MSR Windburner

US-BUILT COMPACT STOVE SERVES UP A TASTY TREAT.

- Justin Walker

I LIKE to pack light and compact whenever heading out on a solo overnight trip; a tent or swag, a sixpack of beer, food and coffee, and I am sorted. I keep a bit of gear in the Disco all the time – first aid kit, tyre repair kit and air compressor – plus I always have a compact stove in there. For an overnighter or weekend – or even a family day trip – I just go super simple and use a canister stove, of which I have had a few over the years (yep, I am guilty as charged when it comes to being a gear head).

The latest compact stove to see a fair bit of use has been the WindBurner from Mountain Safety Research (MSR). This US-based company has been producing stoves for all purposes, everything from bushwalking/day touring to mountaineering expeditions, and the WindBurner is one of the latest models based on the company’s 2007 Reactor stove and its unique heating system.

This stove uses radiant heat and primary air combustion to ensure consistent, fuel-efficient heating, with fuel moving from the canister through a regulator (that controls gas pressure) to jets that push the fuel into a space under a disc. This disc is porous, and once the air and gas is “mixed” in the space below the disc it is ignited as it pushes through the disc’s pores and heats-up the meshcovered top of the burner, producing an evenly spread heat source.