MSR PocketRocket 2 Ultralight Camping and Backpacking Stove

I have used this stove for 4 years now on various overnight backpacking and day hikes. It fits inside of a titanium cup, along with the fuel can. It is far more flexible than a Jet Boil. You can adjust the fuel canister size for the length of your trip (I always use the smallest, because even that last several days. The stove lights easily, stays lit in high winds, and boils water super quick. This is good gear. Read more

Arrived in standard MSR form. Great quality and value. Light and reliable. Read more

One of the best backpacking stoves I have bought. It is very lightweight and portable. Takes up almost no room in my backpack and comes with a waterproof case. Read more

This is a really solid camping stove. There is a reason it is called the pocket rocket! It packs a lot of heat and power despite being small and lightweight. Did not have any issues when I used this, it heats water fast and is super easy to travel with so if you are worried about weight or size with backpacking this is a good fit. Keep in mind you do need to give it a little time to cool down before storing and hitting the trail again. Highly recommend this, easy to use and always gets the job done. Read more

Like it a lot. Very compact. Very nice. Would recommend. Read more

I think this is one of my favorite items Ive bought for hiking, camping, and emergencies. Ive always cooked over campfires, was very hesitant to try out a canister/stove set up, but Im so glad I did after so many backpackers had recommended these. The small canisters are only around $5 locally, bought 3, one for everybody coming on our next trip, and one to practice with at home. Yesterday was my first attempt, and worked like a champ. Ive never used a canister/pocket stove before and timed myself to boil water- 5 min for drinkable water...not too shabby for my first time. It was windy as well, and for a good minute I was being nervous with a cheap lighter that wouldnt hold a flame, but once lit, had no issues with the flame going out. I love being able to adjust the flame, I had it set a bit too low which took for more time boiling but Im positive I can get it done at whats advertised (I believe 3 1/2 min). The stove itself seems pretty steady, just pay attention to the measurements it recommends for pots/kettles/so on. Set up time is nothing, you can quickly unfold it, Ive seen other options where you got to put stuff together. Its light but doesnt feel flimsy, seems like good quality when youre unfolding and folding it back up. Ill probably still cook larger meals over a campfire but for quick and safe drinking/cooking water- this beats carrying, waiting, or having to maintain other expensive options. Between this and my Potable tablets, Im good to go, more expensive options are not always the best, boiling is time proven and this just makes it so much easier. Read more

I bought the MSR pocket rocket 2 @ $49.95 and then I bought a Chinese version PSKOOK Portable Camping Stove Ultralight Backpacking Stove with Piezo Ignition, @ $12.80 and they both work surprisingly well and the Chinese made is solid and the MSR looks like the post going up it's made out of like some type of cast iron? I like to know what that is... Looks like pig metal and, the holes are very poorly drilled on all three sides compared to the Chinese version / type... The item overpriced, neat, good to have but, always keep a spare. Cheers! Read more

I am more concerned with fuel burn vs time to boil (which seems the most commonly mentioned statistic of stoves). I did up a little experiment today on how to adjust the valve (flame) for more efficient fuel use. I put my findings on my domain, but am not sure if amazon allows links or not. I'll try anyway: jgp1.com/hiking Here's a cut'n'paste of the webpage I put up, although the formatting will no doubt be less than desirable here... Recently I bought a MSR Pocket Rocket 2 stove, and was curious about the efficiency of fuel used vs time to boil water. So I set up a little experiment, very unscientific. However, as silly as my experiement was, I did glean a little info that I didn't otherwise find on the innernuts souper hi-way. Everyone seems to just post about the time to boil water. Personally, I'm more concerned with how much fuel I burn when I boil water. For the experiments I used: --Jetboil "JetPower" fuel (a barely used 16oz (net weight) can) --1.2L single-wall titanium cook pot, no lid used --16oz of well water, at ~60° (new water with each test) --Indoors, 70°, no wind, etc. --~250' elevation Process: --Stove, attached to gas cylinder, is weighed multiple times to be as accurate as possible. In both ounces and grams (I used grams for my GpS calculation) --Water is measured and poured into a room temp pot, then placed evenly on the stove's legs. --Stove is lit at the most minimal flame possible. --Stove flame is adjusted and the timer is immediately started. --Digital temp probe is placed into the water, about 1/4" above the base of the pot. --Timer is shut off when the water temperature >= 212°. --Stove and gas cylinder are weighed for the "end weight". --Stove and pot are cooled to room temperature prior to next test. --Stove and gas cylinder are weighed before each new test, although you'll notice the weights remain consistant with previous test conclusions. Psuedoscience: Grams per Second (GpS) is the amount of fuel burned per second to reach 212° 1 full turn of the valve. Flame is very high, very loud, and a lot of heat rolling up and away from the outside of the pot. Start weight: 23.10oz / 655g End weight: 22.75oz / 645g Time to Boil: 2:19.93 (min:sec) Fuel Consumed: 0.35oz / 10g Grams per Second: 0.071464 1/2 turn of the valve. Flame is high, very loud, and a good amount of heat rolling up and away from the outside of the pot Start weight: 24.06oz / 682g End weight: 23.74oz / 673g Time to Boil: 2:00.38 (min:sec) Fuel Consumed: 0.32oz / 9g Grams per Second: 0.074763 1/4 turn of the valve. Flame is medium-high, loud, and not too much heat escaping away from the outside of the pot. Start weight: 23.74oz / 673g End weight: 23.42oz / 664g Time to Boil: 2:40.90 (min:sec) Fuel Consumed: 0.32oz / 9g Grams per Second: 0.055935 1/8 turn of the valve. Flame is medium-low, "quiet", and very little heat escaping away. Start weight: 23.42oz / 664g End weight: 23.10oz / 655g Time to Boil: 9:21.47 (yes, 9+ minutes) Fuel Consumed: 0.32oz / 9g Grams per Second: 0.016029 Note: It took FOREVER to get the water to boil, and in fact it did NOT boil. At 210° the water temp stablized (this near the 8.5 minute mark). I had to open the valve, a little at a time, until I was at 1/4 open (stove became louder (torch-like) at this point). Then the water finally hit 212°. My Conclusions: Winner: 1/4 turn: the point where the flame starts to "roar", audiably, seems the sweet spot. Enough heat to actually boil water, and the efficiency is much better (0.055935 GpS) than at more opened valve settings (.07+ GpS). The time to boil is well within reason too. 1/2 turn: is the sweet spot if you can't spare a few more seconds to get a boil going. Doubting I'll ever use it! (although at altitude things will most likely change) Warmly Regarded, literally 1/8 turn: Stove is the most efficient, GpS-wise, at a low flame. Extremely efficient for long duration warming. Won't quite boil water though, but if you have a book to read it'll get close! While I didn't test lower than 1/8th turn, I'm guessing even a tiny warming flame would be extremely efficient, GpS-wise. 1 turn: pointless in my opinion, it is slightly more efficient than 1/2 turn, but a TON of heat rolls up outside the pot. I had to put on a kitchen mitt to hold the digital thermometer over the pot. I also needed the kitchen mitt to grab the pot's handles at the end of the test. I don't carry a mitt in my backpack. :p A wider pot might help with the escaping heat. The 1.2L pot I used is the largest that I personally use/have, and is 5" in diameter. However, it's quite possible that a wider pot would change how effective a more opened up valve would be -- especially with all the heat that escaped during my experiment. Finally, I should add that ALL tests used roughly the same amount of fuel to boil the water (about 9-10 grams of fuel). However the efficiency would come more into play when you keep the heat applied after reaching the boiling point. At 1/4 turn, you'd do much better on fuel used over a longer duration. Even better if you turn down the flame once boiling is reached. How many pots of water can I boil with this can of gas? The Fuel Consumed value makes estimating (guesstimating!) how many times you can boil water from a can of fuel pretty simple. Using the Net Weight of the fuel canister, and using "10" Fuel Consumed as the "standard" makes the math easy. For example, my 16oz JetBoil fuel can's Net Weight is 450g. 450/10 = 45.0, so around 45 pots of boiling water. An 8oz MSR canister is 227g, thus 22.7 pots of boiling water. On average, how many minutes will this can of gas run? The average GpS for the MSR is 0.054548. Thus CanisterNetWeight / 0.054548 = seconds 450g canister: 450/0.054548 = 8,249.653 sec / 60 = 137.494 min / 60 = 2.292 hours 227g canister: 227/0.054548 = 4,161.491 sec / 60 = 69.358 min / 60 = 1.156 hours Note: this is the run time to achieve boiling pots of water Another way to look at it, min/max run time. Least efficient was at 1/2 turn. 450/0.074763 = 6,019.020104 sec / 60 = 100.317 min / 60 = 1.672 hours Most efficient was at 1/8 turn. 450/0.016029 = 28,074.116 sec / 60 = 467.902 min / 60 = 7.798 hours So that can will last somewhere from ~1.5 hours to ~7.75 hours of continuous burning. Note: this is just a "run run run" result. You might be boiling water, you might be slow cooking a pot roast, or you might be heating your tent (eep!) all night long. Read more