Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation

Inverted canister stoves are a lightweight alternative to liquid fueled (gasoline or kerosene) stoves in cold weather. Not only are they lighter, but they're more mechanically reliable. In my latest blog post, I review a good one, the Kovea Spider.

I've found it to be a really nice, compact stove.

The Monatauk Gnat (left) and the Kovea Spider (right)

For the future, I'd like to see Kovea do more to lighten the 5.9oz/168g Spider stove. I'd like to see a good remote canister stove down in the four ounce range, but this is such a nice little stove that it's hard to complain.

The diminutive Kovea Spider

There is a lighter, by about 3/4 ounce, stove on the market, the FMS-118 Volcano, but there have been some complaints about the Volcano when in inverted canister mode, and I don't think the Volcano packs down anywhere near as small. I can get the Kovea Spider and a 110g canister of gas into either my 780ml Snow Peak pot or my MSR Titan kettle.

A Kovea Spider inside an MSR Titan Kettle

The Kovea Spider (KB-1109) Remote Canister Stove. Have a look if you like.

HJ

Hi HJ, thanks for the review. I bought one of these based on your review. Great to have these features in such a tiny stove.

Hi, Norris,

Very cool. I hope that you like the stove. Let me know how it goes.

As an adjunct to my earlier post, I just put up a blog post on cooking with the new Kovea Spider. Have a look if you like.



HJ

Wow, didn't take long to arrive, maybe a week? After ordering on Ebay as described in HJ's blog I received a small parcel via ordinary mail today. The stove is amazingly small and light, and comes in a little black drawstring pouch, with a little igniter tool as described by HJ. The build quality is immediately apparent, the bottom of the stove is a machined brass piece with some small inset screws that reminds one of a watch.
I hooked up a left-over fuel canister with a small amount of fuel in it and gave it a try. One thing you have to pay attention to is that the wire handle for the valve needs to be unfolded before you screw the valve onto the gas canister. If you don't, you may hear an immediate hissing sound and then look around for the valve handle only to notice that it is still folded under the valve and that you trapped it between the valve and the gas canister in your eagerness to screw the valve onto the canister. No worries unless you have a lit flame nearby The instructions probably warn you about this, but they are in Korean
After a short warmup period, you can invert the canister and get a lot more power out of the stove for any given valve setting. I had it on a very low simmer with the canister sitting upright, then inverted the canister and got a good strong output from the stove. So this stove would be great for getting the most out of your gas canisters, especially in cold weather, where I have (with an MSR Reactor for example) found myself cradling the canister in my hands to warm it to help it along. Super stoked that I got this, thanks for the tip HJ!! Buy one of these, they are incredibly inexpensive, and so light and portable that you can tuck one in your pack along with a fold-flat aluminum windscreen and a small canister and not notice the weight or space.

Hikin_Jim wrote:Inverted canister stoves are a lightweight alternative to liquid fueled (gasoline or kerosene) stoves in cold weather.

I'm not big on cold, so I know nothing about liquid fueled stoves for cold weather, but it sure is good to hear tricks to make my good ol' Whisperlite perform better when the thermometer gets rude with me.

Norris wrote:Wow, didn't take long to arrive, maybe a week? After ordering on Ebay as described in HJ's blog I received a small parcel via ordinary mail today.

Nice. That's fast shipping.

Norris wrote:The stove is amazingly small and light, and comes in a little black drawstring pouch, with a little igniter tool as described by HJ. The build quality is immediately apparent, the bottom of the stove is a machined brass piece with some small inset screws that reminds one of a watch.

That's part of what impressed me with the stove as well. The machining is really nice. The parts are well designed, and the fit is really good. Just looking at it in a catalog, I knew they had a good basic design provided that the execution was good -- and it is.

Norris wrote:After a short warmup period, you can invert the canister and get a lot more power out of the stove for any given valve setting. I had it on a very low simmer with the canister sitting upright, then inverted the canister and got a good strong output from the stove. So this stove would be great for getting the most out of your gas canisters, especially in cold weather, where I have (with an MSR Reactor for example) found myself cradling the canister in my hands to warm it to help it along.

Yes, you do get a lot of power. Liquefied gas expands about 200 times it's volume when it vaporizes. That's some serious pressure. No candle flame here. Think power. The down side is that it's harder to simmer. But in winter, I'll take the power -- and the cold weather performance.

Norris wrote:Super stoked that I got this, thanks for the tip HJ!! Buy one of these, they are incredibly inexpensive, and so light and portable that you can tuck one in your pack along with a fold-flat aluminum windscreen and a small canister and not notice the weight or space.

This stove weighs 1/3 of what a Reactor weighs and will perform better in temperatures below freezing. (of course in all fairness, the Reactor includes a pot) The spider should work down to 0 Fahrenheit with a fresh canister of 80% isobutane and 20% propane. For cold weather, don't buy gas that contains "regular" butane (Coleman, Primus, Optimus, Glowmaster, etc.).

It's a danged nice stove. A lot of stoves I test -- and then they go into a plastic storage bin until I need that specific stove again (but they don't get regular use). The Spider has gone with me on family trips and stuff. In other words, this is now a "personal" stove, not just one that I picked up for my blog or something.

HJ

HH8 wrote:

Hikin_Jim wrote:Inverted canister stoves are a lightweight alternative to liquid fueled (gasoline or kerosene) stoves in cold weather.

I'm not big on cold, so I know nothing about liquid fueled stoves for cold weather, but it sure is good to hear tricks to make my good ol' Whisperlite perform better when the thermometer gets rude with me.

Well, turning the fuel bottle on a Whisperlite unfortunately won' t improve performance (actually, on a Whisperlite, it will render the stove unable to function). The inverted canister is a trick for canister gas stoves -- and they have to have a pre-heat loop or the equivalent for the trick to work right.

HJ

Thanks for another great review, Jim.

I'm keeping an eye out for one with timely delivery (vs *weeks* on Kovea site) as the size / features would make it a good replacement for my can-gas stovette. I very rarely use my multi-fuel Intl and vintage Svea and Optimus (box) stove. Maybe because I very rarely have any chance for multi-day excursions, just single/overnight.

'sides--I'm mostly just boiling water for simple comestibles, unlike your tasty meals.

kind regards
arocknoid

"Of course I need a Spider stove!")

Haven't been around much lately. Working 7 days/week right now.

TheGearHouse.com is now carrying the Kovea Spider, so you could probably pick one up without having to wait forever.

HJ