canister stoves

[Edgar Bisson]

I am looking to purchase a new canister stove for use in car camping and backpacking. I am replacing a primus multi fuel stove that sounds like a jet engine when in use. I want something quiet. I am looking at the Coleman Ultra lite, Primus Micron, the MSR Pocket Rocket, and the Snow Peak Lite Max. Does anyone know the relative "quietness" of these stoves? Ed

[Kiel Senninger]

I have the pocket rocket. I find it to be relatively "quiet". You can tell it's on, but I haven't found it to be annoying or hard to talk over. It seems to make more noise when the wind gets to it and blows the flames around.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

If you are a subscribing member you can use SEARCH to find reviews on canister stoves.

Also Roger Caffin is getting set to market his very versatile stove and ultra light canister(s).

BUT… what type do you want? The lightest is a top-of-canister burner. I like my Brunton Crux for its folding feature and wide flame ring. Your choice may differ a lot to suit your needs.

An MSR Wind Pro is a common remote canister stove. A remote stove that tips the canister upside down and has a "vaporizing loop" or heat transfer bar near the burner works much better for winter temps down to around 15 F.

Good shopping! (And researching)

[Jerry Adams]

Roger has many articles about stoves, read them.

Roger hates Pocket Rocket. The flame pattern is non-optimum.

I have a Pocket Rocket. What I like about it is it's old technology, as in proven. Less likely to have some sort of failure. Until they change the manufacturing process. You can find stoves that weigh 2 ounces instead of the 3 ounces of a Pocket Rocket, like the Gnat?

Regular upright stove is good down to 32 degree F, maybe 25 F. Make sure and use iso-butane below about 40 F. You can use it colder than that but you have to have reflective windscreen or wrap a copper wire around stove and up into flame.

Roger's inverted stove should be really good, see his article. Good at much colder temperatures, better in wind,…

[Anton Solovyev]

Unless you consider edge cases (really short trips, for instance), it's hard to beat Jetboil. The titanium one is very light, around 240 grams.

I have tried to create a lighter setup using a Snow Peak Lite Max and a pot with heat exchanger and still Jetboil used twice as little fuel (and boiled twice as fast). Weight savings were negligible, like 2 oz. Jetboil is also more stable and the flame is better contained. That makes it easier to cook inside. Wind resistance is better as well.

On the downside, Jetboil burner has kind of cheap feel compared to Lite Max.

[Roger Caffin]

General advice: pick a stove with SHORT pot supports. The MSR PR has long bendy ones, and so do some others.

Cheers

[Brian Johns]

Should be considered great review and lots of other great writing at Trailgrooves.com. I believe the Snow Peak Giga is the most reliable, but I also like the lightweight SP Lite Max, just has annoying supports and aluminum threads that could pose a problem. Would not be my choice for a thru hike; I would take a giga for that hands down.

[Bob Gross]

"The MSR PR has long bendy ones, and so do some others."

Roger, maybe that is what you get from trying to boil a 10L pot of water.

I've had at least one Pocket Rocket for ten or twelve years, and I never had a problem with it. I never tried to boil more than about a liter with it.

–B.G.–

[Paul Huber]

I just replaced my MSR Pocket Rocket with the Soto Windmaster. Could not be more pleased.

[Jennifer Mitol]

I like my soto micoregulator.

[John Coyle]

I had good luck with an Olicamp Xcelerator Titanium stove on a 5 day backpacking trip in Lassen National Park last week.

http://www.amazon.com/Olicamp-329015-Xcelerator-Titanium-Stove/dp/B007S3MHI0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374464475&sr=8-1&keywords=olicamp+stove

Main stove for three people, used twice a day with a 2L GSI anodized aluminum pot-lots of simmering. Good stability with this relatively large backpacking pot. It would be a nice stove for car camping too, especially with the largest canisters. Sometimes used an easily deployable windscreen depending on wind conditions, but not a windy trip in general. Used about 3/4 of a 220g Gigapower canister. Fairly quiet also.

[Richard Scruggs]

Roger, why do you recommend against "longer" pot supports?

By your "long bendy ones" reference, are you concerned about the height of the supports? Or about the width of the span provided by the supports?

I ask because I'm considering purchasing an inexpensive canister stove that has pot supports with a 7" width of support that seem well suited to handling a frying pan.

It's for car-camping, since they weigh more than 7 oz.

See the stove at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YLU6O6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A99MZGWBBIGK9

Thanks, and cheers.

[Elliott Wolin]

I second the Olicamp/FireMaple remote canister stove, three-season titanium version. As light as most canister top stoves, much more stable. I believe it got an excellent review a while back in BPL.

[Miles Spathelf]

If your primary goal is just to quiet things down I'd recommend one of those silent burner caps off of ebay. BernieDawg's are what I recommend… but they pretty much cost was a new canister stove costs.

[Corbin Camp]

I have one and it's great. It packs up super tiny and has a much more stable support area than the MSR stoves. Feels more durable too. Compared to a PR it's pretty quiet. Just loud enough to know it's on.

[Phillip Asby]

I have a SP Gigapower; Coleman F1 Ultralight and SP Litemax (sort of have a thing with stoves…). All of them work well, are small, and are relatively quiet compared to the only whitegas stove I have (a Brunton Bantam).

Of the three if I could only have one it would probably be the Litemax due to the combination of size/weight/performance. But they all have positives. The Giga is sort of the benchmark and it is more stable and ultrareliable. The Coleman is quite small – higher BTU output than the other two if that matters and have proven to be reliable although I worry about the resin parts, a bit. The Litemax supports are OK but not as snug as I'd overall like I suppose.

[Bruce Tolley]

I have used the Primus Micron and the SP Lite Max and SP GigaPower.

I would say they produce about the same amount of noise.

SP Lite Max is the lightest but a bit trickey to fit on non SP cannisters. Sometimes I find it does not seat properly and there is no gas coming out. This might because the fitting appears to be titanium and not brass.

The Primus Micron is light but not all that stable. I try not to use it with anything bigger than a liter pot.

The SP GIgaPower is ultra reliable, the most stable, and the heaviest of the three.

BTW I am not sure noise is a bad thing. It tells you when the stove is lit and the lack of noise tells you when the cannister is empty.

[Dena Kelley]

I have a Pocket Rocket and consider it to be loud. The quiet one is going to be the Jetboil. My friends use those, and I can't hear them when they are operating.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Richard

> why do you recommend against "longer" pot supports?
Sorry, I missed your question. The stove you mention is a very old classic 'heavy' design. I have a couple of them too. They are stable and reliable, and excellent for car camping.

My reason for disliking the PR pot supports is because they tend to be weak and prone to bending under accidental overload. Bob G's suggestion of 10 L pots is a bit of an exaggeration though: a 1.5 L pot full of stew and being stirred vigorously has been reported as causing problems. The pot support bent and the pot slid sideways. Can't remember what happened to the stew. The focused flame of the PR is also a frequent source of anguish when cooking.

The underlying point here is that there is no reason to run this risk, when there are so many good stoves with more robust pot supports and a better flame pattern as well. The PR is a very old and not very good design by today's standards.

But, some have them and love them.
Cheers

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