I'm curious as to what experience people have with the MSR Windpro stove for snow camping, using it with the canister inverted. Beyond general impressions,I'd especially like to hear about:
Any comparisons of fuel usage between white gas and c canisters - i.e.,"I used to use a liter of white gas for a week of snow camping, now I use 2 canisters" or whatever the numbers are.
Anyone who has experienced what Roger Caffin has with some substance gunking up the valve.
And what means you use to hold the canister in an inverted position.
Thanks!

I can only speak to keeping it inverted, which is I use it that way ALL the time. Loosened the adapter connection, rotated it 180 degrees and retightened. If it's windy I suspect you may need to lean the canister against something. I've heard others have used like small butter tubs with a slot cut to place the inverted canister in.

I haven't had the chance to use in the snow or long enough to worry about a gunky valve.

Primus folding legs and a bit of epoxy resin:

Edited by nsjohnstone on 12/28/2009 09:59:00 MST.

Hi guys, I just got a Windpro I plan to use for winter, but the adapter connection is really tight, how did you loosen it and make the adjustment?

Thanks.

A large vice and the RIGHT-sized spanner.
I suspect there may be some thread-lock on the nut, which makes it a bit hard the first time.

Cheers

Thanks Roger, I have the hose disconnected from the valve, should I be able to rotate the two brass pieces separately to flip it upside down once it's tightened back down?

EDIT: Never mind, I figured it out. Thanks for the help; I look forward to using the stove in the snow soon.

Edited by Greyhound on 01/04/2010 13:01:35 MST.

Hi Greyson

From memory ... I loosened the connector and rotated the hose, but it sticks in my mind that at one end of the hose there was no 'free' rotation. That is, the final angle depended on how tightly I did the nut up. But since the thread is quite fine, I was able to get a seal at the desired angle. It may be that you can only make the adjustment at one end, not at both.

Can you take a photo or two and report back how it goes?

Cheers

Hi Roger, I ended up completely unscrewing the hose from the valve, then rotating the crimped brass piece independent of the brass nut roughly 180 degrees. I didn't hit 180 exactly but came close enough for easy inverted operation. I then screwed the hose tightly back into the valve. Hopefully rotating the two brass pieces independently didn't cause any problems with the internal hose.

Likely not an issue. I don't recall having any problem rotating mine to exactly where I wanted it. FWIW, I let it and a used canister sit outside for a couple hours last night at 10* F, and it fired right up inverted.

Did the same test with my SuperCat and HEET and it also seemed to work fine though I did have to put the match pretty much right on the HEET and it did take longer before I heard the HEET boil. This was mostly just to satisfy my curiousity since most say alcohol stoves don't work well at cold temps.

Thanks Michael,
My stove did indeed light up when I got home, so no problems with the modification.
Now I'll be tinkering with a stand for the canister, likely just a rubber band and 3 Y-stakes.

Hi Greyson

> I'll be tinkering with a stand for the canister
Yeah, I went down that route for a while. Eventually I gave up and realised that I could stick the canister upside down on the ground leaning against a shoe or anything handy. Rocks, sticks ... In the snow I have used lumps of hard snow (snowballs?) to prop the canister upside down. It all works fine, and has zero carry weight.

Cheers

... you can get a Brunton hose & canister stove adapter for taking any Lindal valve thread stove like, say a Pocket Rocket, and do the same thing - i.e. invert the canister end atatchment.

Eric, I thought the Brunton adapter will get the canister away, but it's not the same as having a preheat tube on those setups like MSR Windpro or Colement Exponent Xtreme. Maybe Roger will comment.

We have an article on that:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/myog_winter_stove_summer_upright_stove_brunton_stnd.html


Cheers

Roger,

Yes, your article was the one I was thinking about. I should have been more specific and referred to it.

Your heat sink strip/clamp and flow reduction rod are the heart of this adaptation. Nice engineering and very safe to use.

But I am of the "liquid fuel persuasion" when it comes to winter camping. My MSR Dragonfly and SVEA 123 will do fine for me.

Edited by Danepacker on 02/03/2010 15:32:07 MST.

Hey guys,

I got my windpro out in the snow finally during a winter camping trip, and it worked OK...
It lit fine and would burn fine, but it seemed each time I turned my back to get more snow, it would start to die. I'd turn it up another 1/4 turn, and it would become a blow torch again. Then the process would repeat - maybe 5-7 times each time I'd just open the valve a tiny bit and it would fire up again.
Any thoughts, suggestions? I'd like to have that figured out before I go out again.

Thanks,
Greyson

I would recommend checking your hose connection for leaks before regular use. When I rotated my connection and checked for leaks in the fall I noticed a lot of gas bubbles escaping. Loctite on the threads before tightening back up solved the problem.

Hi Greyson

Known problem, especially for the Windpro. Have a look here:

.
Strip the needle valve out and look at the tip. There will be some gunge on it - see F in the photo. I suspect this is the remains of the odorant put into the canister so you can smell any leaking gas. Pity the stuff used in some brands doesn't vaporise very well.

Cure: clean the valve (tip and seat) after every trip, or even before you fire the stove up if last night was suspect. But keep the valve clean if you do.

Cheers

Roger how do you go about removing the needle valve (don't won't to break anything :))?

thanks

Mike

Hi Mike

> how do you go about removing the needle valve
Depends on the stove. Some stoves have a retaining pin which has to be pushed out, while other stoves have a lock nut as shown in my pic. For the lock nut, you need the right-sized spanner for the nut and something to hold the body of the stove. The connection may initially be tight, or even Loctited in, so some careful force may be needed to get the nut loose.

If the factory put the valve in the hole, you can get it back out again!

Cheers and Merry Xmas