Well today I was able to do some testing and take some images of the new Kovea Spider and MSR Whisperlite International side by side. Unfortunately I was unable to do a boil test as I had no fuel for the MSR when I went to the cupboard so will have to add that later. I just used normal tap water doing the test in my workshop on the work table with all doors closed so no draft at all.
Just having the two units in there supplied bags side by side is funny because MSR does supply allot more bag product than needed while the Kovea only just fits the stove inside they didn't want to shell out a penny more.
As you can tell there is a big size difference but allot of that bulk is taken up with the MSR's rim detent which houses the burner head. One nice feature of the Kovea is the long and supple braided hose makes for placing a canister and keeping it there easy. The MSR braided hose is thicker allot stiffer and as you can see is allot shorter. Now having said all that your comparing apples to oranges unless you have used both. The MSR uses a bottle with pump which means it doesn't matter how you place the bottle it just lays on the ground. If you could hook up a canister to the MSR the hose being so short and stiff there would be no way in hell of keeping that canister where you want it either the canister would flip the stove or stove flip the canister. The Kovea braided hose is long and supple so where you plonk the canister both the stove and canister stays put.
The footprint of the MSR is bigger by about 25mm so not much in it but for me personally I prefer the larger footprint and all up the leg system on the MSR is allot stiffer more solid very little flex. I think over time using the Kovea those little insecurities will vanish but for me not the smaller footprint.
While I was at it I also purchased the Kovea adaptor that allows me to use the portable gas stoves canisters that I have come to know lurk in just about any outback dive I have come across as backup. Pleased to say it's easy to use with a smooth locking action and best of all no leakage so all good on that front.
First of all I hooked it up to the home portable gas canister using the adaptor and below image it's fired up at full revs no issues there. The Kovea is allot more quieter than the MSR at full bore which doesn't bother me but it's nice that it is.
This image is on simmer using the above canister so all up it really has good control and the gas flow adjuster is smooth to operate and that is better than the MSR. You have to be careful when adjusting the flow on the MSR it's not as smooth to operate and being a short hose plus stiff you don't want to knock the thing it pulls your stove with the meal on top so you do need to be a little careful.
Now I switched over to the normal Butane canister most would be traveling with and again no issues top image at full bore and the bottom image on simmer you can see a slightly different flame a deeper blue/purple compared to the home stove gas canister.
As an extra bonus Kovea include a piezo Igniter with the stove which also fits in that tiny bag along with the stove you can see it laying in the images above at the start. Now I have read many have trouble lighting the stove using it and to some degree I would agree it's not the best or most fool proof. However the best way I found to ignite the stove using the supplied piezo Igniter is turn on the gas half a turn and hold the piezo as I did in the image below following the contour of the burner head touching it. 7 times out of ten it fired up but if you just turn the gas on and willy-nilly hit the button on the igniter near the burner head it was tough to get it ignited. I personally hate the things and to be honest very hard to light a fire using one so why bother carrying it.
This is my preferred method a fire starter flint and using it the stove kicked into life first time every time so that piezo is junk. MSR has a piezo igniter I have never used it so can't comment but both brands look identical to each other.
Kovea Piezo Igniter
MSR Piezo Igniter
Well my test is done in my favourite mug filled with tap water 1 inch below the rim using the butane canister most touring folks would use. During that test I ensured the mug had a cold start when I refilled it both times by running the mug under water to try and get even temperature and ignited the stove when the mug was sitting on top.
Hit rolling boil in 4 minutes 37 seconds on full bore.
Hit rolling boil in 7 minutes 17 seconds on half throttle.
The amount of water in the mug 1 inch from the rim was 500mls
The two types of canisters I used and the canister on the left in the image did the boil tests.
MSR Whisperlite International bag weights 29g and the stove 280g.
Kovea Spider bag weights 10g and the stove 171g.
Pushing down on the centre of the burner head both stoves there legs splay a little but the area that your cooking pot sits the MSR doesn't move where as the Kovea bend in and downwards causing pot shifting but who would ever do that to upset your hot pot. I did it just to see which was more solid and MSR is.
I really like my MSR it has been in and through some of the most rugged and hostile terrain along with weather conditions and never has it let me down. Preheating is messy you need to be careful not to spill fuel and the preheat does leave soot over your stove as you can see in the images which when handling transfer to me but living rough not an issue. It requires maintenance kits and from time to time a clean out of the fuel line to obtain maximum heat from the burner head this goes for the pump as well. Run out of your favourite fuel that is clean and not oily you need to change the jets to switch over to other fuels which are easy to come by even in remote locations. Using the fuels that have oil content in them does become smelly but if you use the cleaner fuels there ok on the nose. If you plan to do a long tour your going to have to lug those maintenance kits with you even if you break them down from there supplied plastic box to condense them. Yeah ok replace the parts before you go on tour but that doesn't help you in the field if a brand new "O" ring goes and you don't have spares so what I'm getting at is with MSR your carrying a little extra weight and space is being consumed. The Kovea on the other had at this stage appears to be maintenance free butane gas is clean and not messy I haven't got down and dirty to strip the Kovea down yet to see the inner workings but just looking doesn't appear to need anything to keep it running in the repair stakes.
Taking the MSR above the snow line isn't an issue it burns well and maintains good flame control doesn't matter how you leave your bottle so long at the fuel pump weight is submerged in the liquid in the fuel bottle.
Now having said that the Kovea is also designed to go above the snow line by simply inverting your canister and it can rest on the somewhat small platform that connects to the canister and has the fuel flow control. Find what ever you can to help support it or buy a proper inverted canister holder.
In order to get the home stove gas canister to work best from not being stood upright it has to lay down in this configuration as show in the image otherwise your going to flame out but more on that later.
Now this is interesting because Kovea carry on that you can flip your canister for cold weather use but testing today I found flipping the canister over gave poor performance. The burner head flame splutters it doesn't respond well to flame control and if you go to simmer mode your going to flame out. Lets be honest you can't get simmer mode turning the control down to gain simmer it flames out and to keep a working flame it requires to much gas and in effect you can't simmer not to mention all the spluttering. My stove doesn't have control flipping the canister it's erratic spluttering flame and while on high it splutters you at least can get something to boil but try cocking on it your going to have burnt offerings if you don't keep your eyes on it. Just out of interest the home stove gas canister displayed the same behaviour when flipped upside down or laid in any other position. It still spluttered even in the sweat spot of side placement as seen in the image above and those cans are designed to fit a home stove like that. Place both canister upright and you gain back a beautiful working controllable stove.
Do I have a problem stove?
Ron any chance you can flip and test yours?
The above problem aside from canister flipping I'm impressed with the workshop results and I have no fear this stove will be just as robust and serve me well in all conditions but I'm going to have to investigate the extreme cold weather elevation side of things before I become 100% happy.
Once I get some fuel I will do a comparison on boil times for the MSR and come back here with the results.
Ricky
