Msr Simmerlite vs. Wisperlite international

Hi Joshua

> I don't want to hear about canister stove recommendations
HERESY! :-)

> Has anyone had both of these stoves and do you think that one uses more fuel?
I have both. I haven't seen really much difference by themselves.

> Also does the larger pot size effect the fuel efficiency?
Absolutely! The larger the pot the better the efficiency. Well known and well-tested. Did you have a smaller pot on the Simmerlite?

Cheers

Roger, I was using a smaller bpl 1300 pot last year when I used the Wisperlite so it seemed to boil faster. Yet, on the other side of the coin, I wasn't boilng as much water so it was boiling faster.Hard to compare apples to oranges. The fuel consumption observation was based on the amount of fuel I had left after the two trips and this was from memory. Do you think that the wisperlite boils water faster?

The more water you have in a pot the more energy that is required to bring that water to a boil. If you were boiling even a half liter more water at a time, it would increase the amount of time that it would take to bring the water to a boil, ultimately consuming more fuel. Which has been my observation whether i'm using my coleman f1 canister stove, my simmerlite, or my alcohol stove, and what i've learned from my chemistry coursework.

I have both these stoves and haven't noticed any significant difference in fuel usage. However different models of white gas stoves can behave very differently. It's hard to compare fuel usage from different trips as there are some many variables that will be different. To compare fuel usage I boil set amounts in the same pot over each stove in turn. Even then I sometimes get different results from the same stove despite conditions apparently being the same. To account for this I do the tests several times and average the results.

Hi Joshua

The two stoves have very similar diameter burners, so they should behave about the same under the same conditions. If you are seeing different fuel consumption on different trips, I would look elsewhere for the explanations, myself.

Cheers