pocket rocket deluxe vs soto windmaster

[Jerry Adams]

I’ve been using the pocket rocket deluxe vs soto windmaster for about 13 years, 100s of days.

I go back and forth.  I think they’re both good.

I don’t like the PRD arms because you have to rotate them around, then pull the arms down.  Kind of fiddly. After years, the arm doesn’t stay rotated.  I’ll put my pot on it but it’s nowhere near level – push arm down, now it’s fine.  I tried to tighten the screw with Allen wrench but then it’s so tight I can’t rotate it.  There’s no place where it operates nicely.  There’s these little washer like springs – maybe they’ve weakened with age.  Minor annoyance – I’d buy it again.

The three armed support on the Soto failed after a few years.  It’s very thin metal, in the flame, so it corroded.  It would have eventually fallen but I noticed it first.  The 3 arms are small diameter so my pot tipped over once and spilled everything.  I think the 3 armed support is not good.  I wouldn’t buy the stove with that.  I started using the 4 armed support and that’s fine.

Just recently I tried the Soto but the piezo ignition failed.  I can see a spark down below, but not at the burner, so the flame doesn’t ignite.  I tried removing the burner head and getting the wire to connect, but that didn’t work.  On that trip I just used a lighter, but I think I’ll just keep the stove in reserve and not use it anymore.

If I was to buy a stove again, I’d buy the PRD.  But the Soto is good also.  I think the PRD is a clone of the soto – they both have a raised cup so it’s a little better in the wind.

 

[Jerry Adams]

just for grins I googled “pocket rocket deluxe arm spring washers” and it gave me

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/msr-pocket-rocket-deluxe-issues/

same problems

a little new information here, like the piezo on the soto failing.  And the arms on the PRD getting looser.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Jerry,

PRD, extend the arms and place the stove upside down on a flat surface and look at the burner head. The burner should be parallel to the surface, if not, one of the arms is bent. A weakness to the Pocket Rocket design is that the stop that limits rotation often gets bent. To fix this, you can place the arm in a vise and CAREFULLY tap the stop back into position. The pot support arms are held in place by a shoulder screw. The screw should be tightened all of the way down, this will set a slight gap between the body of the screw and the body of the stove. The little washer that goes in there is called a Belville washer and it has a slight dome to it. The dome is supposed to set the spring force to be repeatable and independent of how tight the screw is. You might see if MSR will send you replacement washers. It is too loose; you might be able to shim it with a small washer.

The Soto WindMaster is far superior in the wind. This primarily has to do with the burner to pot bottom distance, The Soto is much closer than the PRD. Good Luck.

[Jerry Adams]

and on that other thread Ken said to use a second washer – duhhh… – much better now, thanks

[JCH]

11 year Windmaster user…FWIW my tri-flex pot support arms still are in perfect (albeit very discolored) condition.  That may be due to only boiling 8-10 oz of water, which takes ~1.5 min using a wide pot. Piezo also works perfectly.

[Dan]

I have to say that canister stove technology seems quite durable and mature. I still have a Snowpeak stove that I bought almost 25 years ago, which works like new, including the igniter. It was the first canister stove I bought, to replace my 1990s white gas stove.

Granted, I haven’t used it as much in the past 10 years (usually alcohol or BRS 9000 on solo trips), but I still take it when I go with my wife and plan to use a larger pot, due to the more stable support than the BRS.

The weight is about 3.6 oz, so a little heavier than the OP models, presumably because it has no titanium, but if I still had my other items from 2004, they would all be totally unrecognizable now.

[Tom D.]

I’ve bought the Windmaster a few years ago after I struggled to boil water with the BRS-3000 one night when I couldn’t shield it enough from the wind. I tried everything I could think of at the time.

I chose the Windmaster with the tri-flex arms over the PRD because it only weighs 2.3 oz as opposed to 2.9 oz for the PRD. Not a huge difference, but still. Reviews on both were excellent.

The Soto has worked great for me.

[Jerry Adams]

on the tri flex arms, keep an eye on where the arms rest on the burner cup and are directly in the flame

mine corroded over time, but it was slow.  It didn’t get so bad that it failed, but I switched to the 4 arm version just in case

[Tom D.]

Will do Jerry, thanks. I have the 4 arm stowed away at home (that’s what it came with),  but I’ll keep an eye on the tri-flex arms.

[Marcus]

Windmaster > PRD in my book.

I have the WM and it’s nearly perfect. My hiking partner has the PRD.

Jon’s tests show the WM is slightly superior (but almost equal) to the Prd.

I prefer the WM for its removable pot supports, choice of 3 or 4 leg pot support, amd much better turndown ability.

We do lots of luxury food on a 5″ 5oz aluminum non stick mini pan. We frequently cook scallops, crab cakes, and pancakes (all of which are surprisingly efficient food-weight).

The WM has much finer low-flame control and it’s much easier to get an adequately low flame setting. Both stoves are very sensitive at low flame and the goldilocks zone on the WM is <5* rotation between Off and Burning. On the prd, the goldilocks zone is 1/3 of that and is very hard to dial in just right. the WM isn’t very hard to get just right.

This is an outlier use case, so if that doesn’t convince you, per Jon’s testing, the WM was the only stove to get a rolling boil in 8mph wind, living up to its namesake!

[Eric Blumensaadt]

When stove performances/ergonomics/quality are close I look at the burner width. A wider burner is my preference for even heating which is (likely) faster heating. And with small frying pans it is better B/C even heating is important. I only use anodized aluminum pots and pans and they heat far more evenly than titanium.

This said I often cook when backpacking as opposed to merely boiling water for FD food pouches. Some “Eat to live.” I “Live to eat.” (This is said to be the difference between the Russians and the French. ;o)

[Henrik S]

Comparable to the WM is the Campingmoon XD-2f for about 30usd. Picked one up after Eric Hanson recommended it, and it’s very good – also in winds – and of high quality.

 

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