SP Gigapower stove & fuel from other manufacturer

I have used fuel from MSR, JetBoil, and of course Snow Peak with my Gigapower. I have noticed no ill effects with any of the other companies fuel, and actually think the MSR fuel is slightly better than the other two. Snow Peak's fuel is usually the cheapest where I live so that is normally what I buy, but if MSR or JetBoil($$$) were cheaper, I wouldn't hesitate to go with them.

I don't know about the Gigapower, but the SP LiteMax stove is definitely NOT compatible with MSR canisters. (Ask me how I know this.) LiteMax stove works fine with SnowPeak's own canisters.

I also learned the hard way that the SnowPeak LiteMax doesn't work with MSR fuels.

The last time I used my stove it appeared to shutoff automatically.

I was just car camping and planning to cook some pita pizzas in the fire pit, but we got there late and it was raining so I just used my Lite Max stove. I made a frying pan out of aluminum foil and cooked the pizzas in that. It was pretty windy so I made a little wind screen as well. It was working great, and then after awhile I noticed the flame was out.

I assumed it just blew out. I held it up to my ear and I couldn't hear the gas. I tried to relight it, but it wouldn't ignite. Even if I opened the valve all the way open fuel wouldn't come out. The fuel canister was cool to the touch, but the base of the stove that screws into the fuel canister was extremely hot.

Do you think it could just be a clog? After I let it cool down it would work again. Later on the same thing happened. And again after I let it cool down it would work again.

Any suggestions. I would prefer not to have a canister explode on me.

>I also learned the hard way that the SnowPeak LiteMax doesn't work with MSR fuels.

The Snow Peak lite max stoves are made by Kovea in Korea, the same company that makes some or most MSR stoves and canisters and they probably make Snow Peak canisters too. The Kovea and MSR canisters have the same manufacturing tooling marks on them.

There is no reason why MSR canisters would not work with the Lite max stove, I have the same stove which is called the Kovea Supalite here in OZ and have had no problems no matter what brand canisters I use. I would check how tight you are screwing the stove on the canister.

Here in OZ The MSR 230g canister costs A$12-$13, the Kovea 230g cots A$7 and the JetBoil 100g costs A$7

Tony

I've only used MSR canisters w/my Litemax. No worries. I have noticed that the valve assembly on my Litemax seems to get quite hot. I haven't noticed a change in performance, though…

Hi Tony,

Thanks for correcting me. I am not sure what I was doing wrong, but I will give it another shot next time.

Thanks,
Jeff

I experienced something similar to what Tony is talking about. I was using an Optimus Crux with a Snow Peak canister. The stove cut off on its own after burning for a minute or two. I couldn't get it to re-light. Finally, checked to see if I had properly screwed the stove into the canister. I found that I could tighten it just a hair more. When I re-tried it, it worked fine and has ever since.

The various canister brand should all work with whatever stove you have. The only exception might be some cheap off brand that you picked up while traveling in Asia or something like that. Brunton, Optimus, Coleman*, Jetboil, Snow Peak, MSR, and Kovea should all work equally well.

HJ

*Obviously the Coleman Powermax canisters won't work. I mean the regular canisters that Coleman makes should work.

I have a Brunton FLEX stove (almost the same as a Crux) and found it works fine W/ all brands of butane with Lindal valves.

Eric