Does anyone have a suggestion for camp stove?  I am leaning towards the MSR Whisperlite International.  I like the "burn any fuel" feature and it looks like it folds up pretty compact.  I welcome any suggestions

I had two whisperlites, but I had problems eventually with both of them.  I used them for a long time, but went to something completely different, a snow peak giga power stove that uses butane canisters.  I actually still liked my Peak 1 Coleman--almost better than the whisperlite.  They all work and it really boils down to do you like to use white gas or canisters.  I thought the option of being able to use different gases would be a plus also, but in reality, I never used anything but white gas with the whisperlite.

I travel with either a Simmerlite or a DragonFly as my primary stove.  My back-up stove is a Peak 1 ... generally the "all-in-one" rather than the component equivalent.  The Coleman stoves are generally superior to other stoves for simmering.  They just tend to be a bit more bulky.

As I recall, the Snow Peak Giga has a roarer-type burner like the DragonFly ... at least that's the configuration of my white-gas version.  Good burner, but typically a bit noisy.

dd

ManBearPig wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2011 at 8:51pm:



Do you want a stove that you can grow into or a stove that just boils water?

Is it only going to be used for Canoe Camping?

Iso Butane stoves dont care much for cold temperatures, winter camping in the future....late fall trips...how do you feel about the canisters and waste stream?

White gas is a very available fuel domestically....I have only once heard a story where the multifuel aspect of a stove came in handy...well sort of...a buddy and his friend ran out of fuel and "resorted" to the JD in an MSR XGK (a high altitude snow melter) and ended up melting the spatula and frying pan in the canyonlands of UT....

They are tools, and it all depends what you want to do with it and how much you want to spend...and how much you want to fuss with it...

Got my first Whisperlite in the 90's, I like pancakes and I gave it away after I used a friends MSR Firefly and then the Dragonfly came out it was a no brainer, but the noise does grate on a being...thats why I am moving to the above...isobutane is convenient though too but you pay for that cup of quick coffee

There are a lot of options out there....whitegas, isobutane, alcohol, solid fuel, wood....StOOOOOves!

the stovaphile

Puckster wrote on Feb 4^th, 2011 at 2:43am:

Good point.  The feather 442 is actually the more recent manifestation of the Peak 1 (which I believe is out of production). 

If you are still interested in a multi-fuel model, the 442 also comes in a Dual-Fuel model (white and auto gas).

All of these models use the later configuration of the Peak 1 (Model 400B), including single level control.  (The original Peak--Model 400A--had 2 levers ... one for fuel flow and one for air mixture.)  Later production in this series are labeled Peak 1 Feather 400.

BTW:  Only the MSR DragonFly and XGK models use the "jet engine" burner. (I'm omitting the FireFly model, since it went out of production about 30 years ago.)

dd