Algonquin Adventures / Stoves

**Posted by tentsterforever** 2/01/2017 9:24 am

Hi there,
I'm in the market for a new stove. My old peak 1 has given the ghost. Currently trying to decide between msr dragonfly and primus omnifuel. We do a fair bit of late summer and fall camping. Have always been impressed with primus stoves, love the roar,but haven't had one in 20 years. Anyone out there wanna give me your impressions of either stove being used in the field? Pros and cons and anything else helpful appreciated. I like the ability to handle larger pots, as I'm a bit of a cook and good food is important for us, as well as the stoves ability to simmer. Hot spotting not an issue, have a diffuser plate. Bringing liquid fuel is not a deterrent for us, but efficient burning is. The peak one was truly hopeless in that.
Thanks,
Wanda

**Posted by RPDUKE** 2/01/2017 10:03 am

I have a Dragonfly and have been using it for a couple of years now as the main stove for my crew. Pros are it is very stable and can handle large pots and skillets. It also allows you to control the flame so you can have it roaring to boil water or on a lower flame output to simmer your risotto for example. The only con I have with respect to it is that it does indeed "roar"...it's a jet engine but if that doesn't bother you then the Dragonfly would be a good choice.

**Posted by CanoeClaire** 2/01/2017 10:11 am

We have an MSR Whisperlite and it's served us well for going on 8 years now (we do 2-6 trips/year).

I know that Dragonfly has a bigger base than the Whisperlite for more stability but I've never run into problems with the stability of the whisperlite. It handles a full 2.5L pot without any wobbliness.

For efficiency, I don't have anything to compare it to but we only have a small fuel bottle (325mL MSR) and we usually come home with about 1/3 of it left over (avg 4 day trip with 2 people, only using it for all breakfasts and 1/2 dinners).

It doesn't simmer like a stove at home would but you can manage it a bit by the amount of pumps you give to the fuel bottle.

**Posted by RCSpartan** 2/01/2017 10:58 am

+1 on the Dragonfly. Haven't tried the Primus but the Dragonfly is great if you like to get adventurous with your cooking while out in the bush. I've use both that and the Whisperlite extensively but the Dragonfly is now our go to white gas stove.
They are noisy as you are aware. I recall a 5am wake at a the car camping site before setting off on a large portage day a few summers back. We fired up the DF to make breakfast and likely woke everyone else up in the vicinity with our jet engine of a stove. Oops.

**Posted by Steve E** 2/01/2017 5:39 pm

I have both the Whisperlite and Dragonfly and they are both great stoves. I love the Dragonfly because of it's ability to simmer however it is super noisy in comparison to the Whisperlite. Apparently there is an attachment you can buy called a Dragon Tamer (or something like that) which quiets it down. I've considered looking into this more as the stove is really amazing

**Posted by tentsterforever** 2/01/2017 7:38 pm

Thanks everyone for the fast replies! I have the whisper lite as a backup stove, but can't make it simmer to my liking. Sure sounds like everybody is pretty happy with the Dragonfly. Does the pump give any type of problem as it is made of plastic?
Wanda

**Posted by APPaul** 2/01/2017 9:06 pm

I have been using a Dragonfly for 15 years.

My only real gripe with it is the noise. As mentioned it will wake a whole campsite. Part of the appeal of camping for me is the sound of nature and it wipes that out which is a bit annoying. It also has a lot of moving parts, but with the field kit you can mostly deal with them if problems arise. That aside, it simmers and rockets, is great on fuel, holds a steady temp, is stable for big and small pots, is good in summer and winter and is all around a pretty versatile and reliable stove. It's also common which is good on group trips as a lot of people know how to use them, troubleshoot them and fix them.

As a reaction to the noise and moving parts I bought a Trangia. I love it, especially with the lpg burner. It's now replaces the Dragonfly a lot, but when we are making complicated meals, winter camping and group camping the Dragonfly is still the go to.

**Posted by RCSpartan** 2/02/2017 9:44 am

Paul, we go with the Dragonfly/Trangia combo as well. It's great to have that extra tiny stove when coordinating cooking meals with multiple sides (which we like to do). I use my Trangia to make coffee in the morning which helps to keep things a little more quiet and peaceful.

**Posted by Marko_Mrko** 2/02/2017 11:07 am

Another vote here for Dragonfly/Trangia combo (for groups of 3 or more). I think Trangia alone is doable for 1-2 people, combined with some campfire cooking/baking.
M

**Posted by RPDUKE** 2/02/2017 6:31 pm

The Dragonfly/Trangia combo seems to be a popular one...that's our stove combo as well.

**Posted by ATVenture** 2/02/2017 6:50 pm

My vote goes to the Dragonfly. I've been using one for 5+ years (60+ nights in Algonquin PER year) and I literally haven't done ANY maintenance to it and it works as good as the day I bought it. Just this passed fall I decided I should maybe pull the pump apart just to have a look and everything was 100% fine.. not even a single o-ring needed to be replaced. And only then did I figure out that you can shake the stove to clean out the jet which I haven't done a single time in the last 5 years. Its quite amazing really.

**Posted by tentsterforever** 2/02/2017 7:31 pm

There's sure a lot of dragonfly users out there. Is there a specific reason no one considered the primus omnifuel? They're price comparable. I'm just curious.
But I will definitely put the dragonfly on the top of my list. Anyone know if they ever come on sale?
Thanks so far everyone, it's real neat to read everyone's experiences.
Wanda

**Posted by yellowcanoe** 2/02/2017 8:26 pm

I have two Dragonfly stoves. A weld on the first stove failed and I needed another working stove right away so I bought a second one. I could see that the design of the stove had been modified and the weld that had failed on my first stove was not present on the second stove. When my friend who worked for AO heard about that he said MSR would most likely fix the stove if it was sent back to them. He shipped it to MSR and a few weeks later I got it back in the mail. They didn't just fix the stove -- they rebuilt it to the newer design so the weld that had failed no longer existed!

**Posted by APPaul** 2/03/2017 7:30 am

Wow Drangonfly/Trangia does sound common. I like both that this year I replaced the pump on my Dragonfly and bought a new fuel bottle, and bought the Trangia 25 in the same shopping trip. Committed now!

I could be wrong but I think the Dragonfly is more common because it's been around longer. Primus is also European. That doesn't matter now with the web, but I think a while back it may have been easier to get a Dragonfly than some Primus products, especially new products. For awhile their eropean product set seemed bigger than the North American one. That may have helped MSR develop a following in North America.