That would depend on the BTU rating for the stove the Sotto is being compared against.
If you start comparing stoves that are in different heat output classes, it's hard to tell if a regulator valve would have an advantage or not. To really tell if one valve type has an advantage over another, you want to compare roughly equal stoves.
A Snowpeak Gigapower GS-100 has an output of 10,000 BTU/hour.
A Soto Micro Regulator OD-1R has an output of 11,000 BTU/hour.
Not perfect, but still roughly in the same class.
An F1 according to Coleman's site puts out 16,400 BTU/hour, which really puts it in a different class.
The other "problem" with an F1 is that unlike most upright canister stoves, the F1 conducts heat back to the canister. It's going to be really difficult to separate out the impact of the thermal feedback, the higher output, and the valve type. If one were testing to see if there really were an advantage to a regulator valve, the F1 would be a poor choice for such a test. It would be interesting to know which was the better cold weather stove, but it would be nearly impossible to make any definite conclusions as to which was the better valve type.
...Sotto appears to have a large diameter orifice designed into the valve to allow low pressure gas
If it were just a matter of a bigger orifice, then why bother with developing a regulator valve? And would a bigger orifice account for the behavior seen in the two videos where the OD-1R flame remains constant? It would not.
Still, it would be an interesting experiment to see if something as simple as a larger orifice would allow a conventional stove to work as well as a regulator valved stove. Unfortunately, the F1 wouldn't be a good choice for such an experiment since there are other factors involved (i.e. the thermal feedback of an F1).
The Sotto stove does appear to be a well engineered product. My only concern is that these demonstrations and marketing videos could lead some folks to expect cold weather capabilities which really are not there in the design and could catch some folks out when they really need a hot meal and don't know the tricks to get the stove working again.
I share your concern which is one reason I emphasize that any cold weather advantage that the Soto OD-1R may have will be sligh, just a few degrees. The important things to focus on for cold weather gas stoves are:
a) fuel mix (avoid "plain" butane)
b) maintaining fuel warmth (not hot)
c) stove design (remote inverted canister vs. upright canister)
Valve design just isn't something one should focus on for a cold weather gas stove.
HJ
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