Reader Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5

The canister stove to measure all others by. With a homemade wind screen (easily done with practically no weight penalty) it will perform as good or better than it's competition. Still the best made in terms of quality of materials, finish, and balance between output and fuel efficiency. No plastic parts to break. Folds elegantly and compactly. Piezo ignition is fragile and superfluous ( as is true on most other canister stoves) .

Rating: 3 / 5

No complaints on the form factor, heat output, and incredibly compact size.

Pot supports are not aggressive and small pots / mugs with smooth bottoms, like Snow Peak's own cookware, slide around.

And can't they fix the off-centered valve so you don't have to open the valve to fold up the stove, and remind yourself to close it when you screw it into the canister?

Rating: 5 / 5

The stove lights in an instant and I love the piezo lighter, I don't have to dig around in my kitchen bag for a lighter and burn my fingers trying to light the stove in a wind. It is a challenge to squeeze the folded stove into it's plastic container, but it does fit. I bring water to a boil so quickly that my usual program of taking down the tent while I wait for water to boil doesn't work anymore. I barely have time to open a soup package and pour out the soup into a cup. The stove is incredibly efficient using a very small amount of fuel. As with any cannister, its hard to know exactly how much fuel you have left, but shaking it tells me there is some left and I have never come close to running out. Fabulous lightweight efficient simple stove!

Rating: 4 / 5

Great little, lightweight stove: 3.2 oz (mfr stated) with piezo ignition, which I have found to work just fine and provides further convenience.

Used with a windscreen I can easily go 9 days on a 100g canister (the JetBoil canister works fine). I too would like to get it to fold up without having to half-turn on the valve...although you learn to remember once you've sprayed yourself with isobutane a few times.

Rating: 5 / 5

I love it. I stuff it into a ziplock bag for more space / weight savings. Ignition system has always worked great for me. Very fast to set up, high heat output and great control over the flame.

No complaints about my mug sliding around on top. I'd rather have my pot fall off than the stove tip over.

I always check the valve before installing a canister so there's no issue with it being open. Seems like common sense to me when dealing with compressed flamable gas. What's gonna happen to you guys when you have to re-fuel your car with hydrogen? :-)

Rating: 2 / 5

I had one of these for almost a year. I thought the four pot supports were a great idea and wish more manufacturers would do so. However I had a few issues and thanks to REI return policy I was able to exchange for credit toward what I believe to be a better stove.

The main complaint I had with the Giga Stove was the valve;

1. It always drifted up from a simmer so you had to continuously watch your flame if you were simmering food.
2. You had to turn the valve from the full off position to store the stove.

My other issue was with the Piezo ignition; in the cold it would always take a few tries to ignite.

Rating: 5 / 5

This is my favorite canister solo stove. 4 pot supports provide great stability, and little slipping. The height of the stove isn't so tall that a pot gets overly tippy, either. You do need to slightly open the valve to fold the handle in before storing it in the little plastic box. I avoid that issue by storing the stove, sans box, inside the Mini-Solo cook set along with my soon and gas cylinder. (I can leave the valve tightly closed, and still fold the handle over.)

About the little plastic box: why do they leave a sprue hole in the bottom? If they could somehow close that, the box might be worth something as a measuring cup. As it is, it's just dead weight, and gets left at home.

If you're looking to absolutely minimize weight, the Gigapower is a gem.

Edited by garkjr on 02/03/2009 22:01:25 MST.

Rating: 5 / 5

I use mine with the Snow Peak Solo Pot and have never had a problem with it sliding around the pot supports. I store mine without the plastic container inside my pot along with a fuel cannister so I don't have a problem with the valve issue.

I experiment with other stoves from time to time but always come back to this one. Can't be beat for efficiency and realibility in my opinion.

Rating: 5 / 5

I've used mine for ... many years now.
I was initially irritated by the valve off position, but then I wondered:
It is otherwise superbly made: what if the valve position is deliberate? Why would they do that?
It means that I never pack the stove away with the valve jammed shut. Maybe this has contributed to the long life of the valve seat?
My 2c.

Also, I found that the slow drift some have mentioned was eliminated completely when I stripped the valve down, clean all the parts, lubricated the O-rings carefully and reassembled it. No drift at all now.

Gold Standard.

Edited by rcaffin on 10/24/2006 16:06:10 MDT.

Rating: 5 / 5

Good thought.

I bring this stove whenever I need to simmer, one disadvantage of alcohol stoves.

I like it much, much, much better than the MSR pocket rocket, the 4 titanium stands are much more sturdy and strong than the 3 on the pocket rocket. the size of the valve adjuster is anoying, so I plan to switch it out for a smaller one.

Great stove, the best canister stove I have seen. 5

Rating: 5 / 5

The stove I use has the push button starter, like its stainless steel counter-partner IMO it is great. The luxury of taking it out, pushing the button and heating water for a good dinner surpasses other types of stoves for enjoying camping IMO. I was really happy that it could simmer water for dinner, turn it off, and then start it back up again instantly to heat water for tea and chocolate after dinner.

It fits in my MSR Titan Kettle, w/ fuel container, and my esbit stove and fuel tabs. Its size, functionality, and weight make it a 5 for me.

Update: I am checking into the simmering issue mentioned by other posters; it has been hard to get the heat down but I am not sure why that is.

Edited by bdavis on 12/15/2006 15:47:00 MST.

Rating: 5 / 5

Got mine (Auto-Ignition) a couple years ago as my Xmas present to myself (single engineers have money...), loved it ever since.

Rating: 5 / 5

Excellent Stove:
Convenient Adj. Heat, Lightweight, Compact and Dependable…
At times I consider it a luxury item!

Rating: 1 / 5

This stove failed the simmer test. The valve slowly creeps open from the low setting to a higher one. Confirmed by a rep. in the store. My Snowpeak lantern uses the same part number valve (checked the blueprints in a store), and it also creeps open. I wrote SP and I'm returning them both for replacements (store won't return my money because I "used other companies fuel canisters"). I replaced the gigapower with an MSR PocketRocket; it works flawlessly. I don't have the stability problems others have mentioned.

Rating: 3 / 5

Some months back, I used my MSR Pocket Rocket to boil a pan of water when the power went out. I didn't think that the pan should have been too heay for the stove, but after boiling the water, I realized that one of the three supports had become loose where it is riveted at the pivot point. That support arm now just sorta flops around.

Rating: 5 / 5

I have the regular Joe version (no Ti and no piezo). All I do is boil water and this little stove performs flawlessly.

It all nestles into my Trek 700 pot with a canister.

Clean, simple design. Easy to light, never failed. I agree that the valve stem thing is a bit frustrating the first time you encounter the issue. However, once learned, it never happened again.

Rating: 4 / 5

This is a fantastic stove. It has never failed me. It is very light and easy to cook with. I do cook a few things that need to simmer once in a while. It take some practice to get it to burn that slowly but it does work. I got the one without the piezo because it adds weight and I carry a butane lighter in my fire starting kit. I had another stove with a piezo starter and it didn't work that well. I figured I could add the starter later, since it's an option, but I now know I don't have any need for the added weight whatsoever.

Complaints:

1. It's hard to close it up and open it... the pot supports have to be closed up in sequence. This is just annoying.

2. The valve will stick if you leave it closed and then let the stove cool. Not a big deal but again, annoying. If you turn the valve on just a bit and forget you will waste gas as you screw the unit back in.

3. The pot stands are not very aggressive but I think they do the job.

4. Everything folds up to be compact but the valve is set up to be "spring loaded" and wants to stick out. I use the tension here to help hold the stove in place in the pot I store it in.

Now I hardly ever use a canister stove, but if I do then this is the one that goes into my pack.

Edited by jjpitts on 01/08/2007 11:43:33 MST.

Rating: 5 / 5

I love this thing! I have used it in 20 degree weather with no problems. In colder weather I just put the canister in between my layers go for a quick walk to warm myself and the canister and start packing up camp till the canister is warm enough. The flame adjustment is alittle touchy. It works best in the wind with a wind screen, I fashioned one from an oven liner and never had a problem with the canister getting hot, only tested in colder weather ~25-35 degree weather.

Rating: 5 / 5

I use this stove exclusivly, and have for a few years now, i got it on a recommendation from my best friend who has used his for 5 yrs, no issues
I can boil water, simmer soup/stew/rice, fry eggs, bacon etc...we even used this stove to fry up 3lbs of bacon in a 7" cast iron skillet last year...worked perfectly

on my last trip, i had my stove set up, and my rice cooked and was eating before my buddy even had enough kindling for a fire....so i offered him my extra dinner (a spare serving of rice i took, just in case...lol, lucky for him)
and never having used a canister stove before, he had a nice hot bowl of rice in about 4 minutes.
now he owns a giga power!
mine is SS, w/ piezo, never had ANY fail to ignite issues....besides, the piezo igniter is wayyyy lighter than a bic, or zippo, or butane, or whatever else you are carrying

a few items of note....
folding the support arms in, in order makes them fold smaller/easier, this isnt a big deal, 1,2,3,4...simple
and if you insist on having valve closed to store stove, just slide one end of the handle out of the valve, and it folds up perfectly.
and, for you ULTRA gram weenies...replace the valve adj. handle with a paperclip....not only does this save you a few grams, it eliminates the issues of the handle getting in the way
would HIGHLY recommend!

Rating: 3 / 5

Just received ti gigapower with the 1400 pot. I having previously been using the Jetboil cooking system for 1 which has been good but I was looking for something lighter and with a larger pot. I immeadiately tested and timed the gigapower and it boiled 20C 1 litre of water in 9min and 50seconds. (note I was using almost empty canister so you could expect slightly better) I then tested my jetboil and got 4.40sec for 1/2 litre of water. So cooking time wise it was even with Jetboil. Both of these items in the wind need some shielding to be effective I am predicting. My friend just purchased the MSR reactor with a 1.7litre inbuilt pot. It claims to boil 1 litre of water in 3 minutes. That is ridiculously fast. So I will be interested to learn of his results.
In cold temps below zero I have found that the jetboil fuel is not as effective as snowpeaks fuel. Anyone else had this?