If you are heading off into the hills for any period of time hot food and drink are vital to not only your survival should things go wrong but also for your moral. A hot cup of Tea or Coffee can make such a difference at the end or even beginning of your day. Since the release of stove systems like the MSR Windburner and Jetboil, small gas stoves are often over looked. If the only thing you use your stove for is boiling water then a Stove system is what many people go straight for, however choosing a small stove and separate pot is a great way to cut weight and create more space in your pack. Put your stoves systems to one side for the minute and look through our range of superlight camping stove.
MSR Stoves.
MSR’s famous Pocket Rocket is probably the most well known small stove. Now in it’s second and third iteration it continues to prove itself as the perfect lightweight stove. The most recent Pocket Rocket 2 saw the stove shrink in size and weight. At a tiny 73 grams its new cleverly designed pot supports fold away neatly so it can be packed away its small carry case.
The Pocket Rocket Deluxe is a slightly heavier version of the stove, at 83g it takes the new folding pot support design and adds a broader burner unit and pressure regulator for consistent boiling times when it’s cold. This makes the stove good choice if you do alot of winter camping. It also has a built in Piezo igniter.
An ideal pairing for these stoves would be:
Pocket Rocket 2 and MSR Titan Kettle.
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Pocket Rocket Deluxe and MSR Pika 1L kettle.
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Soto Stoves.
Last year we introduced a new range of stoves from Soto. Soto are a Japenese stove manufacturer with a background in industrial weed burners. Using their knowledge from what are essentially giant Bunsen burners they’ve created a range of stoves that work incredible well in extreme weather conditions.
From their range we have the award winning Windmaster and the Amicus. The Windmaster is comparable to the MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe, it’s 87 grams and has a confidence inspiring wide pot support, which can be completely removed from the burner unit. The concave design of the burner unit and low profile pot support means that your cook pot sits closer to the flame. Soto say that this makes it “nearly impossible for the wind to penetrate the stoves flame”. Don’t believe it, have a look at the video below.
The Amicus is Soto’s simplified light weight stove. Available with or without a Piezo Igniter it utilises the same Concave burner as the Windmaster offering the same great wind protection. It also has a stable four prong fold away pot support all this at 75g.
For the ultimate in lightweight stove system I would pair the Soto Amicus with Soto’s Thermostack Cookset Combo. This tidy little brew kit packs so much into such a small bundle. Included is two mugs, one cook pot, two lids, and a cosy/pouch which has space for all this plus a stove and 110 gram gas canister.
Thermostack cookset and Amicus stove.
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The Windmaster has a slightly larger burner head than the Amicus so pairing this with a slightly large pot would make better use of the heat generated from this stove. The Soto New River Pot has a 1 litre capacity making it perfect if there are two of you dinning.
Windmaster and New River Pot.
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Optimus Stoves.
Optimus are a well know brand of camping stove from Sweden. Their pocket stoves have a very unique design if compared to similar stoves from MSR and Soto. The burner heads of the Crux and Crux lite are larger and flatter, and when burning the flames look more like a traditional kitchen stove with the flames projecting diagonally upwards from the burner head rather than in a torch like manner of the Soto and MSR equivalents.
The Crux weighs 83g and can be folder in two meaning it can be stowed within the concave base of a gas canister. The Crux comes with a neoprene cosy with mesh bag allowing the stove to be secured to the base of a gas canister. The Crux lite saves a total of 11 grams by not having this folding feature, but still keeps the same solid pot supports and fast burn times of the Crux. Both the Crux and Crux Lite will boil 1 litre of water in under 3 minutes.
Optimus Crux Weekend HE Cook System.
Both these stoves don’t offer as much in the way of wind protection on their own but bought as one of Optimus’ cook sets will give you a very efficient system. The Crux Weekend HE kit comprises of a Crux stove, 950ml cook pot with heat exchanger and lid that can double as a frying pan if needed.
Optimus Elektra FE Cook System.
An alternative choice would be the Elektra FE cook system which bumps the Crux Weekend kit up a notch. Adding a light weight heat shield a Piezo Igniter and swapping the Crux for a Crux Lite, a great little weekend cook system.
If you’re looking to upgrade your stove and have a small stove in mind have a look at our stove range over on the website…