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Gear Reviews
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 Snow Peak Giga Power Stove Auto
Snow Peak's classic Stove with igniter.
Andrew Buskov
Initial
Report - May 24, 2007
Field Report - August 5, 2007
Long Term Report - October 1, 2007
Tester
Biographical Information
| Name: |
Andrew Buskov |
| Age: |
32 |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Height: |
5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
| Email: |
Rescue(at)Corridor9(dot)net |
| City, State Zip |
Madisonville, Kentucky USA |
 Backpacking Background:
I started backpacking and quickly
became hooked on the
outdoors, hiking various environments from the green mountains of the
Appalachians to the barren desert of Arizona. I enjoy the solitude of
deep
backcountry, and prefer colder weather but global warming is making
that
tougher all the time. I’m usually a moderate weight
hiker, but as an
Emergency Medical Technician I’m trained to be prepared, so
my pack usually
weighs between 20 to 30 lbs (9 and 14 kg) while soloing, to 50 lbs (23
kg)
when leading. Additional information about the author can be found at http://www.corridor9.net.
Product Information:
| Item: |
Snow Peak Giga Power Stove Auto
|
| Manufacturer: |
Snow Peak |
| Website |
http://www.snowpeak.com
|
| Year of Manufacture: |
2007 |
| MSRP: |
$49.95 US
|
| Actual Weight: |
3.6 oz (102 g) Without Case
|
| Listed Weight: |
3.75 oz (106 g) Without Case
|
| Weight with Case: | 4.7 oz (133 g) |
Product Overview:Described
as the smallest and lightest canister stove for years, exceptionally
well built and sought after by lightweight backpackers, the Snow Peak
Giga Power stove is Snow Peak's classic canister stove design. Its
four collapsible pot supports have serrations to ensure that pots
remain where they are placed. The large flame adjuster makes burning
fingers a thing of the past, and the auto igniter quickly and easily
lights the gas.
Initial Impression:
The Snow Peak Giga Power arrived in a plain brown box. Inside I found
the retail packaging containing the stove, instruction sheets, and a
carrying case. It was in good condition, complete and undamaged.
 I
was lucky enough to get a few canisters of fuel only a few days before
and was itching to test this stove out. As I had never owned my own
canister stove prior to testing this one, I wasn't exactly sure what to
expect. Upon opening the box I went through the required measurement
and weight session to get accurate measurements.
After
finishing, I immediately started playing to get a general idea of what
to expect. As I was connecting the stove to the canister for the first
time I was startled by the amout of gas leaking out. I was curious if
this much gas would leak out of the canister each time I connected it
to the stove. However, after a second or two, I messed with the valve
to make sure it was closed. It wasn't, and as I turned it to the closed
position, I found that the leak stopped. Unfortunately because of the
design of the stove and the carrying case it fits in, the valve is not
fully closed when it is aligned so that the stove can be placed in the
carrying case. Because I'm so used to my valve being closed unless I'm
using the stove, remembering to close the valve prior to placing it on
the canister is something that still escapes me on occasion.
 After
making sure that the valve was fully sealed, I didn't experience any
leaking gas when connecting the canister to the stove. There was still
a minute amount of fuel escaping into the air when removing the stove
from the canister, but this is to be expected as there will always be a
bit of fuel below the stoves valve, but above the canister valve during
removal. There wasn't enough fuel to cause a hazard, and only slightly
enough to even be noticeable by smell.
The Giga Power looks to
be a very well designed stove. It provides the backpacker with
high heat, a stable platform for your pot, easy adjustment of the
flame, and a piezo igniter all in a lightweight and compact package. In
my mind these qualities equate to a very valuable stove for
backpacking. These qualities have also been noticed by the backpacking
community as evident by the Backpacker Editor's Choice Award dating
back to 1999.
Being as how this weighs considerably less than
my other stove, is much more compact, and seems to provide all
the qualities I'm looking for in a canister stove, I'm pretty sure that
I'm going to completely enjoy testing this stove. I'd like to thank
Backpackgeartest.org and Snow Peak for allowing me the opportunity to
participate in this test.
Field Report - August 5, 2007
Field Locations:I've been able to use the Snow Peak Giga Power
stove on 3 occasions over the past 2 months. The first occasion was
cooking outside my back door. The elevation for the area is
roughly 400 ft (122 m), and temperatures for that day were around 78 F
(26 C). The second and third outings were in the Pennyrile State
Forest. Elevation for that area is between 400 -700 ft (122 - 213 m).
The temperature for those outings were roughly 85 F (29 C). On none of
my outings did I experience any rain or precipitation of any kind.
Performance:I've
been exceptionally pleased with the Snow Peak Giga since setting it up
for the first time. Setup is exceptionally quick and easy. In less than
a minute I can have the stove setup and boiling water. It really is as
simple as screwing the stove onto a canister then pressing the igniter
button. This stove also appears to work with any fuel canisters
available as I've tested this with Jetboil and MSR canisters, though Snow Peak recommends only using their brand of fuel.
 The
stove is quick to fire, usually on the first press of the igniter, and
burns hot almost instantly. I have never had to use any other ignition
source as of yet. There isn't any flame other than that coming out of
the burner. Other stoves I've seen have flame shooting around the
canister connection so I was a bit worried when I first set this up but
this stove doesn't function like them.
There
is no windscreen with the stove, and from all the information I've read
most manufacturer's caution against the use of a windscreen. This is
due to the rising possibility of a BLEVE when a windscreen is used.
BLEVE is an acronym for Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion. This
can generally be thought of as a chain reaction with explosive results.
Because a windscreen tends to trap heat, the liquid inside the can
boils at a faster rate than it does in the ambient air. This causes the
vapor pressure to increase inside the canister. As the pressure
increases the canister weakens and eventually fails at its weakest
point; usually the seams.
That being said.... I have used a
windscreen with this stove with good results. Since the whole objective
of a wind screen is to block wind, I elected to use an oversize
windscreen with vent holes in the bottom to allow rising air to cool
the canister. This worked out great and didn't overheat the canister.
At no point did the canister feel hot to the touch, or difficult to
handle.
So far, I haven't finished the single 8 oz (227 g) MSR
IsoPro canister that I've been using on my trips, so I can't elaborate
on canister usage yet. I also haven't had to clean it, and haven't seen
any dirt or debris on the stove at all. Using my Evernew Ti pot, I was
able to boil 2 cups (0.47 L) in approximately two minutes and 18
seconds.
So far, I'm expectionally pleased with this stove, and look forward to more good meals in the backcountry.
Long Term Report - October 1, 2007
Field Locations:During
this test period I was only able to use this stove on my trip last
weekend to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I was able to use
this stove 7 times for cooking both breakfast and dinner. The
temperature during dinner was usually around 60 F (15 C) while
breakfast was about 45 F (7 C). I didn't see any precipitation at all,
though there was a bit of frost and dew on the ground in the mornings.
The elevations I was able to use this at ranged from 2420 ft (738 m) to
6475 ft (1874 m). The area was quite mountainous and proved to be real
windy, especially during the evening meals. A couple of times I saw
half the burner flame out due to the wind.
Performance: I've
been exceptionally pleased with the Snow Peak Giga Power stove over the
entire testing period. From setup to take down, it's one of the
fastest, cleanest, most powerful stoves I've used. In short, it will
definitely become the main stove that I take with me on any of my
backpacking trips. From solo trips, to multi-person excursions, this
stove has powered through everything I've thrown at it. I've been able
to quickly boil water for breakfasts, simmer Angel Hair pasta for
dinner, and even fry up an omelet. This stove works as well at low
flame as it does at high flame.
I've been able to use fuel from
3 manufacturers over the testing period: Jetboil, MSR, and Snow Peak.
While this stove was able to run on all fuels, I was surprised that the
Snow Peak fuel gave me the most problems. When screwing the stove onto
the canister, I found that only the Snow Peak brand fuel let fuel
escape between the threads before seating the canister completely with
the gasket. Neither of the other brands let any fuel escape.
 In
addition, The Snow Peak fuel was more apt to flame out in windy
conditions. Although the entire flame around the burner head never went
completely out, there were a few times that up to half of the burner
was out. I never experienced this with the MSR or Jetboil fuels. I was
happy to be able to use different sized canisters well and still have
the stability to boil 6 c (1.5 L) of water without worrying about
tipping it over. While I didn't fully consume any of the fuel
canisters, I did find that I was able to use an 8 oz (227 g) canister
for more than 1.5 hours. Most of the time I was simply boiling water,
but I did cook some tortellini once and had to boil the water for 20
minutes. Throughout the entire time the stove powered right on and
didn't sputter or lose power once.
All of my cooking was done with Evernew
Slick Titanium Cookware. I've heard the term "Ever-glue" before, but
not experienced it till this past weekend. While I was cooking my
omelet, the pan became so hot from the flame that the eggs fused to the
coating and stuck just like "glue". I didn't even realize that the
stove was that hot because there was very little visible flame, but
apparently it was quite warm. I ended up scraping a good deal of the
non-stick coating off my pot in order to fully clean it. I would
definitely recommend caution when using such a powerful stove with any
sort of titanium non-stick cookware.
Unlike my other
stoves, I never burned myself once with the Snow Peak Giga Power stove.
Not only was the handle long enough that I didn't have to worry about
touching a hot pan, but the stove cooled off really quickly. On the
last morning of the trip I had boiled 4 cups of water for a rice dish.
I poured the water into a freezer bag that I was using to cook the
rice, placed it in a cozy, and almost immediately began to take down
the stove. There wasn't more than 3 minutes of lag time yet the stove
was cool to the touch. That's pretty good for steel that was glowing
red hot just a few minutes earlier.
In total, over the life of
the test I may have found little quirks that I've had to learn to deal
with being as how this was the first canister stove that I've used, but
nothing sticks out in my mind as a hassle or problem. The only thing
that I feel could be improved is the valve itself. As stated above,
when the valve is fully closed, the stove won't fit into its carrying
case. I have to crack the valve 1/8th of a turn to place it in its
case. I'm still leaking fuel on occasion because I forget to seat the
valve fully before connecting it to a canister. If this were changed so
that the valve was fully seated when the stove was placed into its case
I would be completely pleased.
I'd like to thank Snow Peak and BackpackGearTest.org for allowing me to test this stove.
Read more reviews of Snow Peak gear
Read more gear reviews by Andrew Buskov
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