Camp stove hack: pre-heat your water at home before driving out

I used to show up at the campsite and spend 20 minutes boiling water for coffee on my tiny backpacking stove. Now I just fill my thermos with hot water from the tap before I leave the house and it saves me a whole fuel canister over a weekend trip. Has anyone else tried doing this with dehydrated meals too?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_shah17h ago

lol "pre-heat your water at home" is such a fancy way of saying "I bring hot tap water camping." Next you're gonna tell me you pre-boil your pasta at home too and just reheat it over the fire. But honestly that thermos trick is solid for coffee, I just can't get behind doing it for dehydrated meals because by dinner time that water is gonna be lukewarm at best and then you're eating sad, soggy mush instead of a proper backpacker meal. At that point you might as well just chew on the dry noodles and call it trail mix.

uma_williams16h ago

My buddy Mark swears by doing this for his morning oats too, and he adds a pinch of salt to the thermos to help keep it hot longer. @jana_shah you're totally right that the water cools off by dinner, but I found a workaround that changes the game. I use a vacuum insulated food jar instead of a regular thermos for my dehydrated meals, and I actually pack the hot water and the dry meal in separate containers, then combine them in the jar right when I want to eat. The heat stays trapped way better than in a standard thermos because the jar's mouth is wider and handles the steam pressure differently. Plus I wrap the whole thing in a spare fleece layer inside my pack for extra insulation, and my chili mac is still piping hot after 6 hours on the trail.