Great stove- crappy plastic pump

By: Jason Livingston February 2, 2012

Fortunately it isn't the same plastic pump. About 4 years ago Cascade Designs re-designed the pump (badly in need of an update) with all new materials and inovative durability. Instead of an ABS-type plastic of the old pumps, the new pump now is constructed of fiber-reinforced composite material that is much lighter than metal and just as durable. We looked at every material, tested every material, put each material through torture test both in the lab and the real world. We found that the material used for the current MSR pump consistently performed the best, was lighter, and was the most reliable in extreme conditions. If you compare metal pumps from other manufacturers to the current MSR pump, you would immediately notice the weight difference first. After use, you would discover that it doesn't bind like metal does and how much smoother the pump action is. After several years of use (if you've avoided melting it as a result of human error) you would notice that it's still going strong. Again, melting is the only real disadvantage over metal pumps. If you have a Whisperlite International with an old pump, I would highly recommend updating the pump with a new one.

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