MSR Pocket Rocket options

Almost anything would be better imho. But everyone knows what I think of the PR.

BRS-3000T
FMS-116T
FMS-300T
GS(T)-100
There may be a couple of others I have not thought of.

Anything heavier or dearer is simply wasting your money.

Cheers

Short answer, yes, the "top of cylinder" stoves like a pocket rocket or BRS3000T are THE place to start, IMO. You might try alcohol or Esbit in the future, but would always want the option of a butane canister stove. There are lots of things to learn at first and fiddling with alcohol, Esbit, wood, or white gas is more complicated.

By "bigger", do you physically larger? Or higher heat output? All these stoves are in the 3kW range = 8,000-10,000 BTU/hour at max fire, but you don't want to run them full throttle because you get better fuel efficiency with a medium flame. I do have a few larger burners: 50,000 and 150,000 BTU/hour but they are not UL.

Thanks for the model #'s of these other stoves.

I was thinking of a bigger diameter burner to heat more evenly, not necessarily more heat, but a way to distribute it across a bigger area when turned down. Hopefully this will help prevent spot welding my mac and cheese to the pot bottom!

As for other options, I thru hiked the AT with Esbit, and now have an achy stove that I am pretty happy with. I am just looking for another stove type to complete the gear collection.

"Hopefully this will help prevent spot welding my mac and cheese to the pot bottom!"

What pot are you using? An aluminum pot will spread the heat more evenly than titanium, much better.

"aluminum pot will spread the heat more evenly"

+1

And, at medium flame, you burn less food on hot spots than at full flame.

But even with aluminum, we ULers use thin-bottomed pots. To some extent, we just have to keep our mac&cheese a little soupier and watch it more closely. Even better is to learn to let your food soak. Get it just to boiling, turn off the stove, and cover it with a cozy or hat or towel. If the recipe says "boil for 10 minutes", often it is done with a single heating and left to sit for 12-13 minutes. If so, it is at a temperature like 170F-ish that is a lot easier to eat than at 205F. If not, one more bump up to boiling and a few more minutes in the cozy and you're done. Not only does this approach save fuel (it does, by a lot!) but it saves mac&cheese and saves dishwashing afterwards.

MSR SuperFly. Canister top, big burner. Don't know why folks put MSR stoves down. The MicroRocket has a small head, but very hot. Boils water pretty dang fast. My vacation choice last year.
Duane

The original MSR Windpro (remote canister) has a broad flame pattern. I don't use it very often anymore but it was very nice for cooking fish for three people in a frying pan a couple of years ago. At 7 oz. it probably weighs 2X Pocket Rocket and similar canister-top stoves.

The snow peak stove is like an better version of the PR imo – and I have both.

The 4 arms are MUCH more stable, and the flame is 1.5 – 2 times wider (it comes out the sides rather than out the top), it's slightly more wind resistant – and the built in piezo is great when you are simmering a knorr side dish on very low flame and the flame blows out…

The Coleman burner (don't laugh) has a super wide burner head that would be great for 8" diameter pots, and seems sturdy and light for a stove that big.

The Coleman Exponent F1 Powerboost stove has a bigger head and 2.5 to 3 times the btu's of any other canister top stove, except its little bro, the regular F1, which blows the others out of the water even, with almost half again the btu's of the likes of Snow Peak Giga Power and MSR canister stoves.
Duane

Me too, Duane, Coleman came up with a pair of good stoves for sure. The F-1 Powerboost is my favorite simmer burner (albeit a bit heavy at ~6.oz.), and the F-1 Ultralight is pretty sweet too, except for the 3 supports. Lighter than my SP Giga though, or a Pocket Rocket. Too bad they quit making them, as they certainly had a place. Funny thing too, my Powerboost is my only stove where its piezo has kept working after 4-5 years of use. Coleman had something worked out there, it seems. I'd kill to score a backup F-1 Powerboost, but they're not to be found anywhere.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Coleman-Exponent-F1-Ultralight-Stove-Package-BONUS-Fuel-included/380940217738?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D30004%26meid%3D8f875483377d4f499a1302eb3fafbef7%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D9%26sd%3D261849763886

I hope this hot link works… one of those big ugly ones from Ebay.

edit: nope, here's the whole ginormous thing :-( but it actually works

Bob’s URL shortened.

Thanks, Doug.

I always follow the html stringy-thingy to a T and it still doesn't work sometimes…

Thanks, guys. The photo of the stove looks pretty much like an F-1 Powerboost, but I don't see a piezo on it. They also call it an F-1 Ultralight stove, which is actually a different stove than the one pictured. Something doesn't seem quite right here. I think I'll save the $60 and wait for Jetboil to sell replacement burners for their MiniMo.

Ah, I didn't see the lack of piezo on that one…

Gotta say, after using the one on the MiniMo I am just a wee bit spoiled. And also its excellent simmer capability.

Soto Windmaster

http://www.backcountrygear.com/soto-windmaster.html?gclid=CN3p7PXEisUCFcNffgodrocAWQ#.VTfn8JMhHA8

pricy, but the nicest stove I've ever tried…

billy

Billy, how well does that slightly recessed burner head on the Soto actually work in brisk (~15mph) winds?

My next project is a compact wind screen for stoves such as SP Giga and the BRS3000T (which, hopefully, is by now on the slow boat from Shanghai), inspired by Eric B's recent windscreen thread… as well as some very frustrating episodes with the Giga last winter.

Bob, here is a link to a 4-year old thread regarding a titanium integrated wind screen that I made for my SP Giga stove. This sucker really works for me. It might give you some ideas…

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=45927

Thanks for that link Gary. Those little stoves are so fast now, but need help from the wind.
Duane

+1 thanks!

I did a few searches and found a bunch of wind screen threads as well as Will R's discussion, but not this one.

Some very useful ideas in there, the next-to-last one (Ivo) in the thread similar to what I have in mind, i.e. suspending the wind screen from the pot supports but using some strategically placed holes in the screen to reduce low-pressure wind eddies inside the screen, and extending up around the sides of the pot to harness more energy, as with your setup. It is interesting that reflectors placed below the burner head warmed up the entire stove and transferred heat to the canister.

There are enough people who have dealt with this problem to establish a Giga Wind Screen Support Group!

I like my micro rocket. It's very compact and has never had any issues. Great warranty from cascade designs as well.

I've just sold my MSR Superfly and plan on replacing it with this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CPL16Z0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=M90ULGLLWDVL&coliid=I10UAUYCNCKPZU

Yes, Bob that original reflector plate design did tend to warm the canister a bit, but only if I turned the flame up higher than the most minimal setting. I think the heat transferred to the canister in two ways–warming up the vertical stove shaft which transferred down to the canister, and also the fact that the plate itself became quite warm in the relatively closed environment. Since titanium doesn't dissipate heat well, it just became a sort of hot plate that warmed up anything near it. Like I mentioned in that thread, this came in handy on a +20* evening one time, where the gentle warming of the canister kept the stove running smoothly. I have since opened up the center hole on the plate to create a 1.0 cm. space between it and the burner head, which allows greater air flow and also mitigates that canister warming issue. I can now open the valve to a medium flame setting without overheating issues. Fuel consumption remains the same, essentially, at 5-6 grams/2 C boil.

This reminds me that I need to see how my new copper HX strip fits inside that screen (without the reflector plate in place, of course).

Roger, regarding the list:

BRS-3000T
FMS-116T
FMS-300T
GS(T)-100

weren't some of them dangerous chinese copies?

Thanks,
Christoph