I have my heart set on a Primus Omni multi fuel stove, but I came across the Primus Gravity 11 MF which is a bit cheaper and can also use cannister gas. Has anyone had personal experience of this stove?
Hi Dawn, mines the gravity ef11, the remote gas canister type of stove and I rate it, very stable platform, piezo ignition and ease of use. I believe theyre coming down in price as theyve been replaced by a slightly lighter model.
Some on offer at Field and Trek sale now I think I saw. Supposed to be all very good stoves indeed really. I think Chris Townsend was on here the other day saying that he liked them too by the way.
Has Chris tried the MF version or the gas only version? They both look very good. You might like to see this video on U tube about the Omni. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdja7UCIt0Y&feature=related I wonder if the gravity MF works in a similar way when on multi fuel. One reviewer I read said he used his gravity MF in Argentina and had to burn paint stripper, but that it worked quite well, except he had to field strip the stove and clean it every 12 hours, but can you believe that paint stripper worked?? I guess so. Shows how versatile the stove can be.
I certainly would not advise anyone doing that with paint stripper or anything similar, even in a veritable emergency; as one is burning there a chemical irritant which is not so good for one to be breathing in! In that case I would turn to burning almost anything else but that kind of crap! Even if it were a survival situation, say a plane or car wreck, there would be some kind of burnable material about to use for fire for warmth, and to cook over if necessary.Burning paint stripper sounds a mite desperate a measure for my liking really there Dawn!
Hi Trevor, I have used my Coleman Peak1 for 17 years without problem, although I have read of these stoves catching fire and even exploding, mine has served me well on Coleman Fuel (White Gas) even in high winds and stormy weather, without drama, but now I feel that I would like to buy a new stove with true multi fuel capability. I am hoping to trek Iceland & Greenland next year and the Rockies the year after so a stove like the Primus, that can burn everything and anything, seems a great idea, when you never know what fuel is going to be available. I thought I better check that other review and it turns out the guy used pain thinner, not stripper, my error, sorry. However, even that seems an unusual and highly volatile fuel. His review can be found at http://www.trailspace.com/gear/primus/gravity-mf/review/8112/ and this is quite entertaining to read.
Thanks there Dawn, I sall definitely have a deco at that one!
Hopefully Chris Townsend will be trekking through here later today, and he can tell you lots of info on the best multi fuel stove for you to get there; as he is a veritable sage of 'goldmine' outdoors up-to-date information, for sure!Plus he's a great bloke generally too of course! We are I feel very lucky indeed to have him contributing on the forum here.
http://fuel.papo-art.com/Link of international fuel names details given again, just in case Dawn may have missed it beforehand. It is a most useful link indeed.
Oh thanks Trevor I will put that link into my favourites. Excellent.
I have read Chris Townsend's articles in the magazines and enjoyed his reviews. It is brilliant that he also can find time to contribute to this forum.
Thank you Trevor! How can I refuse to comment after that intro?
I did a big test on multi-fuel stoves last year that appeared in the October TGO. I reckoned the best was the Primus Omnifuel. It's a good combination of fuel efficiency, weight and power. I also liked the Optimus Nova + (though I think the original Optimus Nova, still available, is better and the stove I would choose if I didn't want one that runs on canisters as well as petrol/paraffin), the Coleman Fyrestorm Ti (the lightest stove tested), the MSR XGK EX (the one to choose if dirty fuels will be used - I ran an earlier version on white spirit for a few weeks once), the MSR Whisperlite Internationale (lightweight, very fuel efficient, good price). I didn't recommend the Gravity MF as I found it awkward to prime and not very fuel efficient (it used 32 grams of fuel to boil a litre of water as opposed to 19 grams for the Whisperlite, 21 for the Omnifuel, 22 for the XGK, 24 for the Nova+ and 25 for the Fyrestorm.
Cheers there Chris! I still have my XGK II myself, and it works fine all these years later on I feel. I got that upon your recommendaton when you were listing that one as your favourite and best, in reviews and articles way back in the mid nineties or so. I often wonder if it would be worth stepping up a model to the newer version of the MSR XGK EX, and might well do some day. But my old stove is such a workhorse really and has given me few real problems over the years - it seems there's actually really very little that goes wrong with it, in my opinion anyway. Or else I have just been immensely lucky maybe perhaps here. I have the spare parts kit well stocked and that's that. I do like the cleaner looks of the more modern stoves though indeed. I am often at times real tempted to change over to a newer model still, I have to admit. I take it though that the benefits of such will really be negligible in essence though, do you feel?
Trevor, the XGK II was the stove I used with white spirit, on a walk in Norway in 1992. I still have it and it still works well. The advantages of more modern multifuel stoves are the ability to use them with canisters, much easier simmering and cleaner in that you can purge and depressurise the fuel line and fuel bottle without removing the pump so there are no drips or sprays of fuel. The newer version of the XGK doesn't have any of these advantages! Really, the difference is in ease of packing but that's about it. The new flexible hose probably isn't as tough as the rigid metal fuel line of the XGK II either. Nothing else is as easy to clean and maintain in the field as the XGK II, another point in its favour. I'd say unless you want to use canisters and liquid fuel on the same trip or do a lot of simmering there's no need to buy a new stove.
Thanks very much for that info on fuel consumption. I felt the Omnifuel was the best one when I looked at all the different models. The Nova+ was my second choice. When I saw the Gravity MF at much lower money but seemingly doing the same job I felt I had to check it out, but it always comes down to you get what you pay for! Do you find that you can cook with the multi fuel in the porch if you first prime it outside and are careful about flare? By the way I enjoyed your sojourn to Rum in TGO last year.
Thanks again there Chris, I shall stick with what I have then for the time being maybe!Unless I win the Lottery that is, then I'd try a good few of the new ones I think.
Dawn, I have cooked in vestibules with multi fuel stoves, after priming them outside. When I led ski camping trips I sometimes did this with two stoves - but that was in big Hilleberg Keron 3 & 4 tunnel tents. The key is the size of the vestibule. As long as it's big there should be no problem. On my Scandinavian walk I used the MSR XGK in the vestibule of my Nallo 2 frequently (this was before the Akto appeared). If I need to pump the stove I did this outside the vestibule as that's when flaring can occur.
Glad to hear you enjoyed my Rum piece - the weather made that an exciting trip.
Chris, as I have yet to use a multi fuel with a hose as distinct from an all in one coleman peak1, can I just ask, do you prime and pump and light the stove outside and then carry in the lit stove into the vestibule, or do you let the stove go out hot and relight the stove when you have carried it back in? I am proposing to use a tent (Exped Venus2) which has two vestibules, so hopefully one can always be out of the wind. There are those days though when blizzards fall and swirl and the wind never seems to know where it is coming from and you have to stay inside and cook inside whilst waiting for a break in the weather. If I found myself in that situation, having to cook in a vestibule completely, I thought perhaps the gas/propane cannister could be handy, as long as I can keep the cannister warm it should be okay for lighting and safer? than multifuel. You may not agree with this idea and if so, please put me right. Of course it will depend on altitude as well, but the Primus does have a pre heat that they claim works at altitude, or so I read.
Dawn, I pump and prime the stove outside the vestibule (just outside - if the weather is bad I'll be under cover in the vestibule) and once it is lit I bring it back under cover. I think relighting the hot stove might result in flaring - I haven't actually tried this.
Canisters are much safer for vestibule cooking. I regularly use one in the vesitbule. The advantage of a hose connected stove is that in sub zero temperatures you can turn the canister upside down so it becomes a liquid fuel stove, which is far more efficient in the cold. At altitude canisters are more efficient than at sea level anyway, due to the lower air pressure. Himalayan climbers used to use screw-in butane canister stoves long before preheat tubes, propane/butane mixes and hose connected stoves because they were simple and worked fine. Use the same stove in a British winter and a temperature around freezing and they barely worked at all.
A stove I haven't mentioned yet as I haven't used the multifuel version is the Primus EtaPower, which comes with a heat exchanger and pot. I have tested the canister version of this and it's superb. I took it on a trip to Yellowstone in February and it worked fine melting snow at -10C. I don't know if the MF version is in the shops yet but it should be very good. The heat exchanger makes it very fuel efficient.
Chris, here is a video of the Primus omni being used on LP gas and multifuel with an Eta Pot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdja7UCIt0Y
Rough Gear have the Eta MF at £110 see link http://www.roughgear.co.uk/Product.aspx?product=104&utm_source=google&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=product
If you had to choose, assuming the Eta MF was as good as the LP version you tested, would you go for the Eta or the Omni with an Eta pot? Did you get to try the insulating cosy as I understand you can use this to keep a pot simmering, for say pasta or rice, when taken off the flame. Optimus have a pan set with a similar cosy. Am I right in thinking that Optimus, Primus, Brunton are all the same company? They seem to make versions of the omni all of which receive high praise from reviewers.
I would probably choose the Eta MF, simply because it's designed to work as a unit and has a built-in windshield rather than a foil one. However until I test it I can't say for certain that it will be work better than an Omnifuel + Eta pot.
I found the pot cosy good for keeping food hot but not for simmering. It's worth having though and was very useful in igloos in Yellowstone.
Optimus, Primus and Brunton are all separate companies. Brunton is in fact a subsidiary of Silva.
Burning paint stripper sounds a mite desperate a measure for my liking really there Dawn!
Plus he's a great bloke generally too of course! We are I feel very lucky indeed to have him contributing on the forum here.
