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Discussing Stoves

Be it a large-group expedition or fast and light traverse, we discuss stoves with the Gear Editor.

By

Gavin Hess

Editor’s Note: Water. What is it good for? Absolutely everything.  That pretty much sums up how and why we rely on stoves in the touring scene. We rely on stoves for drinking water (melting snow) and heating water, for rehydrating food, and sometimes, and also very important, for cooking food. So, it goes that nutrients…

Responses

  1. Spencer Dillon

    interesting the reactor doesn’t really feature for you all. Obv a two whisperlite/board setup is great for expeditions, but I thought the beauty of the windburner/reactor is that they are designed for low pressure so the canister can go directly in the snow. I’ve had no trouble using every gram of fuel in a canister I have basically buried for stability reasons. The reactor (I haven’t used a windburner personally) is mega-fast and I haven’t had tipover issues or used a shovel blade really ever. Even with the water needs of 3 people, it is hard to keep up shoveling snow into the thing and filling freeze dried packets.

    Reactor too heavy for you Gavin? I haven’t noticed big efficiency issues in real winter situations and often the reactor way outpaces traditional fuel estimates (2oz/day/person for melting snow). I imagine a copper heat-exchanger would fix cold weather inefficiency anyway. No priming, no fireballs and no sticky pot-lock that jetboil-style stoves have. The only real downsides are that none of the components can really nest into each other for efficient packing and the factory handle blows.

    I also carry a tiny 50g backup stove as a backup that can fit into the reactor pot fins underneath, but it’s hard to imagine an all-metal stove like that failing in the field.

    1. Gavin Hess

      I’ve used a Windburner and Reactor more or less interchangeably, perhaps similar to you(it sounds like), I bought a windburner 7-8 years ago so that tends to be my default. In my experience, the windburner is a bit less fiddly and I like that the pot locks in place on the burner. I have had a Reactor malfunction and not been able to repair it during a trip before, though I would guess that’s more attributed to high use/old guide service stoves than a major flaw in the design.

      If I remember correctly, the Windburner and reactor in are about the same weight for comparable pot sizes, so no, certainly not too heavy. Efficiency issues are certainly manageable and minimal when managed properly, I will say that the difference in boil times and audible burner power is significant going from a cold canister to a shallow warm water bath – that solution has always seemed simple enough to me not to bother with a copper wire.

      1. Spencer Dillon

        different strokes I suppose. And yes, water bath is a great idea.

        The general theme here to me is: modern canister stoves can do lots of winter camping stuff with or without major fiddling and there are many micro ways we can fiddle for performance depending on our needs.

        Personally, the water bath fiddle factor is a higher price than I want to pay for a faster boil when I can use snow to weld the stove in place for the day. Maybe weld+copper wire is best for me. I remember watching a colin haley video of winter Cerro Torre adventures where he melted his jetboil with a copper heat exchanger… One more tick for the all metal reactor for me.

  2. Slim

    Note that MSR specifically says NOT to invert the canister for the Windburner remote stove. I assume due to the lack of a preheat tube.

    1. Jason Albert

      Good point Slim. I usually bring along a small plastic container, add a bit of water to it, and placing the canister in the water to maintain pressure has done the trick for me: I’ve not inverted the canister and again, I’m glad you raised that point. And along the way lines of the other comments, I’m too much of a klutz to be using a stacked stove like the standard WindBurner or Reactor.

  3. tzed

    This comes at a critical time. My JetBoil Minimo has recently become unreliable(sputtering) and when I contacted them, they stated the stove is unrepairable and to buy another.

    I was planning on bringing the Minimo on the Bugs to Rogers traverse, now looking at other options. I have on my shortlist the Jetboil Sumo and Windburner. Maybe Duo to get the bigger pot, or even use the 2.5L pot with it for melting snow.

    The Windburner Duo adds weight to the Windburner and still doesn’t allow one to use the canister inverted. Additionally it seems like the pot is not attached which seems shortsighted.

    I’m curious what the collective would use if they were to buy a new stove today to use primarily for fast and light ski traverses of 2 people(sometimes 1, sometimes 3) and 4-8 days in length.

    1. Spencer Dillon

      A reactor or windburner with a 1L pot with a firemaple FMS 300T or similar as a backup (though I’m sure the ministove would do some weird stuff to the pot). super simple. No fuss. Good cold performance. Light. Plenty of capacity for 3.

      A standard bugs rogers? any extra credit skiing?

    2. Jason Albert

      Hey Tzed, I’ve been using the Windburner Duo for about five years now with no issues. This includes traverses from 2-10 days. With a plastic cup (maybe an old salsa container) with added water (maybe an inch), when it’s really cold or fuel running low, I’ve had no issue maintaining good fuel pressure. I also use the 1.8 L pot, which has been a sweet spot for 2-3 people. I do have the 2.5 L pot, which has never made it onto a tarverse yet—but, in some cases, I could see its functionality. The pot nests nicely on the stove and feels pretty secure, but maybe in tight quarters (cooking near the door in an assault tent, I’d want something more secure; otherwise, it’s been a non-issue.

    3. Dave Riggs

      Same as Spencer’s recommendation.

      1. Jason Albert

        These Firemaple FMS 300Ts look to be on sale. Thanks for that recommendation. I’ve maybe rolled the dice too long with just one stove on longer traverses. I’m not too old to learn a new trick.

    4. tzed

      Thanks for all the suggestions.
      I’m going to give a look at the Windburner and Windburner Duo.
      After considering the increased ease with putting the canister in liquid(I am anticipating using warm liquid already around though, rather than wasting time to melt and heat water for this purpose 😉 to warm it up and the increased stability, I’m leaning toward the Duo.
      Though I think the Duo with a 1.0L pot might be better than the 1.8L.

      I’ll look at the firemaple as a backup option.

      And finally, I’m still in the planning phase, but the goal is the go light and fast while keeping the number of days reasonably long to allow for extra fun skiing. I just haven’t identified what that extra might be yet. Open to suggestions.

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