean empty can, took a paper hole puncher and punched out two rows of holes in the can as best I could relative to what I saw on the site. Now let me remind you, $.39!  I remember thinking that anything this simple to make would fail miserably in the field. I mean, it’s not even that much of a project to make.  Now I don’t want to steal someone else’s thunder, Jim Wood over at jwbasecamp.com has a very detailed section on everything you need to know about the “SuperCat”. In fact, he has done a ton of research including different hole patterns, simmering, and several fuels and how each perform in the Supercat.

Nesting Stove Set: 2 Bowls, Stove, Windscreen, Pot.

 I used this stove for a full season with my Snow Peak 900ml pot and can't say enough good things about it. Prior to the SuperCat, I used to my MSR Pocket Rocket and isobutene which performed well, but keep in mind your holding onto a can of fuel and stove that total much more than a cat food can and some alcohol.  Naturally being so small I never have a problem nesting it with my other cooking gear. Additionally, it weighs next to nothing and can still support larger pots.  Because I am not sacrificing any weight, I use an additional Supercat with only one row of holes for light simmering.

My homemade stuff sack!