Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Stove advice needed

HI, KC,

Actually, my chemistry background comes from studying engineering. Engineering chemistry wasn't exactly light duty, but I won't try to claim to be a full on chemist.

HJ

Yes, I do know about the Soto Muka. [b][i][u]My review of the Soto Muka[/u][/i][/b] just came out in Seattle Backpackers Magazine a couple of weeks ago.

Soto is putting out some really nice stuff these days. The only caution I might throw up is with regard to cold weather: Soto rates the Muka only down to -4F. That might be a bit restrictive for some. I bet it would work a lot colder, but -4F is the official word from Soto.

HJ

Jim, I've heard complaints about the amount of pumping the Muka requires... your thoughts?

This is a great thread, my hat's off to hikin jim, kc, brad et. al. who's experience greatly surpasses mine and which is a valuable resource too. This is why I'm at the "fire".



The only problem is every thread like this tends to entice me to buy another piece of gear that I "need".

Yeah, the Muka mixes a lot of air in with the fuel which is how they get by without priming. The down side is that you have to pump. A lot. A whole lot. Especially toward the end of a trip when your fuel bottle is headed toward empty.

If you look at the [b][i][u]video review of the Muka[/u][/i][/b] I have on my blog, I mention how many pump strokes I had to employ to get the right pressure. I forget the exact number, but it was around 200 or so. That's a good bit of pumping.

The time you save on priming, you spend on pumping. Of course not having to prime might make the stove safer since it's not like you'd be spilling fuel all over.

HJ

Thanks Jim, interesting. Everything is a compromise, eh?

I've primed WG stoves for what seems forever, so I'd be inclined away from the Muka. Priming, to me, is just no big deal.

No doubt if the Muka was my only WG stove experience, I might feel differently.

But that sounds like a LOT of pumping!

The big plus for me about the Soto Muka is the supposed lack of soot. I hate that black soot. It gets everywhere and PENETRATES into stuff. I hate it when it gets airborne all on its own and lands on places it ain't supposed to

The Muka really is clean. There's none of the soot associated with priming that I get from other stoves.

You can prime a regular stove cleaner if you use a little bottle of alcohol instead of priming with white gas. Definitely don't prime with kero (what a mess that is).

The thing I didn't try with the Muka was long term tests with unleaded gasoline. That's the one thing I'd like to know more about. If I were to use unleaded, I'd carry a spare generator.

HJ

Hikin Jim,

What is your take on the catastrophic Jetboil failure alluded to by docdb in the Jetboil thread?

I've got a blog post up now on [u]A problem with the titanium Jetboil[/u][/i][/b]? I've tried to give as even handed a coverage as I can. The [i]majority of the problems appear to be user error.

There are still some cases, very few but still a few, where there has been damage to the heat exchanger [b]on the titanium version when the user followed the directions.

Would I buy the titanium version? Well, maybe not. There's only about a one ounce difference in weight (if you do an apples to apples comparison with the same components included) compared to the all aluminum version. Why take the risk that you could damage that oh-so-expensive heat exchanger? Now, having said that, it sounds like they've been replacing damaged ones under warranty. Still, if I had my heart set on a week long trip having done all the planning, travelling, etc, and my stove's exchanger melted on day 3, that would be kind of a bummer even though the stove would probably still work (just not as efficiently) with a melted/damaged exchanger.

Hope that helps,

HJ