First Test On The Giga
Feb 1st, 2010 by Sarah
Had time to do a test run on our new Snow Peak Giga Stove this afternoon.
The standards for the test:
37° water (pretty close to the temperature of creek water up high in the Cascade Mountains in summer).
49° outside with a very low breeze.
No windscreen.
Half filled Giga Power fuel canister (we do this because on trips how long do you really have a full canister? The lower the canister, the longer your boil – so take it half way to be fair). Canister was air temperature.
1 GSI Haulite tea kettle with 3 cups water (the perfect amount for a hot FBC meal and a hot beverage)
I did end up with a Piezo igniter on the stove even though at first I was going to just get the standard version. I would have had to buy it online though and just got the fancy version in the end. No loss though, the device is very easy to use.
I prefer testing stoves with a wide bottomed kettle as it is shows how a big pot will fair and is also well balanced. The arm supports worked perfectly with no pot sliding.
Time:
5 minutes to 190°, which is perfect for FBC meals.
5 minutes and 40 seconds to a full boil.
The take from it?
Very acceptable boil times for a canister stove. Many stove tests use room temperature water which doesn’t show the full picture – after all, how many times does one have 70° water when backpacking in the mountains? (See REI’s specs here - they use that temp of water in testing).
I am quite happy with how the stove performed though and can see that it will easily become my new go-to canister stove in my pack. Easy. Simple. And fast for what it is.
~Sarah
