Stove Advice

I don’t want to sway anyone any direction : )

but, I’ve used the Pocket Rocket Deluxe on several trips and it’s worked good.  New product.

but, most upright canister stoves work good, about the same

the PRD has a piezo lighter that works good, but only after several trips, ask me again in a year.  Many people have a bad opinion about piezo lighters because they fail quickly.

I don’t factor the piezo in really because I’ll pack a lighter anyways, I wouldn’t ever trust it! But it might be kind of nice when it worked, I’ve never had a stove with one.

You’re right not to trust or rely on the piezo, but it is nice when it does works to avoid fumbling around for the lighter.  It slightly magnifies one of the advantages of canister stoves over WG and alcohol: the on/off is so easy, you turn your stove off much more to let food hot-soak and between courses that you save a fair bit of fuel.

If you haven’t used a heat-exchanger pot or an all-in-one like a JetBoil, I’d suggest going that route.  On short trips, the fuel savings don’t balance the heavier weight of gear but on longer trips, it can.  And you only buy the HX pot once and forever after, you save $7.99/canister fuel.

It puts a different arrow in your quiver.  The lower, stable WindPro is nice for a frypan or larger pot, perhaps on a group trip.  The JetBoil is ideal when you just need boiling water for 1-2 people and want it fast.

It’s kind of surprising how much faster the water boils in an HX pot.  That of course saves fuel in and of itself, but also, you’re less likely to walk away (since it only takes 40-80 seconds) and therefore you don’t come back after it’s been boiling for a minute, wasting fuel.

Toaks/PRD combo for the win at a significantly lighter weight.  I’m a little surprised no one has mentioned the effects of wind.  With its recessed burner head, the PRD strongly resembles the Soto WindMaster and does pretty good in a light breeze.  Even though JetBoil does use a heat exchanger pot, the burner itself is pretty exposed to wind.  I have never lost a boil to wind with my Toaks 750ml pot and WindMaster.  Of course, you could rig up a wind screen if you needed.  I really like the light weight of that combo.  (I got an Olicamp XTS heat exchanger pot at the end of last summer and will probably use that on trips that are longer than a night or two.  It is quite a bit more efficient than the regular non-HX Toaks pot, but heavier.)

Thanks all lots of good advice!  @jennifera so you have the Toaks 750ML I linked to? What do you think of it vs the 700ML – short wide vs narrow? is it stable on your Windmaster?

Toaks 750 or 700 work great on canister stoves.  Ditch the MSR. It’s a knock off of the Soto Windmaster.  That said, go Soto for a canister stove. I use the Soto and it’s never failed and the thing is amazing in wind.  Really quick boil times for 2 cups too.

Chad C, I do indeed have the Toaks 750 ml pot because that’s what I could get from REI.  It replaced a Snow Peak 900 cookset – I came to dislike the fryingpan-like lid that I never fried anything in and would not stay on in a pack.  The Toaks is just fine on the Windmaster, and I have been very happy with the combination of performance, stability, light weight, compactness, and fit into my pack.  Honestly, I would have settled for an aluminum pot with similar volume, but those don’t seem to be all that common anymore.  (The Olicamp HX pot is hard-anodized Al, and it is a bit heavier than the Ti pots.  Must be the added weight of the heat exchanger dealios, the vinyl hand grips, and that silly plastic lid, which I dumped for a Four Dog Ti lid.)  For what it’s worth, the piezo on the Windmaster has always worked without a hitch, even at 11K ft.  I still keep matches at hand, though.

pocket rocket deluxe – $70 – new product, reliability unproven – appears to be quite similar to Soto Windmaster

windmaster – $65 – has been a round for a while, many people have good experience with it

I am debating between a

Jetboil MicroMo (12oz) and

Toaks 700ML Pot (3.2 oz) + MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe (3 oz) – total 6.2 oz.

I’d go Jetboil.

I’ve revisited using a separate stove/Ti pot several times over the years and always come back to the Jetboil (I have a variety but mostly use the Ti version).

This year I went with the MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe with a Snowpeak Ti-Minis Solo Combo… one trip, and I was right back to the Jetboil. In field conditions it’s faster and less fiddly.

I’m not arguing PRD is better than jetboil or anything : )

but, what do you mean PRD is more fiddly?  It seems like they’re about the same – screw onto canister, put on pot of water, light…

what do you mean PRD is more fiddly?

It’s more susceptible to wind, more “tippy” with an unconnected pot, takes longer to boil… ie, “more fiddly.”

yeah, that makes sense

I think Windmaster and PRD are more resistant to wind, but still need a windscreen, losing some of the weight savings compared to a jet boil

What David said:

You’re right not to trust or rely on the piezo, but it is nice when it does works to avoid fumbling around for the lighter.  It slightly magnifies one of the advantages of canister stoves over WG and alcohol: the on/off is so easy, you turn your stove off much more to let food hot-soak and between courses that you save a fair bit of fuel.

If you haven’t used a heat-exchanger pot or an all-in-one like a JetBoil, I’d suggest going that route.  On short trips, the fuel savings don’t balance the heavier weight of gear but on longer trips, it can.  And you only buy the HX pot once and forever after, you save $7.99/canister fuel.

It puts a different arrow in your quiver.  The lower, stable WindPro is nice for a frypan or larger pot, perhaps on a group trip.  The JetBoil is ideal when you just need boiling water for 1-2 people and want it fast.

It’s kind of surprising how much faster the water boils in an HX pot.  That of course saves fuel in and of itself, but also, you’re less likely to walk away (since it only takes 40-80 seconds) and therefore you don’t come back after it’s been boiling for a minute, wasting fuel.

It’s more susceptible to wind, more “tippy” with an unconnected pot, takes longer to boil… ie, “more fiddley.”

That’s why I thought the short wide Toaks 700 might be the ticket

about the piezo failing, of course, bring a lighter just in case

in the mean time, for the last couple years with Windmaster and last couple trips with PRD, I just use the piezo which is convenient

it adds to the simplicity of using a canister stove vs other stoves

For just boiling water I keep gravitating back to an alcohol burner.  I find that jet boils don’t simmer/cook, mostly they boil water really fast.  Pocket rockets, and similar cannister stove do adjust down better for cooking are probably the most versatile option.

For stability lower profile, wider base pots are better.  Your Evernew 1.3L is the classic.

All that said, my downsize for solo use, just boiling water I went with the caldera cone tri-ti and the 600ml Evernew pot.  Everything curls up inside the pot.  Good stability and wind resistance.  Only downside is the 8-10 minutes it takes to boil water vs about 2 with the jet boil.

Thanks all, seems to be about half and half on votes.  I have read up on the Soto Windmaster, I just didn’t like the idea of the separate legs and the PRD looked to be the same thing with connected legs. I was looking at the Soto Amicus too and that looks nice but it’s $40 at REI with two pots, and $40 everywhere else without pots so  I thought the pricing was kind of weird. And maybe it’s not in the same class as the other two.

Soto Amicus is my primary stove now.  It has comparable wind performance as the windmaster, just no regulator.  But even without a regulator, the Amicus performs well in cold and with low fuel in the canister. Very efficient fuel usage too.  It’s worth the 40 bucks  imo.