I'm not the biggest fan of IsoButane canister stoves, but they have a place. To me their only strength is their lightweight design. In the kind of environments I frequent, liquid fuel stoves have proven to be much better. I've generally slagged canister stoves on this forum b/c I've found my WindPro to be pathetic. Once when testing the old WindPro at 5000' in January, it took 45 mins to make [and boil] 2 litres from snow.
Funny story: I have always loved my MSR WindPro, but found it to be slooooooow. I had nothing to judge it against, this was my first experience with canister stoves. The flame looked fine to me, I just thought canister stoves were slower. 2 weeks ago, while deep in the backcountry of North Cascades NP, I decided to bring the WindPro instead of my XGK-EX b/c there would be lots of running water next to glaciers/snowfields and warmer weather. In a party of three, we also had an MSR Pocket Rocket. Very early on, it became apparent that the Pocket Rocket was literally smoking the WindPro [which shouldn't be the case]. When you're chatting with your buds over dinner and single malt, you lose track of boiling times etc. but both my friends flat-out said: there's something-up with that stove.
So, come Monday morning, I poured 1 litre of water into an MSR pot and placed it on the WindPro with a 3/4 full canister. It took 11:57 to boil a litre!!! Yup, something very wrong with that stove. MSR confirmed that it was indeed waaay out of "spec" and so I returned it to the place I bought it from, ponied-up a bit more cash [price had changed with the new WindPro] and was handed a new WindPro [with the swivel valve]. I calculated that the new stove was 58% faster. Still much slower than the XGK-EX, but much improved over the old one! I still prefer liquid fuel stoves generally, but this new WindPro has definitely changed my opinion some. The new swivel valve gives you better cold weather performance and you can grab every last bit of fuel in those canisters.
Moral of this story: if you pay good money for gear with great warranties, make sure it performs as it should. Not sure why I didn't deal with this before as I usually make avail of good warranties if a product falls short.
Funny story: I have always loved my MSR WindPro, but found it to be slooooooow. I had nothing to judge it against, this was my first experience with canister stoves. The flame looked fine to me, I just thought canister stoves were slower. 2 weeks ago, while deep in the backcountry of North Cascades NP, I decided to bring the WindPro instead of my XGK-EX b/c there would be lots of running water next to glaciers/snowfields and warmer weather. In a party of three, we also had an MSR Pocket Rocket. Very early on, it became apparent that the Pocket Rocket was literally smoking the WindPro [which shouldn't be the case]. When you're chatting with your buds over dinner and single malt, you lose track of boiling times etc. but both my friends flat-out said: there's something-up with that stove.
So, come Monday morning, I poured 1 litre of water into an MSR pot and placed it on the WindPro with a 3/4 full canister. It took 11:57 to boil a litre!!! Yup, something very wrong with that stove. MSR confirmed that it was indeed waaay out of "spec" and so I returned it to the place I bought it from, ponied-up a bit more cash [price had changed with the new WindPro] and was handed a new WindPro [with the swivel valve]. I calculated that the new stove was 58% faster. Still much slower than the XGK-EX, but much improved over the old one! I still prefer liquid fuel stoves generally, but this new WindPro has definitely changed my opinion some. The new swivel valve gives you better cold weather performance and you can grab every last bit of fuel in those canisters.
Moral of this story: if you pay good money for gear with great warranties, make sure it performs as it should. Not sure why I didn't deal with this before as I usually make avail of good warranties if a product falls short.
Last edited:
Titan 2 is the same pot I use as well
