MSR WindPro II Stove

I got my WP2 stove a couple of months ago from a local retailer. It will never replace a white gas stove in very cold weather, but with MSR or Snowpeak fuel canisters it will work at 27deg. or a little less. Coleman canisters are only good above 50 deg. If you like to cook meals on the trail, this is just about the best stove out there.

I purchased this stove from a competitor simply because it was out of stock and have been impressed with it so far. It's an improved version of the windpro with a longer fuel line and a swivel that allows it to run with the canister inverted in a liquid feed mode. Supposedly this helps with cold weather performance. I ran it against my other MSR stoves to try to get a comparison of cold weather performance before i take it out with the scouts in the snow. I put each stove and fuel bottle in the freezer (0F) for 2 hours and timed the boil on a full nalgene of cold tap water in a 1.8liter GSI pinnacle dualist pot
wind pro 2 8:50
whisperlite international 3:45
dragonfly 4:50
pocket rocket 11 minutes
Of course the white gas stoves were by far the fastest but i was still impressed with the butane canisters. The liquid feed mode of the WP2 seemed to make a significant difference with a cold canister and the flame was noticeably stronger once inverted. I expected the dragonfly to do better compared to the whisperlite but i suspect its simply a matter of more effective flame dispersion over the narrow pot being used and the pot being closer to the flame on the whisperlite. Results may be different with the MSR alpine set.

For the weight and packability advantage as well as ease of use I'll be trying out the windpro 2 in colder weather this year. Certainly not the best winter stove i own but it's peaked my interest for sure.

Great stuff from MSR. I know they have their detractors but i've had nothing but good luck with all of their products and the WP2 looks to be no exception.