Lightweight stoves are great for that backpacking trip
A lightweight stove should be capable of living in your rucksack for that backpacking trip or winter outing into the mountains when you might want to fire it up for a warming drink. Air Finned Cooler
We tested four lightweight stoves that fit the bill. Two follow similar design concepts: the all-in-one model that includes the cooking pot within the system and works by using a heat exchanger on the bottom of the pot. Another is a super-light compact little thing that would be great on that Alpine jaunt. The fourth is a basic, value stove that will appeal to those on a limited budget.
With such differing models, it’s a little unfair to pick one as the star of the show. Which appeals most will depend on what you’re looking for in a lightweight stove.
To test performance, we used each stove to heat 500ml of water at tap temperature until it just started boiling. That’s enough to make a cup of tea or coffee. The times reflect how long each model took to perform that task.
Edelrid Kiro Ti Price: £45 Weight: 78g including bag Fuel: propane/butane Boil time: 1min 50secs Country of manufacture: not stated
This tiny stove easily fits in the palm of your hand, and comes in its own little pouch with a drawstring closure.
Obviously, you need a gas canister too to power the stove, and a pan to cook with, but if you really need to keep things small and light, the Kiro Ti plus a 100g capacity canister will tip the scales at 276g.
The Edelrid stove is a simple design, with a quality manufacturing feel.
The valve control handle springs out, then the stove is screwed on to your gas canister. The three titanium arms swivel into position and their pan support extensions fold out. There is no piezo ignition; you’ll have to light it with a match, lighter or fire steel.
The Kiro Ti fits in the palm of the hand
The burner was very efficient, and boiled water quickly in our test. Wind will affect its performance, however, so on breezy days, you’ll need to use some kind of windshield or shelter it with whatever’s to hand.
The flame was easy to control and functioned well down to a low level.
The Edelrid Kiro Ti was an impressive little piece of kit, and anyone wanting to keep things minimalist will find it a great performer on those lightweight trips.
Performance 35/40 Controllability 17/20 Features 12/20 Quality 9/10 Value for money 8/10 Total score: 81/100
MSR Windboiler Price: £110 Weight: 460g Fuel: propane/butane Boil time: 1min 40secs Country of manufacture: USA
The MSR stove is a full system, to which you need only add a canister of gas to get cooking.
The 1-litre pot can be used for boiling water for a drink, or for cooking your food and is sized for individual use.
The radiant burner with its heat exchanger made for very efficient use, with the shortest boil time of any stove in the test.
The Windboiler comes with a plastic tripod that clips to the bottom of either 90mm or 110mm gas canisters (110g or 230g). This provides quite good stability to what is quite a tall stove set-up. There’s a removable plastic transparent cup at the bottom of the stove, helpfully marked in 120ml, 240ml and 360ml capacities inside, if you need to measure water etc. If you’re wondering why MSR have chosen these odd measures, just remember the USA hasn’t adopted the metric system: the marks correspond to US 4oz, 8oz and 12oz capacities.
Less helpfully, the cup managed to get firmly jammed on to the bottom of the stove while squashed into our rucksack and too a fair bit of levering to free it.
The burner, which is stored inside the stove when not in use, has a wire valve control which flips out, then the unit is screwed into the top of a gas canister. There’s no piezo ignition, so lighting is by external means. The burner is wide and the flame very difficult to see, but MSR has helpfully placed a thin wire across the unit, which glows red when it’s lit.
The pot, with its heat exchanger bottom, then fits on to the burner unit with a slight bayonet turn. The pot has an insulated sleeve and still handle, which worked well in enabling the pot to be held when eating from it. The inside of the pot has markings at 0.3l, 0.5l and 0.7l, along with US fluid oz measures. Oddly, the maximum capacity for cooking is marked at 20 US fl oz, even though its overall capacity is a litre.
The MSR stove has a radiant burner with indicator wire to help you know it is lit
We found it hard easily to control the flame to a low level while cooking, without turning the valve so low it went out completely. This then means taking off the pot and relighting. Eventually, you sort of get the knack of listening to the burner and hearing when it’s likely to extinguish.
The burner is pressure regulated to keep an even flame as the gas pressure inside the canister drops as fuel depletes.
The pot has a transparent plastic lid which has both a drinking hole and straining slots, very useful when pouring off excess cooking liquid. It’s a tight fit, so both hands are needed when removing or replacing. Be careful not to touch the heat exchanger area below the insulated sleeve, which gets, and stays, hot. The fact it stays hot after the flame is turned off helps to keep food warm while you’re eating it.
We’d advise using less water with your food when cooking. The Windboiler is very quick when cooking staples such as noodles or pasta, so try putting less liquid in to start with.
We found it necessary to stir the food pretty much constantly to avoid starchy meals such as pasta sticking to the pot bottom.
It was inevitable the food would boil over at first until we got used to using the stove. Some of the staining was very difficult to remove. The insulated sleeve can be removed by pulling a plastic latch at the top of the handle and sliding the whole thing off.
The quality of manufacture and design was good and the compact nature of the MSR Windboiler makes it great for lightweight backpacking trips. If you stick to small, 100g gas canisters, which admittedly make things more expensive, everything you need to cook, bar food and water, can be stored within the system.
The design of the stove does make it less prone to being affected by wind, as the name suggests, though in strong winds cooking times will be increased.
Better controllability at low flame levels would make this a really great stove system.
A hanging kit and coffee press to turn the stove into a cafetiere can be bought as accessories.
Performance 37/40 Controllability 13/20 Features 17/20 Quality 9/10 Value for money 7/10 Total score: 82/100
Primus Lite+ Price: £110 Weight: 442g Fuel: propane/butane Boil time: 3min 15secs Country of manufacture: EU
The Primus Lite+ is the Swedish brand’s updated version of the Eta Lite and is another all-in-one system though it is squatter than the MSR stove thanks to its Laminar Flow Burner Technology, which allows for less height.
The burner is not as big as the MSR stove and boil times were correspondingly longer, though we did find it easier to control at low flame levels and the Lite+ was less prone to go out when turning the gas right down.
The triangular burner housing slots easily into the 0.5l pot and has a firm bayonet locking. The heat exchanger distributes the flame around the whole of the base of the pot and the stove also has piezo ignition which is nice and easy to use, so the stove can be fired up when the pot is in position.
The pot will take a 100g gas canister and the burner unit for storage, but the large plastic gas canister foot support won’t then fit in.
The pot comes with an insulated sleeve in G-1000 material, which is available in different colours. There’s a webbing handle which hooks into a lower webbing loop on the sleeve. Make sure you hook it firmly or it could slip out and possibly make the hot contents of the pot spill out. The reason it unhooks is because it also serves as a lid retainer when the stove is not in use, keeping the lid and stores contents in place.
An extra feature of the Primus Lite+ is that screwed into the handle are three knurled pot stands, which can be screwed into the top of the burner to allow a pan other than the dedicated pot to be used with it. The only drawback is that you won’t have the advantage of the heat exchanger built into the Lite+ pot, but it does give a little more versatility to the stove, turning it in effect into a more conventional one if necessary.
The whole sleeve is easily removed by unfastening a Velcro strip, for cleaning.
The Lite+ also comes with a hanging cord so the stove can be used suspended rather than standing if required.
We liked the controllability of the Lite+ and it worked well in windy conditions, though strong winds will still affect the flame to some degree and extend cooking times.
Performance 32/40 Controllability 17/20 Features 18/20 Quality 8/10 Value for money 7/10 Total score: 82/100
Vango Folding Gas Stove Price: £25 Weight: 266g (including box) Fuel: propane/butane Boil time: 2min 45secs Country of manufacture: China
This stove from Vango is exactly what its name says: it’s a no-frills stove that works well.
Its fold-out legs and pan supports easily take bigger pots, and the fact it has a gas-hose connection means it keeps a low profile to aid stability.
The biggish burner performed very well in our boiling tests.
The pipe has a valve at the canister end, to control gas flow via a knurled knob. Construction is basic, with riveted joints, but the design worked well.
It comes in a cheap-feeling orange plastic box which developed a split in the lid during our use.
The Vango Folding Gas Stove isn’t the lightest of stoves, and you’ll have to add pans to the kit to cook your meal at camp, but for the price it’s good value. For an extra £2.50 you can have a version that includes piezo ignition.
You’ll probably need some form of windshield too, as the stove has no real protection from breezes and cooking times will be extended quite a bit when the wind picks up.
For occasional lightweight campers and users such as Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants, this Vango stove is a good budget choice.
Performance 33/40 Controllability 15/20 Features 12/20 Quality 5/10 Value for money 8/10 Total score: 73/100
In the end, it was impossible to separate the two upright heat-exchanger models. The MSR showed its pedigree from the brand that has established itself as a quality name. Its design pipped the Primus, but the Swedish company’s stove was more controllable and had a couple of useful features.
Snapping at their heels was the tiny Edelrid, which takes up virtually no room in your rucksack and packed a powerful punch, but of course you’ll need to provide a cooking pot with it.
The Vango stove offered great value and a performance that will be a perfect match for those not too troubled about keeping weight to a minimum and who want a no-frills little stove at camp.
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