User Review: Primus OmniFuel

After suffering all sorts of dramas maintaining my old WhisperLite and its flimsy and finicky pump, I finally threw it out and went for one of these puppies. Full throttle it throws flame like a jet engine (and sounds like one!) but still manages to simmer OK if you turn it down.

Most importantly it's a true multifuel stove. It copes with all sorts of liquid fuels, from whitegas through to kerosine (although I personally haven't as yet run it on kero). Best of all it runs on compressed gas cannisters. I occasionally use it with whitegas but mostly seem to run it on cannisters on shorter trips. I even choose it over my lightweight cannister stove most of the time because it's more stable.

Which brings us to the downside...while the OmniFuel is more versatile and robust than most other stoves of the same class, you pay for it with weight: the pump assembly feels like about a kilo of solid aluminium (surely they could shave some weight off the pump??) and the stove unit itself is plenty chunky.

All in all a very good do-everything stove. If you're particularly tough on gear, or only want to buy one stove, then this wold fit the bill nicely. However, if you're a weight weenie then you might want to look elsewhere!