I use these three stoves regularly. I my stoves multiple times each day...just because I can and I like to. I boil water, cook things and make toast. I don't conciously rotate them. I hadn't used the Optimus Nova for sometime until early this week. I had even gone off the Nova but once I started using it, I appreciated it all over again. My chug Ringo gets tired of his toys so we occasionally empty out the toy box and then put the toys in again in reverse order. This is a bit what I do with my stoves... I find using Shellite in the Dragonfly or the Nova much easier to prime than say using alcohol and kerosene in either one. The Shellite burns yellow during priming and of course you use the fuel from the bottle for this. It burns yellow which means you can see the flame easily. The alcohol flame is very hard to see and of course you have to guess how much and then squirt it into the wick. Kerosene takes longer to prime as it is a much less volatile substance. Personally I don't want to prime using kerosene. Kerosene burns extremely cleanly once running but not so for priming so I use alcohol for priming. One of the beauties of the Nova is that the kerosene puts out much more heat than either the DF or the Nova on Shellite. It is very noticeable and it means it is easy to do toast with the other option being the Soto Muka, which puts out even more heat than the Nova and I run unleaded petrol in this at the moment. A note on petrol. Numerous people warned me against using petrol rather than the pure naptha which is called Shellite here in Oz. They have a point. I think I would recommend not using unleaded in either the DF or the Nova but unleaded runs just fine in the Soto Muka....so far. The unleaded here when a flame burns on the jet (it happens sometimes) rapidly soots up the jet and requires removing the jet and cleaning the top of the jet. This is why I stopped using the unleaded on the DF and Nova. Unleaded though runs fine on the Muka which has a jet but the flame will never burn on the jet itself as the vapour is pushed through the head through the holes. Now...maybe I will change my mind on burning unleaded in the Muka too, in time, but it does clearly state in the user manual that unleaded can be used. Unleaded is not a recommended fuel in the DF or Nova. The DF they recommend Shellite or the equivalent such as Coleman fuel and for the Nova they actually recommend kerosene. If you look at the Nova burner there are quite big brass ribs rising up around the jet. This acts as a stabiliser and it is quite different to other designs. The Nova also has the pot much closer to the burner than the DF which interestingly has quite a considerable gap. This means on the Nova you can potentially waste energy which goes up the side of a smaller pot on full blast. I'm sure each design has pluses and minuses. I think the best pot support are on the DF of all three stoves, bigger and more ground support. The least ground support would be for the Muka though it is still OK. It is great having a one jet design and it works just fine. You get some streaks of yellow on kerosene but it doesn't soot anything and I guess it could bother a perfectionist. You do also get a bit of chugging on the Nova on petrol but again it is not really an issue. The build quality of all three is extremely good. I know the DF has a plastic pump but I like it just fine. The Nova is built very nicely with great components and a lovely line connector. It does just wreak of quality but then so does the Muka. The MSR Dragonfly has more of a basic but unbreakable aura. I would trust any of these stoves to just work on a trip. I think the single jet in the Nova for all fuels is a nice touch. One interesting comparison is on noise. The quietest stove is the Soto Muka which is also the most powerful as well. After not using the Nova for some time, I noticed immediately it is quieter than the DF. They have the same roarer type burner and I would have thought the noise output would be very similar but it isn't. The Muka does take a bit of pumping but really it is only when not pressurised that it requires a lot of pumping. It still takes a few dozen strokes to really keep the pressure up between burns but in practice I don't think that the Muka is a problem and it is worth it with really no priming required just 10 second in the start position before you turn it to run. I'm not convinced that the leather cup on the Nova Pump is a good idea. I think the pump on the MSR DF is just better and it seals very tightly against the barrel using it's synthetic rubber pump cup. The Muka likewise uses a rubber pump cup and the pump on that is built amazingly well. You know you'd be spoilt with any of these stoves. I love all three but the MSR Dragonfly is the one I like to use the most. I like the colour, the exposed brass and I like the design of the burner cup and the pot supports also. If I had to bring one stove camping though it would be the Optimus Nova. I love the Muka too but it doesn't simmer very well. The flame can be brought down but you need the needle valve adjustment on the burner to made rapid and accurate flamed adjustments over a wide range of heat/flame settings. I might edit or add other things as I recall them but these are my findings after using these stoves a lot over a number of months.
Good morning, This was an interesting read. Thank you for putting your thoughts about the stoves here on CCS. Of the 3 stoves that you have and use, I only have the Dragonfly. Which I haven't used that often yet. As for using unleaded gas. I don't use it, not because it doesn't burn correctly, but because of all the additives that are in it. That may be good for our cars, less so for us. That is the reason why I advice against using unleaded, unless you really have to.
The Dragonfly is an outstanding design and innovative. I do love the Dragonfly. Yes, there are additives in auto fuel and those additives vary a lot. In the bad old days we had high levels of benzene and tetraethyl lead. I know they add organic ether compounds to improve octane.
I'm probably going to get lectured for this but I'm going to report my findings on real world test results with the Dragonfly. I bought the stove new a few years ago. I find this stove to be my go to choice for cold camping, by that I mean winter.. down to about -10C or so while hot tenting with friends. Wife stays home and calls me crazy. I only ever used "regular 87 octane unleaded" gas in this stove from new. It has performed flawless, although not the most powerful it is by far the best simmering stove I own. super easy and very quick to prime with its own fuel. I enjoy it so much that I decided to use it in the summer months too. So far I've probably gone through a good 25L or so on this stove over the last three seasons with no issues and no yellow tips on the flame. To be honest I haven’t even taken it apart to clean it yet because it seems to be working great. Now..I don’t know if pump gas in southern Ontario is different than other areas/countries, maybe. I figured I’d share this even though I’m probably going to get flamed for it.
It is only right that you get flamed on a stove forum and Thanksgiving is coming up...a roasting might be in order. The only reason I don't use unleaded on the Dragonfly is I found our unleaded causes issues if you get a flame on the jet it will carbon up very quickly. We have high sulphur in our fuels and I would guess that is the cause...otherwise I would use unleaded. I still use it in my Soto Muka without any issues so far. Health...smealth issues...that is the other point but it is fine to breathe in the combustion products of petrol...it is good for the planet too...ouch...else why would we allow billions of tonnes of it to be burnt into the atmosphere every year? It is easy to prime using fuel from the stove provided it is unleaded or shellite. It primes quickly, it is easy to estimate how much fuel is needed and the yellow flame means you can see what is going on...utterly reliable and predictable priming. Contrast this with the invisible alcohol flame I use to prime my Optimus Nova running on kerosene. I get used to it but priming with petrol is best. I do get some yellow flame tails using kerosene on the Nova. It uses a single jet and the flow rate with kerosene would be much greater than if a kerosene jet were used. It produces a prodigious amount of heat, more than the Dragonfly on petrol although nothing beats the 4800W fusion power plant of the Soto Muka. I'm even tempted to buy the Primus Omnilite ti to add to the collection but I'd feel bad about having too many stoves...maybe. I think the Dragonfly is an amazingly clever design. I don't think people appreciate the thought that went into this simple device.
“But I’d feel bad about having too many stoves..” That’s what I told myself 15 years ago before I bought this one.
I'm using my Optimus Nova currently of my three stoves. I run it on kerosene...it has become my kerosene stove as it works so well and of course no jet change required. The result of no jet change is that it pumps out a huge amount of heat which means it does my slabs of raisin bread oh so nicely. Priming on alcohol...meh but I get used to it...the worst thing is you can't see the alcohol flame so care is needed to use the right amount. I prefer priming on alcohol to priming using kerosene though. Kerosene is very clean burning but not so when used for priming. You do get some yellow tails but it doesn't cause any sooting or other issues. I attribute this to residual alcohol sometimes and the sheer volume of the fuel flow. This photo of course accentuates the issue due to the shutter speed...I might get my DSLR out and use a high speed to freeze the flame for better definition. I am using a wind shield I purchased separately as I use the stoves every day and I want to preserve the thin foil ones included which are more delicate.
@InspectorGadget That flame pattern looks like it was inspired by Edvard Munch. What camera settings did you use? Regards John
It was just an iPhone shot probably at a low shutter speed...The Kerosene Scream It actually looks very pastel like a flame done with chalk
I've been using my Nova now daily on kerosene. Latest small change is priming with alcohol and a small amount of kerosene...makes it easier to light and somewhat cleaner to prime. It still surprises me just how much heat it puts out on kerosene. It means I don't need to alternate between the Soto Muka for toast and the MSR Dragonfly for general cooking. I still like petrol for ease of lighting but kerosene is the safer fuel as sparks or static can't set it off and it is generally less volatile. Kerosene is half the price here in Australia compared to Shellite. I can run kerosene in the MSR of course but it produces the same energy as petrol if you change the jets and use the correct kerosene jet...I know some on the forum use the petrol jet for kerosene on the MSR which should give a similar result to the Nova. The Nova though has a very solid heat sink design with six vanes and my bet is it is designed to run on Kerosene first and foremost and this is the recommended fuel in the manual.
Lovely pictures. We’re all going to run our stoves on less than optimal fuel now to get the colorful photos.
Graet photos! I just started to become interested in this photography because when I tried to do a flame shot they sucked. Better now, but not by much!
Flames are beautiful and you can play around quite a bit with shutter speed and focus to get the effect you want. I really should do more myself as I have the equipment. The flame with the Nova on kerosene is interesting as it does have yellow in the upper parts of the flame...makes it interesting and it pumps out huge heat on kero...which works well where I want heat such as for toast. I use it quite a bit for that.
