MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe

an upright canister stove for inclement weather

Likes:

• powerful burner
• wind resistant
• compact enough

Dislikes:

• I can always do w/o a piezo, I’m not a huge fan
• pot support metal is bendable with not much hand strength, I haven’t had any issues with it, but it’s notable

Incredible burner, functional igniter, poorly manufactured and flimsy pot supports

The MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe has the best burner of any stove in this category that I’ve encountered. It is super powerful and simmers excellently too. Because of this amazing burner I wanted to love the stove, but the supports have given me fits. The first one that I bought had two supports that were perfectly straight and one that was leaning at a pretty good angle. I took it back to REI to snag one with straight supports and noted that even the display model had leaning pot supports. I exchanged anyway and took a new one home only to find that none of the three pot supports were straight up and down. So I just bent them into place which was way too easy. That metal is super flimsy. A few trips later, I woke up in the morning to find one of the three supports irreparably bent to hell. I have no idea how I did it, whether I stepped on it or it fell over or what, but it was unusable at that point. I returned it. I’m hoping they solve the pot-supports on this stove because the burner is so great. If/when they do, I’ll buy another.