Quote:
MSR XGK- It does one thing really well-burn at full blast for as long as the fuel lasts. I'm not saying there aren't other, newer, designs that will do the same thing, but the XGK meets all of your criteria and for what you want, one of the older ones would be a good choice.

I don't know much about the new ones; mine was made in the 80's, but I don't expect them to be much different, except in looks. The basic stove design is the same-the housing looks different. The newer ones have a shaker jet (the model II and the newer EX), but mine came with the tool to clean the jet-works just fine.

An XGK will burn virtually any flammable liquid, including kerosene. There are other multi-fuel stoves, such as the Optimus Nova (which I also have) but a lot of people consider the XGK the standard for brute force cooking.

It is loud, obnoxious, hot, and almost trouble free. It is also easy to repair, has almost no moving parts, uses the standard MSR pump and will last for years. Both the stove and the pump are about as simple a design as you can find for a pressurized liquid fuel stove.

Safe? Depends on your definition. No stove is perfectly safe. Just be sensible about priming it and use it outdoors only.

I have set both my stove and pump on fire (not on purpose, of course) and they both were no worse for the wear.

They are pricey, but you can probably find one of the old ones fairly cheap, which is another reason I recommend it-there are a lot of them around.

One more reason to get one-MSR has great customer service and even supports old stoves like mine. They sent me some parts for free a few years ago when I rebuilt mine and asked them about finding parts for it.


I am "this close" to pulling the trigger on an MSR XGK..........does it burn alcohol?
Another stupid question........just wondering.........