The high heat, snow melting champion

By Andrew McLean Ranked #4 - Liquid Fuel Stoves May 20, 2009

I reserve the 5 star rating for exceptional items, and this is one of them. There are better fun & family camping stoves, but if you are looking to melt snow and boil water for hours on end at higher elevations, the XGK is the workhorse of choice.

Like most camp stoves, the XGK can malfunction, but it is also very simple to clean and repair if you have the maintenance kit. I've found that the #1 thing that breaks is the gasket on the pump.

The big complaints on this stove are that it is noisy and doesn't simmer. To me, the noise is a small price to pay for reliability, and simmering can be controlled through pump pressure. If you want to brown pancakes, unscrew the pump from the bottle, let all the tank pressure out, then only give it a few strokes (five?) and start from there.

I use this stove as part of an entire system, of which further details can be found here:

http://straightchuter.com/2009/05/expeditions-stove-set-up/

View Details: MSR XGK EX Multi-Fuel Stove

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