Reviewer Information

• Name: Cora Hussey
• Age: 23
• Gender: Female
• Height: 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
• Weight: 150 lb (70 kg)
• Email address: cahhmc "at" yahoo "dot" com
• Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
• Date: May 7, 2004

Basic Product Information

• Manufacturer: Mountain Safety Research (MSR) Corp.
• Year of Manufacture: 1997
• URL: http://www.msrcorp.com/
• Listed weight: 11 oz (305 g) minimum, 14.5 oz (410 g) packaged
• Weight after use in this review:
  • Stove: 9.1 oz (258 g)
  • Pump: 1.8 oz (51 g)
  • Repair kit (cup lube, tool, gaskets): 0.7 oz (20 g)
  • Stuff sack: 1.0 oz (28 g)
  • Windscreen: 1.6 oz (45 g)
  • Heat reflector: 0.6 oz (17 g)
  • Total: 14.8 oz (420 g)
  • Only the stove and pump are needed to operate the stove

Product Description and Field Experience

Priming and Cooking

Using the Whisperlite is quite easy. First, one inserts and attaches (screws on) the pump to a bottle of white gas, and then some finite number of pumps (10-40 depending on fuel level and weather) are applied to create pressure. The end of the fuel line on the stove can then be lubed with some spit or nose grease (to prevent cracking of the insertion housing, which has happened to me once), and inserted into the pump.

Then comes priming. The Whisperlite is designed so that the fuel comes out of the jet in a spray (turbulent) form, and this is achieved by heating the jet up by priming it. Priming on the Whisperlite takes anywhere from about 30 seconds to three minutes, and is achieved by putting fuel in the priming cup, lighting the fuel, and waiting for the jet to heat up. More fuel and more time is needed the colder it is, and in very cold weather I have found that I need to add more fuel in the middle of priming because the priming cup is not large enough to hold fuel adequate to heat the jet up. After this, it is simply a matter of finesse to start the flow of fuel out of the jet before the flame goes out. The lack of finesse on my part has, over various incidents, resulted in my trying to light the fuel from a gaseous state, and this resulted in the loss of hair on my left hand, hair on my right arm, and one eyebrow (though thankfully not all at once). These humorous incidents have mostly been due to my own laziness, haste, and/or stupidity. Yet it should demonstrate that (for people like me), lighting a Whisperlite is not something that can be casually done. Humor aside however, when cleaned and properly maintained, my Whisperlite has always been extremely dependable about priming, lighting, and performing.

There has been an ongoing joke in various outdoor communities that the Whisperlite has only two settings: scorch and off. In my experience, this certainly has its foundation in truth. For boiling water or melting snow, the Whisperlite is great. For cooking anything more complicated than pasta (and even for some pastas) I carry an additional scorch-busting-plate which looks somewhat like a large tuna can lid and which distributes the heat evenly. The amount of fuel available to the flame (and thus the amount of heat) on the Whisperlite can be adjusted using a knob on the pump. The low settings on the knob work only somewhat well and only with a lot of effort - more often than not the flame just does not have a constant enough stream of fuel and the stove goes out.

The stove is also somewhat difficult to level and balance pots on. This is perhaps my least favorite part of the stove itself. The slippery wire pot supports launch pots off the side without the least notice on anything less than even ground. In addition, the skinny wire legs sink into anything less compact than hard wet duff. This means getting pots to balance and stay that way on small scree, loose dirt, or sand is nothing short of a full-time job.

Overall, the Whisperlite cooks very quickly. Most commercial white gas stoves have been about the same in heat output in my experience, as I have found the major determining factor in cooking time to be weather and conditions rather than what stove is being used. However, it is really only reasonable for me to cook for a maximum of four people on the Whisperlite. Taller pots tend to place most of the water away from the heat, and it takes much longer to boil. Also, the only times I have ever been frustrated with cooking times on the Whisperlite have been when I forgot the heat reflector or windshield. They make a big difference.

Construction

I consider the construction of the Whisperlite to be one of its strong points. The construction of the stove itself is very simple. From the bottom up is the priming cup, then the jet assembly inside the main central tube, then the three legs and pot supports, and finally the main top burner assembly. The jet feed loops up in a tube around the burner assembly (for heating fuel as it comes in) and runs out to the fuel line, which has a wire wick in it. Here is a picture of the stove with the legs spread out and set up:

Here is a close up of the burner assembly. The assembly has seven rings (wavy - flat - wavy - flat - wavy - flat - wavy) and a cap holding all the rings down. The cap is held on by a single screw. There are small tabs that hold the rings flush together. You can see the jet feeding tube running up and near the burner on the left, and the priming cup down near the bottom:

Here is the stove with the jet disassembled. The main body is at the top, with the burner assembly (not disassembled) facing toward the camera. Then the three legs have been slid off of the burner assembly stem and placed below it. Below the legs is the priming cup. At the bottom is the fuel line and jet feed component. On the left is the portion which would be inserted into the pump, with a cubic metal stopper and a wire holder. On the right is the jet itself, which normally sits inside the main stem. The jet has been unscrewed from the feed line, and the shaker pin removed and displayed between the feed line and jet piece. All in all, the jet is very simple:

Likewise, the pump is also simple. It has two short tubes for feeding the fuel line. The red top is the plunger which one pumps to create pressure in the fuel can. The silver knob on the left is the dial which allows more or less fuel to run out of the pump. The screw threads which attach to the fuel bottle are below the red rim below the knob. For use, the fuel line would be inserted on the opposite side into an obvious hole (not shown here). The notch on the bulb on the right (opposite the silver knob) is where the holder wire rests to prevent the fuel line from coming out of the pump while in use:

Here are the details of the pump. The silver knob simply has an O-ring inside of it, and the gold-colored bolt that holds it on can be easily unscrewed using the tool. I did not disassemble it because my O-ring is getting old and crotchety. The plunger has been taken out, and the pressurizing leather pump cup can be seen on the end of it. In addition, the pressurizing housing at the very bottom tail of the pump has been taken apart. It consists of a small ball and spring which alternately seal and allow pressure to be added:

Fuel Usage

As with any stove, fuel usage varies greatly. On one extreme, I have gotten away with ten ounces (300 ml) of fuel for five nights of simply boiling water and going solo in the summer. On the other extreme, in full winter with high exertion (i.e. high water demanding) activity, I go through a liter (34 oz) a day for food and snow melting for three or four people.

The conservative fuel estimates for how much the Whisperlite uses (i.e. I've run out only twice using these) which I developed from experience follow. Fuel estimates are always hard because person days are not always equivalent for larger groups. I've found they work for the Whisperlite for single people, for pairs, and for three person groups. But I've also found that four person groups using one stove use just about as much as three person groups. So, this would be overkill for four people. Also, note that these estimates are for using the heat shield around the legs, and a tightly wrapped windshield.

• Two ounces (60 ml) per person day for just dinner and maybe some hot tea for breakfast
• Four ounces (120 ml) per person day for cooking breakfast, dinner, and some hot water for lunches,
• Eight ounces (240 ml) per person day for cooking most meals (as above) and melting snow
• Ten ounces (300 ml) per person day for huge meals, and huge snow melting demands. I've only ever been on two trips where the Whisperlite used this much fuel.

Maintenance

On one hand the Whisperlite is a finicky stove, but on the other hand I have found it is relatively easy to maintain. Unfortunately, I have found that the included instructions are woefully incomplete in describing problems and general troubleshooting. There are a few problems that I have had over and over, and I will describe them here. Generally, I have solved most problems by taking the stove apart, cleaning with rubbing alcohol swabs or white gas, and reassembling.

An interesting note is that I have never had a fuel line clog, although there seems to be a great deal of fuss made in the instruction booklet on how to clean the fuel line. I also maintain the fleet of Whisperlites that my outdoor program uses and abuses in the field, and none of them have had clogged fuel lines either. However, this probably has something to do with me mostly using clean fuel and generally giving the stoves a good overhaul once every year or so.

Ineffective Pump: Other than the two pumps I've had that cracked (which I could do nothing about -- one cracked where the fuel line gets inserted, and the other cracked in the housing which holds the plunger) pretty much the only problem I've run into is that the pressurizing cup dries out. The cup needs lubrication to create a seal inside the pressurizing tube, and when dry the pump cannot create that pressure. I have solved it by spitting on the cup, and lubing the cup with the provided lube about twice a year.

Flame spurting from jet base: Interestingly enough, the instructions do not even mention this as a problem, but I've had to deal with it a number of times with many Whisperlites. The main cause of this is that, once unscrewed for maintenance, the jet is very hard to re-tighten properly. After this, the jet tends to loosen over time when packed and generally abused. Then, flame shoots out from the base quickly and repeatedly and generally makes the stove ineffective. For this, the threads where the jet screws on need to be cleaned and then the jet needs to be well tightened.

Clogged jet: By far and large, this is the Whisperlite's biggest problem. The advertised Shaker Jet works only moderately well. The wire at the end of the shaking pin piece tends to bend, and it is expensive to pay for a full repair kit for a replacement. But, when not gummed up and not bent, I have found it easy to simply turn the stove over (even when lit), shake, and get noticeable improvement. However, after the first year (which provided time for junk to collect) this easy method only works about half the time. The other half of the time I need to dissemble the jet completely, clean out the jet and the pin, and reassemble. The main pain about this is that both the jet and the shaker pin are very small and easy to lose.

In addition to these items, one thing that has annoyed me to no end is that the tool in the repair kit does not fit the screw which holds the burner rings down. I cannot conceive of any reason why this should be. Without the tool, I have learned to still be able to fiddle everything back into place and hand-tighten it, (or better yet to only maintain the stove at home), but every so often that screw comes loose and I need to find some other screwdriver or resort to fiddling.

Field Testing Details

I have used a Whisperlite on nearly every trip I've been on. It has seen heat above 100 F (38 C) and cold below -25 F (-32 C). Wind, rain, snow -- it has seen it all. I've only ever burned white gas in it, but it has been of many different types and brands. As mentioned earlier, I also maintain the collection of Whisperlites that my outdoor program uses. And with that, other than the above, there is very little to say about the Whisperlite. It has been very durable and with its current performance I expect many good years of use out of it yet.

Summary

The Whisperlite has been a dependable stove. It has some minor annoyances, gets clogged easily, and the pumps tend to break after only about two years of hard use, but overall the stoves are reliable and worthy.

Upsides for me:

• Basic, simple, maintainable design
• Durable
• Works in extreme weather conditions
• Reasonable cooking time and fuel use
• Dependable

• Shaker jet does not always work
• No simmer ability
• Provided tool does not fit burner assembly screw
• Plastic pumps have a limited lifespan
• Slippery wire legs sink and dump pots

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Reviews > Cook Gear > Stoves > MSR Whisperlite Shakerjet > Owner Review by Cora Hussey