I've used the whisperlite on numerous occasions and it will always be a good white gas stove for its price, but I've had too many experiences where it just crapped out on me. If you are willing to spend a little extra money I'd say get this one. What won me over was that you can practically use any type of fuel with this stove, which is important to me since I travel abroad often. This is my second summer using it and I've never had a problem with this stove. Its really easy to put together and prime, very user friends. All my friends who are used to the whisperlite are always suprised and impressed with the nova. I really like the on/off feature where you just lie the bottle from one side to the other, allowing or blocking fuel from entering the hose. My stove has never broke on me yet and in the the summer I use it every weekend.

As in "FIRE"! This one won't quit. I take it everywhere. On a winter trip with temps hovering around the -2 degree mark, I was melting snow in about 2 minutes while my friends were still priming their stoves. On a trek last summer, in an area that resembled a scene from the movie Deliverance, I stopped in at a Maw and Paw shop looking to replenish my fuel supply. No Coleman fuel, no kero, and no siphon tube for Paw's ol' pickup truck. They did have Tiki Torch fuel, and it worked! I am sold. You'll be also.

I've had this stove now for about 3 years. Its worked in all kinds of Alaskan and Yukon conditions including lots of below zero deg F camping trips.
On a -15 deg F morning the thing could only pump out a lukewarm cup of coffee and a half liter of water. So when it warmed up I took the thing apart and removed a "wax" plug. I used the magnetic cleaning tool. The thing works like a champ now. If you are going to break you otta be easy to fix. And this stove is just that.
Great stove.

Great stove. Simmers good. Solid construction. Dependable design. Makes some noise while running, but that's good...you know its still running when using it in daylight. slightly awkward to pack down. Solid stove to use for hardcore backpacking/winter camping. Solid, stable base. You really don't get better than this with a white gas stove.

I recommend the nova over the nova +. The design of the Nova + is only different in that the whole fuel line rotates to control flow. In my opinion, you can't properly control the fuel valve with the fuel line flopping around, and can't get enough torque when you shut off the stove with the fuel valve from the previous run.

This is simply the finest stove I have ever seen or used. This stove is built like a rock! It also has lit on the first try for me every single time using white gas. I am interested to see if that holds true with other fuels. Water boils quite rapidly, and you really can achieve a true simmer. The granularity of control over the amount of heat output far surpased what I expected! The stuff sack is excellent and the stove packs down small. The self purging of the fuel line along with the fact that the fuel pump is solid aluminum, not plastic justifies the cost in my opinion. I would not hesitate to recommend this stove to anyone and consider it more than worth the price.

This is a good stove. Well built, and easy to use. If you get good enough at it, you can flip the fuel bottle over and it will bleed itself and go out when you are done. No bleeding of the fuel line... One of my buddies was trying to figure out how to rig up his MSR to do this. It is nice compact and easy to use. You can't go wrong with this optimus