“How much fuel do I need for my new backpacking stove?” was a common question at Good Wolf Gear. Of course, the answer is “It depends.” Boiling pasta for 10 minutes will use more fuel than heating water for an instant dehydrated meal, and making coffee every morning will use more fuel, too. The water and air temperatures matter, and the stove & pot selection are also factors. Let’s look at the factors affecting fuel usage, how to measure your own usage, and some tips.

I usually budget 1/2 (14g) ounce of all-season isobutane fuel per person per night based on hundreds of nights with my MSR stove, weighing my fuel on every trip, and knowing that I occasionally make coffee and I most of my dinners are instant dehydrated meals. A “luxury” trip in freezing weather, with dinner and hot chocolate at night, followed by oatmeal and two cups of coffee for breakfast will be over 20 grams per night for me.

A simple kitchen scale will help you calculate usage according to your own habits and equipment in 3 easy steps:

1. Weigh your canister before you go to account for small production variations of a gram or two or in case the canister is partially-used. Write the weight on the canister with a permanent marker. For example, a 110g canister typically weighs 211g.

2. When you come back from your trip, weigh the canister again, and subtract the weights to calculate fuel consumption. After a recent 6-night trip, the weight was 51g less, meaning I had consumed 51g of fuel. So I estimated that I had 59g of fuel remaining in this 110g canister.

3. Divide the fuel consumed by the number of nights to get the average per night. In my case, 51g over 6 nights gives me 8.5 grams per night. I used the canister again on a 2-night trip in freezing weather and consumed 21g, or 10.5g per night. The higher consumption on the second trip makes sense because of the colder weather and more usage. That left me with 38g, as I noted on the canister.

My cooking kit weighs in under a pound, including all of this:

• MSR Pocket Rocket 2 plus a sparker and backup lighter
• Toaks 900ml titanium pot with the case that works as a cozy to keep my meal hot while it rehydrates
• a full fuel canister – and, yes, they are standardized so any brand works