35mm Stove Wins Scandinavian Outdoor Award

Optimus has landed the prestigious Scandinavian Outdoor Award for its latest innovation, a remote burner gas stove that packs down into a unit that looks a bit like a CD case but even smaller.

The new Stella+ stove - see picture - should offer a great balance between light weight and stability. Most ultralight stoves are fine with a small pan but struggle to stay upright with larger containers. Not so the Stella whose tripod burner design means that it can fold down to a mere 35mm thickness and 105mm width without sacrificing the ability to hold pans weighing up to 4kg. For a 250 gram stove, that's not bad.

Other features include a built in piezo igniter, which is integrated with the gas valve and allows the stove to be wind screened. Most importantly of all, a cup of tea is only ever about 3 minutes away - the time it takes to boil water on the stove - and you can make about twenty of them before its 60 minute burning time (with a 220g canister) runs out. It's all a long way from the traditional brass stoves that made Optimus famous.

Stella+ 35mm Stove from Optimus

Can you really cook on that?

The judges of the Scandinavian Outdoor Award look at functionality, quality, innovation and design before presenting the prize for the best new outdoor product on the scene in the past year. Optimus have had plenty of time to work on their designs. They've been manufacturing outdoor stoves since 1899, giving them a mere 107 years to get up to scratch. That didn't stop them sounding rather excited by the achievement though. Michael Lembke, CEO of the company, said:

“This is amazing! It’s less than a year since we started revolutionizing Optimus to make us the most innovative product company in the outdoor industry and to get recognized for that so quickly is both humbling and energizing.”

The Stella+ is one of several new designs from Optimus. To see more, have a look at their website, or try our User Review Section for reviews of other stoves and camping gear.