So I was helping teach a backcountry cooking class yesterday at my work, and a few of us got talking about the possibility of placing a small pot of water on top of the Primus Micron lantern and using it as a stove. So i put 2 cups in a small pot, placed it on top, and set the timer. It took 18 minutes to boil, but only 9 minutes to reach 195. Slow, but i still thought it was kinda neat.

Hey, Scott! Good idea, that you could use in a pinch. I have the Coleman version of that small lantern and love it for camping (not carried for backpacking though). I also use the Optimus Crux stove, which is even smaller than the lantern.

If I were to carry the lantern with me, I would just as likely carry the stove as well, since it is so small. I wonder what the fuel usage is compared to the 3-4 minutes it takes with the stove.

The lantern might be great for things you don't necessarily WANT to be boiling hot. Hmmm. I would definitely have to have some sort of stabilizing system (rocks, stakes, etc) for the pot or other vessel.

Edited by deljohnston on 10/27/2010 11:35:41 MDT.

IN reality, if you were going to be using the lantern anyway, you arent using any additional fuel to boil the water. Might as well get 2 uses from the same amount of fuel. Sure the lantern is 4.4oz, but you wouldnt need a canister stove, if thats your thing.

Great idea, Scott. I tried it while car camping, to simmer a cup of soup. It worked great, although you need to be sure that the metal cup doesn't fall off. This will only work with a lantern that has a flat top, of course, like our Primus. Now, my inner geekiness is forcing me to figure out a type of stable support for the cup.

Here is a bigger lantern, with fabricated pot support. I'm trying to convince these guys that they need to do one for the smaller lanterns.

Thats pretty cool Josh. For the small Primus lantern, it seems like it would be quite easy to have a simple fold out pot support from the sides of the lantern "globe". And at 4.4 oz as is, its quite light and serves multi purposes.

Couple of titanium pegs through some stainless steel wire loops fixed to the top of the lantern should do it.

Fondue anyone?