Tired of hearing you can’t use a windscreen with a canister stove? I surely was, particularly when the reason seems to be just the canister over-heating. And who wants a windscreen for the canister? I need a windscreen for the burner. It’s only the flame that matters. Then, what’s the engineering problem to build a screen for just the burner?

Proper screen

I can think of a million ways but I’ll obviously go the easiest one with what I have in hand. Aluminium foil is the obvious choice but it’s probably too thin and flimsy. You can double or triple it and it should work but the potential solution was lying around in my kitchen so I didn’t look any further. Just a pie pan.

It’s aluminium too, it’s awfully light but still resilient enough for extended use and, furthermore, it comes in several shapes and sizes. So I went to the supermarket and basically bought a set of each, then tried them against the pot to see which one fitted better.

The problem here lies in the fix of the screen over the stove: under the burner and above the canister, preferably above the knob too for easier handling. The solution is as simple as it gets: the pie plate is so light it doesn’t need plenty of support to stay put.

I chose a trapezoid shaped plate which had the exact height to reach up to and barely beyond the pot bottom from the place it would be sitting. I cut it in half width wise and then cut a notch in the base of each half so it would wrap around the stove jet or column or whatever that’s called in english. Voilá.

You may guess where the screen comes from

This is the pie pan. I’ve rounded its shape to adapt it better to the pot bottom.

Note that when assembled the two halves will overlap considerably. This helps hold everything put as both halves then support each other.

Assembly is simple, just slide each half in place. The two halves somewhat support each other to stay put. One only windscreen half would eventually tilt considerably.

 

You can see the overlap between the two halves and imagine how that does help to hold everything in place

The fit around the pot is very tight. It just turned that way given the plate size chosen but I’ve never noticed combustion problems due to lack of oxygen so I think it’s better to keep it that way because the windscreen also acts as a heat container and reflector and for that matter the tighter, the better. I guess it just gets oxygen through the gaps anyway and fumes have also gaps to go through.

This windscreen is very effective against, obviously, wind but it’s also improved dramatically stove performance in almost 100% (together with some other practices). Now I’m able to get a boil in around the same time as before (maybe just a little longer) with a very low flame so together with the use of a pot cozy I spend nearly half the fuel I did before.

The only drawback I see is it’s nearly custom fitted to a certain stove and pot. If you change any of them, the fit worsens but it may still be good enough.

Screened burner, free canister

No canister over-heating whatsoever, how could that even happen? I was still conditioned by all the negative advice from manufacturers and reproduced from users against the scary canister stove windscreen when I first tried it and I had my finger glued to the canister wall to test for over-heating but the damned thing was metal cold all the way.

The windscreen has gone through one season of heavy use and it’s still like new. I’ve always handled it with reasonable care but it’s tougher than it seems. Should it break it’d still be usable or repairable or, simply, build another.

The screen is rather soft so storage is best inside a hard-sided container, ideally the pot as it’s already there. the two halves nest gracefully inside.

Welcome storage fit

I wonder why this kind of design is not a common thing. Is it just the myth spread by stove manufacturers about the danger of canister stove windscreens? I think they just probably want to play it safe and we just take it as gospel without actually thinking about it. Why is it still so common to find “nah, you can’t use a windscreen with a canister stove” kind of sentences in web forums or even written publications?