Basically all a stove does is heat something up. That’s it end of story. So why then do I find it so fascinating trying all these different ones? A meths stove is a meths stove, gas stoves are gas stoves. Why have different ones? Isn’t it the same for cars? A car is a car after all (well that will have me lynched by all those car addicts out there. Mind you as an aside, isn’t the only reason to go to a car show, and this is politically incorrect, all the rather attractive models 
).
Yes two different gas stoves may just heat something up. But dig deeper than that primary function and they may start to look different. Those difference can be superficial like appearance, or one may have an ignition system, one may be lighter, and the list goes on.
It’s the differences that make them interesting. They also allow me to choose a stove to match the aims I want to achieve. Take for instance my aim with my stove for the TGOC this year was to reduce the weight I was carrying. So the heavy Jetboil was replaced with a Peak Ignition and Ti-Lite mug, cutting the weight by half. I also like gas stoves that have ignition systems, which the Peak Ignition has, and helped me choose that over others out there.
Or another example will be the “fanny pack competition” run by John Hee. For that I want a stove that is lightweight, very small, uses little fuel, and also work with a MSR Titanium mug. With those criteria in mind, I would start looking at meth stoves.
But isn’t this the same with any piece of kit? Yes, during the Summer I use one sleeping bag, during the Autumn/Winter I use another. For day hikes I use one rucksack and for multi-day hikes I use a different pack. The examples could go on.
So I don’t look on it as having an excessive number of stoves. I look on it as having a wider selection to choose from when I need to use a stove. Mind you, you could argue I have too much choice
In my contemplative mode today I used the Mini Sith stove (picture below).
I was in one of my favourite spots, which is under some Oak trees. It looked different when I got there. Some-one had been using it for an activity of some sort. Not sure what it was, but grass or some other wild plant that looked like grass had been pulled up (roots as well) and laid out. It’s hard to describe so I took some pictures (below). Not sure what was trying to be achieved. was this some sort of Army exercise and the troops where using this in some way. Who knows but still a little mystery that took my mind off things.
