MSR XGK-EX Multi-Fuel Mountaineering Expedition Stove

Used this all last season, worked awesome! no complaints at all, will keep in my kit for this season as well. I have only tried it with white gas and diesel out of curiosity. It will work with diesel, but it takes a little longer to light.

The MSR-XGK EX stove burns like a jet engine. Yes, it is noisy. It will burn various fuels, including: diesel, kerosene, gasoline, and more. I've been using mine with gasoline at the moment. With no experience with this stove, I followed the included instructions, set it up, and had it operating in just a few minutes. Others have mentioned that the plastic pressure pump might be light duty. I found the pump to work fine. (The plunger does seem a little flimsy, but if you pay attention and use it properly it should go the distance.) The priming is easy, and once the unit is warmed up it burns with a blue flame. Have long matches or a good lighter to reach into the burn zone for initial ignition. Using the valve at the bottle, it's not really possible to control the heat. Don't plan on doing any gentle simmering. However, it will bring your pot to a boil in a hurry.It comes with a nylon bag to keep everything neatly contained. There are two heat shields, one for beneath the stove, one to wrap around. The wrap around one is a bit unruly until you use it a few times (bring a clip with you to join the ends). There is also a little service kit that will come in handy for changing jets, cleaning, etc.I put a two litre pot nearly full of water on this stove (from the Alpinist 2 System), and the unit was rock solid. The legs and pot holders are well built giving a stable platform to do your cooking. After cool down, breakdown is simple. I keep a small brush in my kit to whisk away small amounts of soot that may be there in an effort to keep things as tidy as possible. The less mess, the better for any piece of equipment.This stove meets all the critical criteria for my hiking/survival kit. It's compact, reliable, fairly light, rugged, and ready to go with a minimum of set up. Please note, you have to buy the fuel bottle separately. (I went with the 20oz because my trips are short.) It burns all the common fuels, which means flexibility to suit your location or situation. Most importantly, it has a strong history from a company that takes its products seriously. I have an HD video showing the unboxing, setup, and operation of this unit when it was brand new. You can find it on my YouTube channel: lenswork4, by searching for MSR XGK-EX on the channel. (Video was too long to fit here on Amazon. You see the MSR Alpinist 2 system on that video, too.)

I’ve used my MSR for 5 years now and have never had an issue. I have burned 5-6 20 oz bottles of Coleman white gas.You will not be simmering a risotto with this stove. It is loud and hot! It is either full send or off. Boils water in no time flat. I am surprised how little fuel it uses.The flimsy looking aluminum wind guard looks like a joke but it is light and keeps the heat on the pot! I have folded and unfolded it so many times and holds up great.I use it year round camping and ice fishing.It is pretty sturdy. We forgot our Coleman propane camp stove once and I placed a cast iron frying pan on it and cooked our whole meal with it. Certainly not built to be used like that but it held up.Everything but the bottle fits good in the bag. I bought a maintenance kit because I never wanted to have a dead stove. Haven’t needed to use it yet. I did grease the o-rings as directed.I am not sure this is the best stove but it is able to burn multi fuels, it is built tough, it has been reliable. I keep it in my go bag and comes in pretty handy.

Excellent stove system for cold environments. I used this product when in the field 150km north of the Arctic Circle in Norway, and this stove was my lifeline to being able to have boiled water and hot chows. It burns hot, has a relatively easy starting procedure, is durable enough to last in the field with no leakage, and is not incredibly high maintenance when run on white gas (I can't say the same for kerosene, unleaded gasoline, or diesel). The stove fits tightly into MSR pots, so you can avoid leaving it loose in a pack to get banged up. For anyone who is looking for a stove for above freezing temperatures, you should look into a propane or iso-butane burner rather than this product, as gas based burners work very well and have less startup procedure and lower maintenance. For below freezing or for someone who would rather use the listed fuel sources the EXG advertises, this stove is definitely worth the premium.

This stove fired up easily and right away on the first attempt. Makes the typical "camp stove noise" but I find the "jet engine" description exaggerated and about like my MSR Wisperlite in use. No, you won't need to yell at each other during use.What isn't exaggerated is that this won't be a great choice to simmer a meal, as it's pretty much full blast or off. I didn't try minimum pumps on the bottle as others suggested, but that may be a viable option.I bought a stainless steel heat spreader (nine bucks here) to see if that helps. I expect that it will.It'll boil any reasonable quantity of water quickly, and ought to be usable, as others have mentioned, pretty much anywhere you'd care to travel. Very solid and stable.Not the lightest, but you ought to be able to burn most any fuel (I tried it with white gas, what I typically use) you can find. The larger heating coil will help elevate fuel temps to full vaporization.All in all it seems like a great stove! My Whisper light is 39 years old and still going strong.Cheers.