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Reviews > Cook Gear > Stoves > MSR Whisperlite Internationale > Owner Review by Kathryn DoironOwner Review - MSR WhisperLite Internationale 600 StoveSeptember 17, 2004 Personal Information: Name: Kathryn Doiron Age: 28 Gender: Female Height: 1.7 m (5' 8") Weight: 77 kg (170 lb) Email: kdoiron 'at' gmail 'dot' com Location: Providence, Rhode Island, USA Brief Background: I started backpacking and hiking seriously almost three years ago. Most of my miles have been logged in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. I have recently been looking at Vermont and the Long Trail as a new source of miles. My style is to be as light as possible while not spending a fortune. My pack weight tends to hover around 30lbs. I discovered the Hennessy Hammock last year and have been using it as a two person hammock. I recently had the chance to use it solo and was quite pleased but a little cold. Product Information from MSR Website: " The WhisperLite Internationale combines the reliability and durability of the WhisperLite with multi-fuel burning capabilities, making it the ideal stove for globetrotting backpackers.
Testing Locations: Several trips into the White Mountains region of New Hampshire, car camping in southwestern Massachusetts, and into the Green Mountains of Vermont. The stove was tested in the kitchen to see how it compared to the manufacturer's listed boil time. The timer was stopped at full rolling boil which coincided with 100 C (212 F). I cannot explain the discrepencies in boil times. I had the stove primed and burning before I put the water on and turned the timer on. Description: The stove is very compact when folded down. The legs loop back up to the top to form the pot base. Since the heating element of the stove lies in a plane perpendicular to the legs, when folded up it makes a somewhat flat yet still bulky bundle. The fuel line hooks into a hole in the stem of the stove. The reflector is a circular piece of metal with a hole in the middle in which to place the stove. It folds into quarters. The windshield is a long rectangular piece of aluminum foil with a wedge removed from two corners for the fuel line to pass out from. It folds down into a 10 x 14 cm (4 x 5.5 inch) flat piece of metal. Since I rarely, if ever, use the windshield, I cannot tell at this time if folding will be detrimental. The windshield was in a folded state when I purchased it and thus I left it that way. The pump ensemble has a hole in which to insert the fuel line, a pump handle on the top and an on/off dial for controlling the fuel flow. Review: This stove was purchased during an REI garage sale due to a suspected defect, which I will talk about shortly. Based on the advise of a good friend, I bought the stove and tested on a car camping trip. After learning how to use it, it has since been used on many trips. The reflector was difficult to install onto the stove and was ripped a little in the process of opening the stove legs. The windshield was easier to install around the assembled stove once two additional folds were added to the ends to encourage them to stay together. After reading the directions several times and following the direction of said friend who had used this type of stove before, I was able to light the stove. The lighting was not without some excitement. The defect mentioned earlier was one of the stove shooting out flames deeming it dangerous to the previous owner. In reality, what happened was that the stove had been over primed with fuel. I inadvertently over-primed the stove and so, I too, had flames shooting out. Lighting the stove is a bit of an art rather than a science. First, the bottle needs to be pumped up. Secondly, the stove needs to be assembled and the fuel line installed into the bottle. Thirdly, the fuel is turned on until a hissing is heard, then it must be turned off immediately or the stove will be over-primed. Finally, the priming cup is lit. This is when orange flames can shoot out quite spectacularly if I over prime. When the flames have almost died down and have changed from orange to blue, they will move from the priming cup to the burner on top. That is the time to slowly open the gas valve on the stove. This stove has been used to boil water for oatmeal and coffee to frying sausage and boiling rice on for supper. In my opinion, it is small enough for my purposes. It fits quite nicely into the small inner pot of my GSI cook set, except for the windshield. I could fit the windshield if I felt like folding it down more. It is generally used for two person cooking and so I find it nice that the pot base is stable holding a large 1.4L (1.5 qt) pot. I tend to try to be the gourmet cook on the trail and bring real rice. After soaking it all day, it will still take about 10 minutes to cook at a hard boil. The stove handles this quite nicely even when lots of stirring is involved. The burner is surrounded by metal onto which the legs and pot stand rest against. As such, I have found that this makes the stove hard to use (if not impossible to use) with a pot or cup smaller in diameter than the burner. I have used my camp cup on the stove once and the cup barely fit and had to be closely watched.
The stove has been easy to set up and use, even in the dark, when it
was raining with a flashlight in one hand. I have never had a chance
to use it in sub-freezing temperatures, and cannot comment on how it
would handle with gloves on. The tripod nature of this stove makes it
easy to set up on rough ground, and even once when off trail camping
was required, with shrubbery around. While a stove base is not needed
to aid stability, I do like using one. Since the reflector has only
continued to rip, to the point of being unusable, I find myself using
the stove without it. Generally, all my campsites have been in the
woods, where there is no real demand for the windshield.
Dislikes:
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