Gram Weenie Pro Stove

Gram Weenie Pro Stove

When I bought my Backcountry.com 700 ml Ti cook pot I did not realize that the small diameter of the pot would require a tiny stove to go with it. At least a tiny stove if I planned on using my side burner alcohol stoves, which I did. When I realized that the White Box SOLO stove was even too big for the cook pot, I was kind of stuck. Of course I had other options, such as my Optimus Crux canister stove or just a simple open burner alcohol stove, but I have been into the side burners so I looked around. Then I came across the Gram Weenie Pro alcohol stove.

The stove was basically a tiny White Box stove. Obviously, it is a side burner just like the WBS, except it has a much smaller diameter of only 1.75 inches. The small diameter of this stove would work well with the 3 5/8 inch diameter of my Ti cook pot, and it was very light-weight to boot! So, I ordered one of the GWP stove kits which included the stove, a windscreen & heat reflector / primer pan, a 4 ounce fuel bottle, and the 10 cm Imusa mug.

The 10 & 12 cm Imusa Mug

As far as weight is concerned this is a pretty light set up. The stove weighs 0.7 ounces and measures 1 3/4 inches tall as well as 1 3/4 inches in diameter. The windscreen weighs 1 ounce and measures 23 1/2 inches x 3 1/2 inches. The heat reflector adds no weight that shows up on the scale and is a 2 1/2 inch square. The fuel bottle measures 0.7 inches, holds 4 fluid ounces and is a tinted green color. The Imusa mug weighs in at 2.5 ounces and measures 10 cm ( 3 7/8 inch) in diameter and 3 3/8 inches tall. The entire set up (stove, windscreen, heat reflector, and Imusa mug) weighs in at 4.8 ounces. If I replace the Imusa mug with my Ti cook pot the weight goes up to 5.3 ounces.

The mug can be used as a cook pot with the GWP stove, or simply as a light-weight mug. If the mug is used as a cook pot, a lid will need to be either acquired or made. A simple piece of aluminum foil should serve this purpose well, while maintaining a low weight. Last night I used the stove & mug set-up and it worked well. I did not use a cover over the mug, and 1 ounce of HEET brought 2 cups of cold tap water to a boil in around 9 1/2 minutes and then burned out around 11 1/2 minutes.

I also did a test burn with my Ti cook pot. I again used 1 ounce of HEET in the stove and 2 cups of cold tap water. I did use the lid on the cook pot. The stove brought the water to a full rolling boil around 8 minutes and 20 seconds, and completely burned out at 12 minutes and 30 seconds. At this rate I could probably get away with boiling two cups of water with a lesser amount of fuel in good conditions, however, I think it will be safer to still figure 1 ounce of fuel per 2 cups of water.

The stove is well-built. End2End does not sand anything off of the stove when it is in production, so the stove is left with thicker walls, which means a stronger stove. Also, the stove features a rolled lip to hold the two pieces together rather than rivets or a glue. This makes the stove a very sturdy stove that can stand up to a lot of pressure. While the cook pot should not ever come close to crushing the stove, this is a good thing in case the stove is ever stepped on!

Even though I just got this stove in the day before yesterday, it seems to be really well constructed, which means tough for such a tiny little stove. And with the nearly 8 1/2 minute boil time and 12 1/2 minute burn out time, it seems to be rather efficient. Of course I will use this stove with both the Ti cook pot as well as the Imusa mug. However, I will primarily be using the mug as my mug when I carry my kettle since I will be using my Ti cook pot as both the pot and mug on solo trips.

I am impressed with both the stove and the mug. Upon initial impression, they seem to be of good quality and will be around for a while. From this impression I feel comfortable in recommending them to at least be looked into if looking for anything in this category. I will follow-up with a more formal report once I have used them in the field a few times. For now here is a video I did regarding the Gram Weenie Pro stove and the Imusa mug.

Update: I did mention above (or maybe in the video) that the Imusa mug got hot when using to cook on, and that it took a while to cool down when using to cook in.I did not realize how easily it can become very hot though. This morning I decided to make a cup of coffee using the Imusa mug. I put the coffee in the cup, and brought some water to boil using my White Box Stove and GSI tea kettle. I poured the water in the mug, stirred the coffee up, and then reached for it. The mug (handle included) was HOT. So I let it sit for 2-3 minutes, still hot. I grabbed a paper towel to wrap around the handle and I was fine by doing this. However, once I attempted to sip from it, I realized quick like that the mug needed to cool way down before I could sip from it.

I will say that the temperatures outside are in the 80’s so I imagine things would be different if the temperatures were around 30. It would probably cool down a little faster in those conditions. So, I will have to rethink using the mug for drinking hot beverages from, or find a way to overcome this. I guess I could simply let it sit for a little longer and let it cool that way.

One other option that I came across the other night is the Snow Peak Hot Lips. I have no experience with them so I cannot say that they would work. First off, they are made for the Snow Peak products, so right off the bat, they may not fit. However, for $7 for two, and 0.3 oz each, they probably would not hurt to try.

So, just wanted to share this little extra on the mugs. I will still happily take the mug out with me and use it in as many ways as I can come up with, but this was pretty obvious even for a home test, and figured I should go ahead and share. If for some reason this changes I will be sure to post back. Thanks again.

Update: Today I was able to take the Gram Pro Weenie with my Backcountry.com 700 ml Ti pot for a nice day hike. I bought this stove to use with this pot for solo trips, and today I took it with me on my day hike to Tishomingo State Park. I stopped and made breakfast this morning under my OES 8 x 10 sil tarp.

Getting the Gram Weenie Pro going

The stove and pot combo

The backwoods kitchen.

I simply boiled about 2 cups of water so that I could make me a cup of coffee and have some hot water to make my oatmeal. The stove preformed great, It brought the water to a boil quick enough. I got the water going, then got up to take a few pics, and when I came back it was boiling. I removed the pot from the stove and let the stove burn out.

The outside temperature was in the mid 70’s, and there was very little wind to hinder the stoves performance. Before I left I used a hole punch and punched holes around the bottom of the windscreen to help ventilation. Also, the heat screen is a little small. Granted it is an appropriate size for this stove, I wouldn’t mind something slightly larger so I may look into a different heat reflector, even if it is just a larger square of tin foil.

So, just wanted to report back on the stove. It did it’s job well, and I was happy to have it. Now I am looking forward to another trip in which I will be able to bring it along.