MSR SimmerLite Review

"I've had this stove for over three years now and it has never let me down. It's simplicity is probably it's biggest bonus--my hiking buddy and I have been sharing this stove for months since his PocketRocket nearly killed us both! The weight of the fuel is always of concern but with the simmer feature, it is incredibly efficient and using the second smallest MSR container almost always lasts for three days worth of cooking for two."

"It's small, it's light but it is not reasonable to call it a simmering stove. As far as I'm concerned, it's false advertizing. If you want a stove that you can actually cook with (i.e. will simmer when you want it to), get the DragonFly - a much better stove overall."

""Yes, the MSR Simmerlite is light and fuel efficient(22oz. of fuel has lasted for 3 days for two people in winter);however, it would be a great stretch of the imagination to say that it simmers. It would be better to call it a LowBoil-Lite. My 20 year old Peak 1 simmers but not the Simmerlite, but it did work well (like a small blowtorch) in extremely windy, cold conditions once it was lit, which was not all that easy with the exposed priming cup and the wind strong enough to blow away the unattached windshield. I have heard that the MSR XGK is much better in extreme conditions, but that doesn't simmer either. One might think that the Simemrlite would be a better three season backpacking stove, but I have had a hard time keeping things from burning, other than water, when it is used in that capacity.""

"This is a great little stove. It or its sibling the whisperlite has been with me from the Patagonia to the Yukon. It is not perfect and does take some skill to deal with starting in high wind conditions butthese difficulties are minor. It is efficient (used 65ml or 2.2 us oz per day on solo 10 day hikes and between 100 and 120ml per day or 3.3 to 4.0 us oz. It is quiet a feature I appreciate having several other stoves such as the Optimus an others which sound like small jet engines when operating. The only problem I have had was when the small plastic lugs holding the pump plunger retainer cap in place broke off. MSR said they did not stock a replacement part since it was an older model and I was forced to purchase a new pump which has been redesigned hopefully teliminating this weakness.Using white gas as a fuel is also a plus as it is inexpensive and readily available in most countries unlike many of the expensive proprietary cannister models."

"This stove is an excelent 3 season stove if you are just using it for your basic boiling water foods. It cannot simmer; which makes me wonder why MSR named it the simmerlite? For real cooking this is not a good stove but if you are looking for stove that will get the job done fast in the cold this stove is excelent. The only thing is that with the white gas stove the fuel line has to get hot before it will start working correctly so you have to allow some of the fuel out an lite it to get the fuel line hot first. As a white fuel stove it does 10 times better than the butane/propane canister stoves in the winter."

"I thought I was upgrading from my wisperlite mainly so I could turn it down to a low heat. I can't tell that it does this any better than my older wisperlite which is not very well. I'm also having more trouble keeping my pots on the burner. Other than this, it works ok and is pretty light weight."