OK, so this week's stove is a bit of a "sleeper" in the sense that it's not a stove that you would expect a lot from -- unless you knew better. But you'll have to read on to find out what's so interesting about this week's stove, the MSR Rapidfire.



HJ

Good Stuff,Jim,Thanx Alot!The Loss of That pin would be a Major Bummer,Is There an Alternative/Haste fix in the Field,that would suffice for a Boiled liter of water,Without danger?

In the field, no. But you can buy on eBay an adapter of the type that will connect one of the "long" cans of 100% butane favored by the restaurant industry. You can then run your stove very cheaply (about 1/6th the price of 8oz backpacking-specific canisters and 1/10th the price of 4 oz backpacking-specific canisters), BUT the gas will be a fair weather fuel only, which will generally work well above 40F/4C.

The black Kovea adaptors are pretty good. I've seen other adapters with a stainless steel plate with two little legs and a brass fitting that are not good at all.

HJ

Nice. Thnaks again!

You're welcome as always.

HJ

Jim,

Thanks again for the GREAT information - or - wait -- is it fie upon you for scratching an itch? Two months ago I would have said I had 2 stoves (I may have) even though I had 5 or 6 (one of them was a WWII Coleman that I kept for sentimental reasons and may fire up again) mostly the rest were solid fuel stoves (a Ti wing and several types of Esbit) that I had not used in years. Now I have those and have added to the collection (a Coleman Xpert and a replacement (old) 123. Even the Esbit's have been out for inspection and some for trials.

Fie on you!! or THANKS!! I'm not sure which

The best,

Jerry

p.s. Any thoughts about finding PowerMax fuel? None of our local suppliers have any and every online I have tried is out of stock. jdf

Jerry,

Re Powermax fuel, I've been getting mine at Sports Authority. I've also seen it at REI, Big Five, Sport Chalet, and I think Bass Pro. Someone told me that Sears carries Powermax fuel as well, but I don't have any first hand experience with Sears.

If you get stuck, send me a PM. I'm happy to send you out some via USPS. It's OK to send via US Mail as long as it's well packaged and marked "ORM-D, Surface Only, Consumer Goods".

Be careful if you fire up the old Coleman. If the rubber "pip" in the NRV goes bad, pressurized fuel can come shooting out of the pump. Pressurized fuel + flame = potential trip to hospital (or worse). What is it? An M1942? I've actually avoided them because of the danger, but a friend of mine showed me his. Pretty cool little stoves.

Various types of Esbit? Do tell. Photos?

HJ

Thanks. I've been thinking about getting a remote gas stove, maybe primus express spider (mostly due to local availability) for the times when my pocket rocket don't work well, and I don't want to drag the omnifuel along. On the other hand, I really don't need another hole in my wallet...

On my wish list as well.

I do have a trangia buthane/propane burner that fits into the trangia stove. I'm very happy with it, but I am looking for a lighter and more compact alternative. I have a very small pot that is the perfect size for 450 gram gas canisters, I just need an optimus express spider to go along with it....

The Omnifuel does of course make a good remote canister set up.


Although the Omnifuel does not have a pre-heat loop per se, I'll let you in on a little secret: any stove capable of burning liquid fuel is capable of operating in liquid feed mode (provided that you can hook it up to a canister). If a stove has the ability to vaporize a heavy fuel like kerosene, it's for darn sure it can vaporize liquefied gas.

The Omnifuel is truly a cool stove. In weather above 40F/4C, just run it as a regular remote canister stove. In weather from 0F/-18C to 40F/4C, run it in inverted canister (liquid feed) mode. In weather below 0F/-18C, run it on liquid fuel. Of course, any mode that handles colder weather can be employed in warmer weather; it's just that the warmer weather modes are more convenient.

That's one of the reasons I reviewed the Rapidfire. It's a) remote and b) has a pre-heat loop (which allows for liquid feed mode), but it's affordable. I picked one up for less than $30.00 recently.

HJ