Could anybody offer a list of some mainstream liquid fuel (white gas/gasoline) stoves that are relatively quiet without requiring additional silencers/change of burners etc.? Would MSR Whisperlite be a prime example?
@mcjtom , Yes, the Whisperlite is a good choice, as is the Whisperlite International, and the Whisperlite Universal. If you have deeper pockets, seek out an Optimus 199, or an Optimus Ranger #10. Both come with silent burners, and are outstanding stoves. One warning, the #10 is a kerosene stove, only; whilst the 199 runs well on white gas, Meths, or Kero, with a change of jets, and some air restrictors. For Coleman stoves, I love the Model 400. It's totally quiet, and very powerful, but you'd have to find it used. Some food for thought. Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
I had a MSR Dragonfly and thought it noisy. A ytube video twisted my arm for a silent burner for the dragonfly and it was very much better. I like the quiet. We were saying today how are so many million coffee shops so successful given that they grind coffee every 26seconds to make a coffee. What a business. If you can deliver a silent grinder to that market you'd be wealthy; I want to sit and eat and drink with relative quiet. That is what you're paying for - food vans in the street are naturally noisy and you're in the weather... but coffee shops charging big prices??? stoopid. I have seen hwy truck stops change over the years to be nice quiet places to eat good quality food. The good ones are going from strength to strength. You pay... but you do get what you pay for.
Any wick stove, but they're mostly kerosene, not white gas/gasoline. My Lane's Blue Flame Thermil is completely silent, but hardly what you'd call mainstream! Most gravity fed alcohol stoves are also pretty quiet.
If quiet is what you want, a Trangia is hard to beat. Not a white gas stove, but still liquid fuel. Brilliant piece of kit, too.
Whisperlite, at least mine, is kinda noisy. Always thought the name a joke. Maybe it's quieter than some of MSR's other stoves. Might have to go listen to it again. My Phoebus 625 is really quiet.
An optimus 111T if you want to dedicate it with a Gasoline/Naptha jet is a lovely quiet stove. I have a Preway Auto-Cook No.4 which although its a bulky old thing is a whisper quiet double burner Its been used often for tea boiling and bacon butties on the tailgate whilst camping Alec.
@snwcmpr wrote: "" Any stove with the volume turned down. Hilarious!! And, I do agree with @Majicwrench , The Phoebus 625 is a brilliant stove, and very quiet, just as he says!! Good call, Keith! I'd forgotten about that one! Doc
Coleman stoves aren't too bad for noise. I got a quietstove 107 for my MSR dragonfly and it fits in tight and closes up fully with it still fitted. Another option is a used Optimus 111T
Just a heads up, whisperlite produces way more carbon monoxide than most of the other populare stoves in todays market. If you are thinking of using it inside a tent for cooking, buy something els! Generaly speaking, quiet stoves produses more carbonmonoxid than the roaring ones.
Do you have any references for that? I would have thought that any stove burning a nice healthy blue would indicate next to zero CO production. It is good practice not to use any open flame inside a tent unless it is fully contained such as in a hot tent stove. If you do I'd be more concerned about a flare up or a leak...CO would take a while to build up and most tents are naturally ventilated quite well...even when you'd wish otherwise.
Depends a little on the tent but generally cooking in a tent is a bad idea. At best you tent always smells of your last meal. At worst there have been more than a few fatalities to co poisoning after using a stove in a closed tent. With the door open you should get away with it and more than a few tents say its ok to cook in the vestibule. Sometimes there is no choice but think about how to make what you are doing safe. Family size tents have a large air volume so co should be less of a problem but still should you take the risk? Ive cooked inside my family tent occasionally but the door was wide open. Compare it to cooking in a caravan. A bigger issue is that the co ratings for stoves are all done with no pot on top. Different pots can have a huge effect on some stoves. If the flame is on the pot the co goes up. The more heat the pot is taking from the flame the more co you get. Imagine a heat exchanger pot close to the flame full of snow. Thats why the dragonfly has a big gap between burner and pot
It is a mistake to imagine that cooking or heating a tent is safer than a camper or otherwise “solid” enclosure. Maybe this is in part because a tent tends to be drafty, tissue thin materials involved, and large windows. But it turns out, this can be deceptive. It is the exact opposite. Accident or incident reports have shown tent materials become impermeable when wet, and moreso when covered in ice or snow. Many fatalities over the years have resulted because of this.
Just don't sleep with stove burning. I melted a lot of snow in tent vestibules with storms raging outside. XGK and Stainless pots.
Maybe commonsense prevails...I can certainly recall Tramping (Hiking) Huts in New Zealand maintained by the NZ Forest Service, using my Optimus 8R inside. It is different to a tent but the stoves were safe enough to use on stainless steel benches. I guess caution in any confined space and fire is still the biggest threat in a tent with a stove. I've also used my Optimus 8R in my hiking tent. I burnt a hole in the floor of the tent otherwise I may have forgotten that fact. I wouldn't do it with it closed up though. I hiked around Australia with that stove although I can't recall how much it got used once I got out of Western Australia. The melting accident happened in Coral Bay. I was camped right next to the beach in August and it was windy as hell although warm. The foil windscreens....great idea. I bought the Optimus 8R after some winter camping in the Southern Alps of New Zealand with a gas canister stove. I remember thinking that the canister was empty. It was back in the day when you just punctured the canister, no valve. Anyway the liquid butane just spilt out over my hand, plenty in there, just needed more heat.
A deep hole was dug, the shape of the vestibule. Deep enough to sit on the edge and feet dropped in. The stove was placed at the bottom of the trench. It also served in drying wet clothes on line strung inside the tent. Did that once on Mt Rainier and there were 3 of us in a 2 man North Face Mountain tent. High winds like a freight train.
