Snow Peak Micro Max

It has been out for a fair bit of time. FYI the weight you quoted is for the litemax not the Micro Max.

It's the Lite Max that is 1.9oz

Micro Max is 3.3oz

FYI – It's been out for months

Good try though! Keep searching for cool stuff.

whoops, sorry about the error and thanks for correcting me. I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to keep up with new stuff in th ul community. I had just seen it in Backpacker Magazine and did not know it's been out.

I am still blown away by it's incredible low weight…

Hi Evan

The Snow Peak GST-100 Gigapower stove is 74 grams.
The Snow Peak GST-120 Lite Max stove is 56 grams.
There is not that much difference in weight between the two.
Of the two, I definitely prefer the GST-100.

Cheers

Roger,
"Of the two, I definitely prefer the GST-100."

Because it is robust?, delivers a lot of heat? is very fuel efficient? burns lean with low CO?

Or?…..

Thanks in advance.

Hi Greg

Supplement 6 of the CO series features the Lite Max, but it has yet to be published.

In terms of performance there's little difference. But the Lite Max emits significantly more CO, for a silly reason which I do explain in the article. And the threaded section is aluminium not brass, which I fear may have a shorter life. It's anodised, so the life will depend very much on how tightly you screw it down.

Mind you, if you are only going to use the stove where there is adequate ventilation and your use will be light, I can't see any real problem with the Lite Max.

Cheers

Roger, a related question for you… I know that CO is dangerous, in that you can fall unconscious without noticing. But is it actually "poisonous" (eg. carcinogenic?). I was under the impression that the main problem was that it interferes with the uptake of oxygen. Just wondering whether limited exposure over many nights would cause any health effects (assuming exposure was not enough to cause anything immediately serious).

EDIT: Just did some googling. Seems that the effects of limited exposure can include headaches and nausea. Obviously not nice.

Hi Ashley

> is it actually "poisonous" (eg. carcinogenic?)
I am going to have to get a little pedantic here. Sorry.

Poisonous is *not* the same as carcinogenic. For instance, while benzene is carcinogenic, I am not sure it is classified as poisonous. Snake venom may be highly poisonous but not carcinogenic.

Now to the real question. The whole point ** of breathing is to get oxygen into your lungs and then into the red blood cells. It is then transported to your muscles and other organs to help 'burn' fuel. CO is dangerous because it is preferentially taken up by the red blood cells, displacing oxygen, and it is not released very quickly. In a sense, you asphyxiate.

However, the CO does release from the red blood cells over time, so you should make a full recovery in a few hours. Getting too much of it every night might be considered more in the nature of stupidity than anything else!

** Actually, the above is not true. The other reason for breathing is to get rid of the CO2 building up in your blood by exhaling it. The CO2 comes from the oxygen you just breathed in. If the CO2 builds up too far in your lungs you get quite frantic to reach fresh air. This is a basic physiological response.

As a matter of interest, without some CO2 in the atmosphere you can also asphyxiate because the automatic breathing you do is triggered by the CO2 in your lungs. For this reason trying to breathe pure O2 is not a good idea: you may stop breathing entirely.

Back to the question: long term health effects from several short exposures? As far as I know, no permanent ones. Live in a atmosphere of excess CO for days (weeks?) on end and you might do some slow brain damage, but it would take a long while *I think*.

If you are talking about the amount of CO you might get from cooking on your stove in the vestibule of your tent each night for a week in the snow … unlikely to be at all harmful. I always do that myself. Mind you, I am assuming here that you have allowed for *some* ventilation. The odd gale outside flapping the tent walls certainly helps too :-)

Cheers

Roger,
Thanks for the details between the stoves, and for the info on CO and CO2.

"Knowing" why is always so much better than just "believing".

Carbon monoxide can kill you in MINUTES.
Lower levels can kill you in HOURS and can cause permanent brain damage,
Still lower levels it will reduce your exercise performance, not exactly what you want on a climbing trip.

http://biology.about.com/library/blco.htm

The EPA limit for 8 hours exposure is 9 ppm (parts per million), for 1 hour it is 35 ppm. You can compare that to the levels that your stove puts out in the BPL carbon monoxide article.

Long term exposure to low levels of carbon monoxide may cause permanent damage but not as much is known.

Carcinogens usually take years to produce cancer.