{"id":1999,"date":"2008-06-26T08:06:26","date_gmt":"2008-06-26T16:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/?p=1999"},"modified":"2010-09-04T11:14:01","modified_gmt":"2010-09-04T15:14:01","slug":"msr-reactor-camp-stove-reviews-raves-mostly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2008\/06\/26\/msr-reactor-camp-stove-reviews-raves-mostly\/","title":{"rendered":"MSR Reactor camp stove reviews: raves mostly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/busybeingborn\/2613692260\/\" title=\"MSR reactor backpacking stove by busybeingborn, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3031\/2613692260_9ee54e7a95_m.jpg\" width=\"126\" height=\"240\" alt=\"MSR reactor backpacking stove\" class=\"alignright\"\/><\/a>For fun this morning I went looking for reviews of the MSR Reactor backpacking stove, Mountain Safety Research&#8217;s response to getting its butt kicked, innovation-wise, by those <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jetboil.com\/\">JetBoil<\/a> upstarts. GoBlog <a href=\"http:\/\/www.getoutdoors.com\/goblog\/index.php?\/archives\/1032-MSR-Reactor-JetBoil-Killer.html\">touted its arrival<\/a> in October 2006, Backpacker magazine made it an <a href=\"http:\/\/backpacker.com\/videos_2007_editors_choice_award_winners_msr_reactor_and_primus_etapower_camp_stoves\/gear\/gvideos\/3\">editor&#8217;s choice<\/a> in 2007 and BackpackGearTest.org is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.backpackgeartest.org\/reviews\/Cook%20Gear\/Stoves\/MSR%20Reactor%20Stove\/\">finally adding introductory reviews this month<\/a> (check back at the end of the summer for really, really in-depth reviews.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>General pluses on the Reactor: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Boils water super fast, a liter in about 3 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Super efficient, so fuel lasts longer.<\/li>\n<li>Works much better than most canister stoves in sub-freezing weather.<\/li>\n<li>Pretty much windproof (assuming you can get a flame lit; see lack of auto-igniter below).<\/li>\n<li>Whole stove set-up fits within the cooking pot. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>General minuses<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pricey at $139.<\/li>\n<li>Heavy compared to most backpacking stoves.<\/li>\n<li>Better temperature control would be nice (less of an issue of you&#8217;re a <a href=\"http:\/\/freezerbagcooking.com\/\">freezer bag cook<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>An an auto-igniter would be even nicer. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Overall, folks who&#8217;ve used it like what they see. Not perfect, but what is? Review links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockandice.com\/inthemag.php?id=14&#038;type=fieldtested\">Rock and Ice magazine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/product\/736977\">REI users<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.backpackinglight.com\/cgi-bin\/backpackinglight\/forums\/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=5777\">BackpackingLight forum<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a YouTube vid with Ed Graham Thompson from Trail magazine in the UK.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/JHwYn-DT4GM&#038;hl=en\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/JHwYn-DT4GM&#038;hl=en\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll close by saving <a href=\"http:\/\/californiawinehikes.com\/winehiker\/\">WineHiker Russ<\/a> the keyboard exertion of pointing out that all canister stoves of this kind are not terribly sustainable, as they&#8217;re difficult to dispose of and\/or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.backpacker.com\/february_2008_how_to_recycle_spent_fuel_canisters\/nature\/12084\" title=\"click for Backpacker magazine recycling tips\">recycle<\/a>. And and I&#8217;ll save <a href=\"http:\/\/wildebeat.net\/\">Steve Sergeant<\/a> the trouble of noting that patient alcohol stove cooks can wait a couple minutes for their water to boil and save lots of weight. <\/p>\n<p>If you own one or have camped out with somebody who does, let us know. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For fun this morning I went looking for reviews of the MSR Reactor backpacking stove, Mountain Safety Research&#8217;s response to getting its butt kicked, innovation-wise, by those JetBoil upstarts. GoBlog touted its arrival in October 2006, Backpacker magazine made it&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2008\/06\/26\/msr-reactor-camp-stove-reviews-raves-mostly\/\">Read the whole thing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[34],"tags":[304,303],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1999"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4487,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions\/4487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}