Little ultralight stoves that screw into compressed gas canisters were a pretty exciting market when Snow Peak introduced the three-ounce GigaPower eleven years ago.
Since then, improvements have been incremental at best, and reviewers have spent many nights with furrowed brows monitoring the temperatures of water in titanium pots trying to measure differences between the products in this niche, which now number into the dozens.
It's pretty safe to say that there is precious little difference in these stoves. They are all just about durable enough, light enough, fuel efficient enough, hot enough, stable enough, and stowable enough for even those of us that are most discriminating with their gear. I've received so many review samples through the years that I've collected them all into a single bin. When I want to use a canister stove, I just reach in and grab whatever is on top, paying almost no attention to what it is.
# WORDS: 620
# PHOTOS: 3
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Monatauk Gnat Stove Review
Ok, it looked nice, how did it work?
it's pretty safe to say that there is precious little difference in these stoves
I have the Gnat for some months and on my website you can see a short video of it… (It’s in German, but I think that’s okay for video)
http://qbloggt.blogspot.com/2010/03/monatauk-gnat-das-video.html
numbers …
Actual usage figures for the Monatauk Gnat and its twin brother the Go System Fly can be found at
Gnat
Gosystem Fly
How does it simmer?
I normally use alcohol stoves, but I do have a 10 year old Gigapower in my closet which I use occasionally. My major complaint with the original Gigapower is the slippery pot supports. One time my tall pot slid off the Gigapower supports and scalded my hand with boiling water. Not fun in the backcountry.
Recently I have been considering getting another canister stove, but ingrained in my memory is the sight of my beet red scalded hand, so pot supports are a major concern of mine. The Monatauk Gnat appears to have good pot supports, but judging from pictures on the company websites, I prefer the pot supports of the Gigapower LiteMax, at least for a tall tippy pot.
According to the Monatauk website, the Gnat costs $60.00 American
Price?
The unit Ryan got was from Monatauk, but my information is that it was actually designed and made by Fire Maple in China (where else). It is available from several sources around the world under various numbers or names, but sometimes with '116T' in the part number.
Specifications:
Dimensions: 55 x 75 x 32 mm
Weight: 48 g
Rated Power: 12,000 BTU / 3,500 W
The measured CO emission is around 10 to 20 ppm, which is pretty good.
I can verify that it does punch out a lot of power, consistent with the claimed figure, and considerably more than any white gas stove (so there!). I can also confirm that it does simmer very nicely, and that the valve action is smooth.
Pricing varies depending on the supplier. Someone else mentioned $60 from Monatauk, but I have not verified that myself. It is available for ~$35 +P/P from Shanghai, at
http://www.de-maritime.com/titanium-camping-stove
Disclosure: I received a review sample from DE-Maritime as well, but Ryan beat me to the punch in submitting the Spotlite.
Cheers
I like this review – it is concise.
The pot stand legs of the Gnat are similar to my Brunton FLEX stove in design. I fixed the wobbliness of the legs by drilling out the rivits and replacing them with tiny nuts, lock washers and bolts. The lock washers held the pot supports snug enough to prevent wobble but not to tight to make folding difficult.
As is often the case many backpacking products can be improved upon with a little thought.
"""I like this review – it is concise"""
Agree with Ron
May be too much concise……….:-/
+1 on the concise review.
Could just use a set of those plastic jetboil legs with it… they clip really nicely onto the bottom of a small canister and are pretty solid. Just a thought!
Roger, thanks for the verification and extra info. How is it in terms of CO emissions?
Hi EJ
> How is it in terms of CO emissions?
Fourth line in the specs I posted! 10 – 20 ppm. That's fairly low.
Cheers
The review was concise because there just isn't a lot to say about a product that seems to work as well as anything else.
The real appeal of this stove to me was its aesthetics, which are superb. In terms of "lightweight philosophy in design" this stove hits the nail on the head.
"It works well enough" – and I do mean that.
The differences in field performance between all these little canister stoves is so infinitesimally small that it's almost ludicrous trying to figure out how they compare to each other based on performance – boil times, fuel efficiency, etc.
It keeps both big and little pots stable, it hasn't failed yet, and it makes hot water. "I guess it works, eh?" I know, I'm being a little tongue in cheek here, but seriously, there just isn't a lot of room left in this product market and I just wanted to point out something aesthetically unique in a pretty crowded field.
What's remarkable to me is this:
Bushbuddy Ultra – 5 oz
Gnat Stove – 1.7 oz
Cat Food Can Stove – 0.5 oz
Esbit Ti Stove – 0.3 oz
i.e., today, I can cook on wood, gas, alcohol, and solid fuel on the same trip (if I wanted to, but I wouldn't, except when on a teaching trip) for 7.5 oz! How cool is that?
Good review. I would always wish for complete specs to include stove measurements folded and in use, stove weight, case weight, case size and maybe even burner diameter. We are still missing the case weight. A few more specs are
stove weight: 1.6 oz (48 grams)
stove size (folded): 2.25" x 2.25" x 2.5"
stove size (in use): ?
case weight: 1.4 oz (hard side)
case size: 3" x 3" x 3.25"
John,
Toss the case. Thus, case weight = 0.
Seriously, though, I can't see any compelling reason to bring a "stove case" on a trek.
I know it's there to protect the stove, but wrapping in a viscose towel does it for a lot less weight and rattling.
Ryan
The stove case is dual purpose.
It protects the stove from breakage, and it protects the other gear in your pack from the sharp points on the stove.
If I wrapped a viscose towel around my stove, it would be full of holes in a week's time. But then, I suppose that is why I carry duct tape.
–B.G.–
How does the Gnat stove performance compare to the Soto OD-1R Micro Regulator Stove in terms of maintaining consistent output in cold weather? Although many stoves may seem alike, the Soto appears to have an edge in performance as temp drops and as fuel runs out, i.e., the Soto output is the same across the spectrum.
"the expedition-conscious ultralighter can turn down the fuel power and eke out thirty-six to forty boils (at 12 oz/boil) without much difficulty" What sort of altitude are we talking about here? I imagine there's quite a large variation in how long a canister lasts between say 10000 feet and sea level.
> I imagine there's quite a large variation in how long a canister lasts
> between say 10000 feet and sea level.
No, altitude will have very little direct effect on the life of a canister. The canister supplies energy, and how much energy is in the canister is unrelated to altitude.
However, because the ambient temperature drops as you go up in altitude, you will find yourself using a little more fuel to get water up to 80 C. On the other hand, water boils at a lower temperature at higher altitudes, so you will need a little less fuel to go from 80 C to boiling. Ho hum … :-)
Anyhow, most of that is irrelevant. What really influences practical fuel consumption is wind, use-of-windscreen, heating rate, lid-on-pot, and other things like that. They are far more significant, to the point of being totally dominant.
Cheers
The Snow Peak Giga weighs 3 oz., but that includes the "ignitor". You have to weigh in whatever it is you use to light the Gnat stove.
not really, ignitors fail so frecuently that you MUST to carry one lighter anyway
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