MSR Whisperlite International Stove - When & How To Use vs Propane Stove

Should you use a white gas/naphtha stove for camping and hiking? When should you NOT use one. When MUST you use one. How do they compare to a standard propane/isopropane stove?
Much more than one of those lame unboxing videos - When to use a white gas stove, how to use it, how to keep it running efficiently, trouble shooting, how to set up, dangers to avoid, how to plan fuel usage, etc.
All in REAL TIME. See how the warming cycle works in real time, breaking the stove down, maintenance and nifty extras that MSR don't tell you.
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00:00 Intro
01:00 White gas or propane stove, which?
04:25 Setting up an MSR white gas stove
17:15 Using a stove board
25:00 Maintenance kit & pump trouble shooting
31:00 Final tips - repair kits, planning fuel quantity, backups for expeditions & conclusion

[@arcticbunyip5005]

Really good video and detailed REAL information - I'm a happy globe trotting Whisperlite International user and can vouch for my 'big' volley ball flame and dedicated outdoor user only! Great details on use and especially maintenance and different fuel types.

[@kelvinaitken9020]

Thanks. Just got back from a week camping on the edge of a frozen lake photographing wolves. The stove kept me in coffee and hot food without fault.

[@bromkin]

Excellent video really cleared a few things up eg how many times you have to pump the bottle

[@kelvinaitken9020]

Thanks for your comment. Also, you need to redo the pump more when the bottle is full as the air space is quite small.

[@filmic1]

Nice clear thorough review. I love my MSR Dragonfly. Yeah, that heating flame is the size of soccer ball for sure. A friend loves his Whisper Lite.

[@kelvinaitken9020]

When you're in a blizzard in the dark and you just got back to your tent from a hike there's nothing like a stove that works with that wonderful ball of heat telling you all is well.

[@DobryBart]

BTW I do have a question. There is in the manual information that when you're priming the stove and the yellow flame will go off (1)...OR...you turn off the stove after cooking (2)...you need to wait for 5 minutes before you start priming again (1) or relight the stove to cook more (2)....and if you dont wait it's dangerous. Is it? :)

[@WPG101]

No. They're just covering their butt with possible insurance claims if something weird goes wrong. Same if you buy a bbq - the instructions will demand that you don't relight a bbq until you let it cool off for 5-15 minutes. Sometimes I might forget that I need to heat something so, if the head is still hot, I can just turn the fuel back on and relight it as the metal loop/tube is still hot enough for the liquid fuel to be evaporated into gas. If not, I just go through the priming sequence again. You don't need to repump the bottle if there's pressure already in there, but you can if you want to be sure that it's flowing properly. Of course, this is assuming that for some reason you haven't spilt fuel everywhere. So normally, no problem relighting the stove without waiting.

[@DobryBart]

Wow! I love it. Thanks for the honest and practical review (soooo rare nowadays). I usually use Jetboil which is fantastic IF u want to boil water only (lio food, coffee, tea) - there is of course an attachment (kind of adapter) that lets you use little frying pan however there is almost no flame control - just a turbo super extra big fire....and it uses gas...and you can not take a gas cartridge when flying (neither onboard nor in a checked-in luggage)....which in some parts of globe makes it nearly impossible to buy a gas cartridge without going from the airport to the center of a near city to a sport/touristic shop....just to escape to wilderness :) And that's why I decided to buy an MSR Whisperlite International....but most of reviews are just a featureset overview or a "visual" product manual. Thank you very much for your valuable review.

[@WPG101]

Glad you got something out of it. What I like about it is that I can fly into somewhere remote without any stove fuel then just use what's at my destination. For example, I go to the arctic a lot and they will have kerosene, diesel and petrol (i.e. unledaded petrol or similar). I can switch the jet in the stove top to use either kerosene or petrol which will work any time of year (a gas cannister if you can find one, won't work in arctic winter).

[@jeffdavis7912]

Thank you for sharing. Enjoyed it.

[@WPG101]

Thanks for commenting.Glad you liked it.

[@d0n_chisciotte642]

good video 👍

[@WPG101]

Glad you liked it. It's a good system, you just gotta use it right.

[@stnkfst8639]

Best information video on the whisperlite on KZbin!

[@WPG101]

Glad you like it. Nothing like a reliable heat source in arctic conditions.

[@livingsimplytosimplylive6817]

Wonderfully helpful ❤

[@kelvinaitken9020]

Glad you liked it.

[@everythingnerd7168]

Quick note. Getting fuel on your hands in the cold isn’t just inconvenient. It evaporates extremely quickly causing cooking and can be dangerous in some conditions. It hurts. Edit: also lots of gear is oil based and fuel has the potential to dissolve it

[@dabda8510]

11:42 Shutting off the valve here is an important step that unfortunately didn't get recorded in the audio well. Without listening carefully, one could've let too much fuel out on to the stove. But I really appreciate this video.

[@WPG101]

Sorry. Just to be clear, you really need to turn off the valve BEFORE you have filled the cup, in fact it's good to turn it off when the cup is about half full because pressure, from the bottle, in the fuel line will continue to push fuel out for a few seconds. Spilt fuel can cause a fire hazard.

[@ralphwatten2426]

My Whisperlight International is set up for Butane fuel as well as kerosene, white gas, jet fuel, unleaded regular gas. Fits in a little kit bag with it's jets and tools and pre heat paste.

[@AquaTech225]

International burns gasoline can’t beat its cheapness. A maintenance each time. Not so much I definitely haven’t a never had issues. Just more space and weight. Love mine I’ve also never given mine a 4-50 pumps. I may give it about 12-13. And give it a random 2-4 pumps here and there there. A since it don’t have a second fuel valve like my dragonfly. I actually pump it very very few it I want to simmer. If you have a lot lighter of a pressure. It can help you get a lot lower a flame on this one also.

[@WPG101]

Yes, less pumps for lower pressure for simmering definitely helps.

[@impermanenthuman8427]

Whisperlite universal burns both liquid and canisters plus burns the canister fuel inverted so when the stove is primed it forces the liquid into gas even at cold temps

[@kelvinaitken9020]

You are correct. As mentioned in the video, there are things that you can do to extend the usefulness of canisters in sub zero temperatures. However, they do eventually stop working, or it all becomes too difficult to manage them, even when inverted with the special attachment. That loss of efficiency starts happening around 5C and becomes a source of great irritation below -5C. This is because, as mentioned in the video, you need "warm" temperatures to form a gas inside the canister. Even when inverted, it's that evaporated propane/butane gas that pushes the liquid fuel out of the canister, not just gravity. Like liquid naphtha fuel, the canister fuel is then evaporated in the metal loop in the stove head. So eventually, when it becomes cold enough, that evaporation inside the canister stops happening and the liquid flow slows then stops. The more fuel that's used the less pressure, as the reduced volume in the canister is not replace by new evaporated gas. Canisters become inefficient and, eventually, stop working. When you're out in the middle of nowhere, canisters can't be trusted in life threatening situations (if something goes wrong, like falling through the ice on a river, lake or ocean in -50). The best solution is a white gas stove, or a spirit stove if you want to pack light. If the smaller size of a canister is important to you (e.g. lighter and smaller than a 1L primus bottle) you can just buy the smaller 500ml bottle.

[@impermanenthuman8427]

@@kelvinaitken9020 wow, thanks for the excellent answer, yea that makes sense about needing at least some pressure even when the canister is inverted. So do spirits (eg denatured alcohol/methylated spirits) burn well even well below -5 C?, I’ve never used it below 0, my understanding is that it is less energy dense than white gas so is heavier to carry for same amount of heat output (although traildesigns custom titanium stove systems come very close due to the efficiency of their design, plus can also burn wood and solid fuel) although the whole stove system tends to be lighter than a total white gas system when carrying a typical alcohol stove, bottle and fuel for just a couple days. I tend to prefer canisters or alcohol due to safety, working with white gas or unleaded makes me nervous it’s just so volatile, I know too many people who got badly burned just passing their hand holding the lighter/match through the vapor around the petrol to light the liquid, mind you alcohol is more likely to be spilt due to open stove design 🤔

[@kelvinaitken9020]

@@impermanenthuman8427 To be honest, I have never used a sprit stove as I have had no need to. But I do know that they are preferred by some due to, as you say, thier light weight. But I know that they do work well without the complexity of the MSR setup, althought probably not putting out as an intense heat as canister or naphtha stoves. I have not used car fuel with my stove purely because I have not needed to. In remote areas, such as the arctic, kerosene is readily available and comes in metal or plastic contaners that are small enough to pack. In a remote area where you wanted to use car fuel you would need to buy a small container and go thourgh all the filling drama. So it comes down to convenience.

[@impermanenthuman8427]

What do you think of the Optimus Polaris? It is very similar to the Whisperlite Universal in that it burns white gas/unleaded, kerosene and also canisters (both upright and inverted), however the Polaris also burns Diesel and aviation fuel/JP-8. Also the Polaris burns all fuels with the same jet so no need to swap out jets in the field. The British Royal Marines chose the Polaris over the Whisperlite universal, they liked that it is cleaner in terms of less residue of liquid fuel likely to spill into the pot that it can be stored in for cooking, also in the military they have a lot of vehicles that run on JP-8 (although I’m not sure what the difference is between JP-8 and Kerosene?), plus the Polaris can also burn lamp oil. Also the Polaris has a much better simmer. The main thing that concerns me with the Polaris though is that the hose lacks a cleaning rod like the MSR’s have which makes me wonder how long the Polaris would really work long term if only unleaded was available and the hose developed black residue in it possibly? However apparently the holy grail that another couple of KZbinrs have shown is using the Optimus Polaris pump in the MSR bottle with the Whisperlite Universal, the pump is a little heavier but more durable, and a huge bonus is the pump gives you a second valve so enables simmering with Whisperlite Universal! You might like to look into this as it makes the Whisperlite more useful for cooking.

[@kelvinaitken9020]

@@impermanenthuman8427 Thanks for the heads up. I have not used the polaris so can't give an experienced reply. If you are just getting into the market for a liquid fuel stove, it would be worth comparing and going with whatever suits your needs. I would think that both need the same amount of maintenance as it's the fuel that causes minor blockages. The MSR pump shaft has been known to break in extreme cold, although I've never had a problem, so a more robust pump is not a bad thing. In the real world, simmering is not a big deal. The main use for a stove in extreme cold is to heat water as quickly as possible. No one in their right mind is simmering mushrooms while sitting on an iceberg. It would be handy if you're heating food that's not dehydrated, but that would not be normal for expedition camping.

[@dannyalvens5418]

You could have just turned the fuel bottle over and that would have cleared all of the fuel out of the line and it will also relieve all of the pressure out of your fuel bottle..