Heavy duty compact stove, simple and strong burning. Loud.

By Austin H. October 27, 2008

Used this stove to do some mid altitude camping and coffee creation down in the Moab area. Stable design that accomodates a medium / large pot and supplied simple sheet metal windscreen does what its supposed to.
Easty to start up, the fuel line / bottle interface are simple to arrange and attach. Everything felt secure and tight. This stove is heavy duty and HEAVY. I wouldn't suggest carrying this as your summer packing stove. As a solution for winter melting of snow (its efficient!) or getting a large pot HOT for frying / cooking I'm a huge fan.
Utilized white gas and low octane gas pump automobile gasoline (not suggested for regular use due to corrosion). White gas was clean and hot, auto gas was about the same but took longer to boil or heat a pan. The fuel flexibility of this stove is a massive selling point.
One downside: This stove is loud, really loud. Loud enough to instill confidence that its burning HOT but if you're around anyone else or trying to keep things quiet in a campground this isn't your stove. Everytime I fire it up I'm happy to turn it off to give the ears a rest. In comparison I've used a number of Jetboil, MSR multi-fuel and canister stoves that were half or 2/3rds the volume. Ultimately this shouldn't stop you from buying the stove if all of the above fits your need, just be ready to make some adjustments for volume.
No simmer, the heat is wide open all the time. Shaker jet cleaning is genius and worth the few extra pennies of a stove that doesn't have this.

View Details: MSR XGK EX Multi-Fuel Stove

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