View Full Version : MSR Whisperlite
ATAlbatross
04-15-2009, 22:34
So I recently just picked up the MSR Whisperlite stove which I hear is a great buy. With that being said and having not put it to the test yet, which gas works the best with these stoves, and what size fuel canister would one recommend having for hiking the AT. Considering the availability of refueling and the accessibility of refueling is a concern I have for the hike I am planning. Any information would be appreciated, thank you.
Everyone is different, so what I would recommend is cooking a few typical meals in it and seeing how much you use. I wish I could be more specific but I've only used the whisperlite on trips with 5+ people, and we brought way too much fuel because we were canoeing.
Oh sorry I forgot to add, we used white gas. But like I said we were canoeing so weight wasn't much of an issue.
I took a Whisperlite International on my thru. Used Coleman fuel/white gas and almost never had a problem finding it. I took a 22 oz. fuel bottle but an 11 oz. would have been OK. I don't drink coffee, usually cooked dinner, and boiled water for oatmeal breakfast about half the time. Hope this helps.
--Jack Frost
as already mentioned, the 22 oz capacity fuel canister is plenty, don't get the 33 (that must be for groups). Myself, I love the whisperlite. It lights on que every time and burns nice and hot. Ol reliable! Boils water quick!
David
White gas and the 22oz bottle.
I'll usually boil a couple of cups water in the AM for breakfast and tea, and the cook in the PM (plus the tea of course). The 22oz of fuel would last probably about 10-12 days.
Toolshed
04-18-2009, 09:43
I carried a whisperlite for many years. In the winter I carried a 22 Oz. for safety reasons. In 3-season, I experimented over the years and found I could go easily for 8-9 days with an 11 oz bottle and use it twice a day if I was careful to turn it off right after boiling and using a cozy to keep water hot. I usually boiled a 2-quart pot in the AM and PM. AM - for 2 Cups of coffe, oatmeal and leftover washing water and PM for Soup, Dinner and leftover wash water.
After switching to an alcohol stove in 99-200, I realized the full pot of hot water was a luxury.
Blissful
04-18-2009, 20:55
Many love it, some like me grew to hate it because of maintenace and stuff breaking on it (I had one for many years also). I would definitely take the care kit for it. Hope it works out for you.
Me - love my MSR pocket rocket. :)
Rocketman
04-19-2009, 11:42
The Whisperlite stove used to be the standard "old reliable" on the AT, but in the last decade, butane canister and alcohol stoves have become quite popular.
You won't have trouble finding fuel by the ounce at hostels, outfitters and a few other places.
You can learn how to make the Whisperlite actually simmer, and it does so with a nice quiet sound. The trick is to 1) not have a really full fuel tank (mostly empty) and 2) not pressurize it or pump it a lot on startup. This low pressure lets a low flame be nicely generated. However, the low pressure also means that it won't take too long before the pressure begins to be too low and fuel delivery drops. That is when you "tend" the stove by just putting in one or two pumps of air to keep the nice low flame going, without developing that roaring hearty flame.
The low fuel content means that there is more air to pressurize, and the pressure drop per minute of burning is correspondingly less.
It is best to practice this at home and it shouldn't take more than ten minutes to get this figures out..... LOW Fuel Level in Tank (lots of air) and LOW pressure in the Tank.
However, if you are just doing "boil, pour over dried food, wait and eat" cooking, then you will find the simmer capability not very useful to you.
TrippinBTM
04-19-2009, 13:40
I took a Whisperlite International on my thru. Used Coleman fuel/white gas and almost never had a problem finding it. I took a 22 oz. fuel bottle but an 11 oz. would have been OK. I don't drink coffee, usually cooked dinner, and boiled water for oatmeal breakfast about half the time. Hope this helps.
--Jack Frost
Me too. Actually started out with a MSR Dragonfly. Noisy as hell but I liked it, could simmer pretty well with it. But I'd found a pocket rocket in a hiker box, and someone else wanted it and traded his Whisperlite for it. Mabe a bad trade, but whatever. I'm into alcohol and wood stoves now, so it all works out.
The Whisperlite was easier to light than the Dragonfly, and quieter too (still loud tho, compared to everyone else's alcohol stoves and jetboils). Didn't simmer as well, despite it being supposedly able to. I had to have the valve almost completely shut to get the flame down to any sort of simmer, otherwise it was a solid boil. Sometimes I'd have to just turn it off and let it burn any residual fuel for a few seconds, then turn it on again, then off again... Maybe it was over-pressurized, as someone in this thread mentioned. (But having to have low fuel to simmer is a bad tradeoff, right? It means you're almost out of fuel!)
The 22oz bottle was a luxury, because you'd always have enough fuel between towns. I think I only got dangerously low a few times, and that was usually because I'd chosen not to "top off the tank" at the previous opportunity. Although it seems less people are using the white gas stoves, fuel is still easy to find out there.
You'll get pretty judicious with your fuel use. You know you have to prime the stove to light it; letting out "a teaspoon" of fuel to light before opening up the valve, to heat it up. Well, you'll learn how much you need, and don't use more. If it's too little, just open the valve again to let a little more out, and repeat lighting. Ok, it's a little slower, but it still works. I saw this one girl just letting it pour all over, she'd have a little bonfire in her stove, plus the table sometimes. Don't be that girl. ;)
Toolshed
04-19-2009, 13:52
...I saw this one girl just letting it pour all over, she'd have a little bonfire in her stove, plus the table sometimes. Don't be that girl. ;)
.....LOL. I have seen folks that seem to think you need a quarter cup of fuel to prime these things - Always interesting to sit and watch the ball of flames.
My rule of thumb has always been to open the fuel valve very slightly and as soon as I hear the slight hiss of fuel coming out, close the valve quickly. There is usually enough there to prime if you have less than a mm deep in the cup.
Hikes in Rain
04-19-2009, 14:31
I switched to a little bottle of alcohol for priming. Leaves much less soot behind after priming, and for me, at least, is easier to control the depth of priming fuel so the fireball is more manageable.
Practice using it home first.
Better to learn the quirks of the stove at home than...oh say, on a wet, cold, drizzly day on Mt. Greylock in early May when you and your buddy were looking forward to hot coffee but you used up too much fuel from not using the stove correctly the previous two days.
Not that I know anyone like that... ;)
FWIW, I used an 11oz bottle when I used this stove. I still break it out once in a while (esp when I used to winter camp more).
TrippinBTM
04-19-2009, 20:58
I switched to a little bottle of alcohol for priming. Leaves much less soot behind after priming, and for me, at least, is easier to control the depth of priming fuel so the fireball is more manageable.
Good idea, the soot was a problem; but then you have to carry alcohol in addition. Goes against my philosophy of KISS (keep it simple, stupid).
I switched to a little bottle of alcohol for priming. Leaves much less soot behind after priming, and for me, at least, is easier to control the depth of priming fuel so the fireball is more manageable.
Alcohol primes more cleanly than the white gas, too. It's not as hot burning so you'll need more of it. Gelled alcohol works, too (scoop some out of a Sterno can or similar). In warm weather, Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol should work and can be used to treat cuts and scrapes as well.