VIDEO: MSR Reactor stove £110

It's been the most eagerly awaited stove this year and now it's performance is cooking up a storm, when backpackers debate which is the best stove for backpackers.

According to the manufacturers, the MSR Reactor is the fastest and most fuel efficient stove system available.

There is a full review of the MSR Reactor in the December issue of Trail. For a glimpse of what all the fuss is about, check out the movie.



For more information go to the importer's First Ascent web site

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NEWS: Primus ETAExpress

Live from OutDoor 2007: Not content with producing the award winning ETAPower MF two to three person stove, Primus have added a one to two person compact model called the EtaExpress. Like its bigger brother the new EtaExpress boasts a heat exchanger and windshield that combine to redefine the meaning of cooker efficiency. The Primus Total Weight concept means that this sove is lighter than most when the fuel use required for a week it taken into account.

With a packed weight of 418g without gas and a boil time of 2.5 minutes, the ETAPower Express allows a backpacker to carry an intergrated cooking system that weighs in at 700g including fuel for a week's trip.

The ETAPower nows runs head to head with the well established Jetboil and the new MSR Reactor stove for the coveted award of best backpacker stove! Watch this space for details of a burn-off between these big three.

SCOOP: Up close with MSR's controversial Reactor

The Jetboil-rival everyone's talking about landed in the office this morning, giving you the chance to pore over its features. As regular readers of the Gear Blog will know, the Reactor's currently on hold pending an investigation by MSR into why some of its pre-production models failed carbon monoxide tests. It's thought the design may starve the innovative convex burner of sufficient air to complete combustion properly, in some circumstances. However, the 1.5 litre stove has several other innovative features, like its all-in-one packability (burner and gas cylinder fitting snugly inside the pan); its transparent, rubber-handled lid; its robust, integrated pan handle that doubles as a lid lock when the stove is packed; and of course that jet-turbine-like heat exchanger permanently attached to the pan base. It all adds up to a fascinating-looking stove and one we hope is cleared for sale soon. The Jetboil v Primus Eta Power v MSR Reactor group test is one to savour: who will take away the crown for the fastest, most efficient cook times?

• Click any picture for a bigger view.









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NEWS: MSR's Jetboil rival delayed after failing tests

The lauch of MSR's stunning Jetboil rival - Reactor - has been delayed indefinitely after some of the stoves failed key carbon monoxide level tests. In a statement issued by MSR yesterday the firm said: "As we increased production of the Reactor stove, we observed that, despite the majority of units meeting our demanding testing standards, a minority of units were falling short of consistently meeting one of our most stringent testing protocols. During worst case combustion condition testing, some stoves produced higher than desired levels of Carbon Monoxide (CO)."
The move, at the height of the camping season, is a major blow to what looked like Jetboil's first really serious rival. Prototypes were claimed to boil 1.5 litres of water in under three minutes - compared to Jetboil's four minutes - while using less fuel than its rival.
The stove works by using its burner to heat a broad metal plate, which then heats the pot above, reducing the vulnerability of direct-flame heating to wind.

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