Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

If you're looking to get started into backpacking, this is the stove for you. If you need something for a "back-up" in an emergency kit, this is the stove for you. If you have a Boy Scout in the house, this is a great gift. I have used a number of stoves during my adventures. My favorite is the Optimus Crux Stove. NOT the lite, but the old model Crux. It folds down, and mounts with the included bag to the underside of your fuel can. BUT it's usually around $40. I was shopping amazon, and stumbled on this stove and figured what the heck. It will be a back-up piece or a loaner. Talk about being surprised. First off let me say that when I go backpacking or camping, i do more than boil water and cook freeze dried ready made meals. I LOVE to cook. I usually surprise the people I am with when on the second or third night I back pizzas on the trail. Or when they wake up in the morning to the smell of bacon and eggs frying away on my backpacking stove. I've also recently made sausage gravy and biscuits on the trail, and the crew went bananas. (I dehydrated the sausage before leaving the house). BUT let me say that if this stove was more than $20.00, it would not receive 5 stars. Let me tell you why. My favorite stoves have a larger diameter burner. I like to "bake" on the trail, and prefer to not have a "hot spot" in the middle of my cook kits. This stove concentrates its flame in the middle. My Optimus Crux fans out a little. BUT I carry the lid from a #10 fruit cocktail can that works very well as a diffuser. Don't use a coffee can lid, they are too thin. BUT this thing can put out some heat. I set up a test, 2 cups of water in a pot. Turned both stoves on high, and let it rip. Used the same pot with the water at the same starting temperature, and guess what. This little stove only took 35 seconds longer to get the water to a ROLLING boil. My tablet stove never got above a simmer and steam. The fins which hold the pot above the burner, make sure you FOLD THE TOP OUT before placing your pot on top. Don't try to cook with the fins folded in like the picture for the product. The igniter for this thing is such a very nice addition. It works, and saves time and energy by giving you the means to light or relight your stove when needed. It's handy and just plain works. The body of the stove itself is pretty durable and still hasn't rusted after being here in humid Hawaii for the past 2 months. My other stove started to show some corrosion on the fins a month after we got to the island. The valve is fully adjustable. You can turn it way down to a low simmer, and it HOLDS there, or crank it up and boil away. The orange case is cheap. I mean CHEAP, but really all it's doing is holding everything together so you can wrap it in a strip of sham-wow before stowing it in you pot with fuel. One thing I have learned about iso fuel stoves, is that some sort of canister stand is a MUST. A good stand makes all the difference. I recommend MSR's stand because it's metal and VERY light and durable. Speaking of fuel, this stove is very fuel efficient. I had Coleman iso fuel stove that seemed to get three meals per large can of fuel. This one last about 6-8 meals per SMALL can of fuel. Also by using a wind screen (for me it's a custom folded piece of heavy duty aluminium foil) you will find that all backpacking stoves work even better than advertised. Bottom line, this stove will NOT disappoint. As with all lightweight stoves, be careful about dropping or bending the "fins" that support your cookware. Store them properly on the trail making sure they are padded and kept clean. Have fun experimenting with this stove in the back yard before taking out on the trail. You won't be disappointed! ADDITION: I just got this back after loaning it out to someone for their weekend. The cooked a LOT of scrambled eggs, and at one point they spilled eggs onto the burner. OOPS... Guess what. This unit comes COMPLETELY APART. I was able to take it all apart, soak the burner in some soapy water, then picked it clean with a safety pin. After that I thoroughly rinsed and dried, and it works very well.