Snow Peak GigaPower Auto

Summary

I've had this stove for five years, and it's never let me down. I work in the mountains, and it goes with me in my travel kit, then pulls duty on backpacking and motorcycle camping trips. Keeping the canister warm in the sleeping bag is a must on nights below freezing, and a stand-up wind block is nice, as is the accessory windscreen from Snow Peak.

I bought this stove initially to use on motorcycle camping trips.  It packs ultra small, lights easily, and is pretty frugal on fuel in most conditions.  I liked it so much that it replaced another stove that I carry in my work truck for emergencies. 

It's been on 50-60 bike camping trips, a few overnight pack trips, and countless day hikes.  It's never once failed to light or do anything but an excellent job.  The flame is very easily controlled, and this is my go-to stove for cooking things that need a lower flame, such as rice.  It'll simmer better than any stove that I've owned, which is a nice plus when I'm cooking something other than a dehydrated meal.

The stove will usually boil a quart of water in 3- 4 minutes, depending on altitude, ambient temperature, and wind.  I've never had it blow out due to wind, and the excellent Snow Peak windscreen does wonders for reducing fuel usage and boil times.

A small canister of fuel will usually last an entire 2-night weekend trip for just boiling water.  I've used this stove on family car camping trips, and a large canister still had a bit of fuel left after 5 days of cooking all kinds of meals in Sequoia National Park. 

This is a tough little piece-o-gear.  It's never shown any signs of wear and tear, despite being used over a hundred times or more.  I've just ordered a rebuild kit in anticipation of the upcoming outdoor season, but I have not noticed any degradation of the stove's performance in the entire time that I've had it.

Other stoves may boil more quickly, some have whiz-bang features, and some are really cool, but if you want a dependable workhorse that does it all for a great price, then this is the one.

So I had finally decided to upgrade from my Wally World stove, the Coleman Peak 1 canister stove. I never really had any issues with the Coleman stove, but it did not compact very well and the plastic shroud surrounding the stove itself was starting to separate.

I decided to purchase the Snow Peak GigaPower stove with Piezo ignitor, not only because of it's small size, excellent reviews, and commendable performance, but also because it was the stove that was found to be most compatible with the GSI Pinnacle Dualist cookset I had also recently purchased.

The Giga came with a protective plastic container, but because mine will be riding in my cookset, it wasn't really necessary for me.

I've found that the stove is very solid once tightened onto the canister and something that I appreciate is it's foldable support arms create a generous surface platform for your pot. This is one reason why I had decided to stay away from stoves like the MSR Pocket Rocket, as I had heard that it doesn't provide enough support for pots.

The Piezo ignitor is a great touch...not absolutely necessary, but a great touch nonetheless. It's so quick to set up the stove, click the ignitor, and get right to cooking. Yes, the possibility exists that the Piezo may fail at some point, but who goes into the field without a lighter or at the very least a container of matches? Whether the Piezo functions or not, you will still have at least a functioning manual stove.

The burner adjustments are fine, and you really can adjust down to a nice even simmer. I've been very pleased with this stove and I'm looking forward to using it for years to come.

I've got the GigaPower windscreen on order with REI and I'm hoping this will further enhance this great little stove's already excellent performance.

I bought the titanium version of this stove 1 month ago and have issues with using it in temperatures below zero.

At sea level (at home) I can boil a litre of water in under 6 minutes which is on par with the Jetboil. but obviously significantly lighter weight.

But in the Australian mountains 2000m at temperatures roughly -2C. the stove really did perform poorly. All reviews on this product have been great that is why I bought the stove but I wanted to put it out there for other people thinking of buying the stove that don't if you want to use it for any sort of alpine use. The size of the flame more than halved in-size and boil time more than doubled. And a lot of gas was used. Yes I was using the Snowpeak canister.

I also bought the titanium cookset and they are super light and boil water well. But if you try and cook in titanium it is very hard as the titanium doesn't really heat up. So you end up getting heat transfer directly from the flames into the food. But not to the surrounding areas of the pot. It's hard to explain but basically you cannot cook a steak for example as it will cook directly where the flames are but no heat will spread to the outer edges so that the edges of the steak are raw.

My advise for alpine cooking is to go for a white gas stove for alpine cooking.

Great little stove. Boils and simmers well. Small, compact, light. Easy to use. The piezo ignite feature is awesome! This isn't a stove you're going to cook complex meals on. Boiling water and simple one-pot meals are ideal. If you want to go more gourmet you'll want a bigger (and heavier) stove. But it's supposed to be a lightweight backpacking stove, and it fits that niche to a tee.

Like just about every stove in this design category it doesn't do good in wind. I made my own windscreen and will be purchasing the SnowPeak windscreen made especially for this model in the future. (SnowPeak if you're listening, why not just include a windscreen with the stove in the first place? I'd pay the extra $6 or $8 the windscreen costs to have it included. Plus then I'd given you 5 stars.)

Flame adjust is a bit sensitive, but it takes about 2 seconds to figure it out and get used to it. Plus if you flame out the piezo reignites it in a snap.

The four pot supports are very stable. I like this over some other lightweights with only 3 and smaller pot supports. Lightweight don't mean a thing if your meal is all over the ground because the pot fell off.

Overall this is a very good stove for what it's designed for and the price.

The Buffalope

This is a great little stove: solid quality, 4 cooking dish rests (as opposed to 3 on the MSR compacts), folds up nicely into a small container; comes with a nice sturdy container, and has auto-ignite (as opposed to the lightweight, compact MSR).

This stove puts out a very nice flame and, with the bigger stand, I can cook with a larger bowl, meaning more surface area to heat quicker. Check out some of the Snow Peak titanium bowl kits. There is one with 2 bowls and a small frying pan. With this kit, and this stove you can boil water so fast, I think it's faster than jetboil. It blew me away the first time I boiled water. And with this larger bowl, you can get the large 8oz fuel cans and fit them in nicely.

The only beef with the stove is that it's tough to adjust low flame. The cock/valve has some springiness at low-end that wants to turn off when down that low. But it's manageable. I would have given 5 stars if it wasn't for that slight issue.

I agree with Stewart; this stove rocks. I've never used a stove so small, compact and powerful before. I've always used propane stoves.

This little stove powers up on the first light. It can't get better than that!!! I've cooked for four people and only used half a canister of fuel. I bring four canisters of fuel with me when I go for two weeks at a time. It's a little bulky in my Palisade, but I only use two canisters.

The overall design of the snow peak allows me to stow it in the front pocket of my pack along with my Bibler easton poles and gerber axe that's lashed on the outside pocket of my pack.

I have used it in the winter in the high desert where it's cold and windy--no problem whatsoever!!! It's a great little powerful stove it puts the heat in no time flat (that's when I'm boiling water for my Mountain House freeze-dried food--not a bad product!).

What more can I say about this stove innovation? Except that it "KICKS ASS!!!"

This stove rocks! Super compact and lightweight. I weighed the stove, stove storage box, and a 80min. canister for a total of 1 lb. 1 oz. I picked it up for a pack that I just returned from.

My experience is that it cooks faster than advertised. With the igniter this stove is super fast from start to boil. I did not time it but it boiled 4 cups of water in my titanium very quickly. We were at 6000 ft in the Trinity Alps and it was warm so maybe that was a factor. It did get just a bit breezy and was blowing the flame a bit but not out. I may look into the wind guard. I actually picked up two of them as there was to be three in our party, at least two of us could cook at once.

Everyone was very impressed with the stove and its performance! They were not familiar with this stove and could not get over just how compact and lightweight it really is!!

Summary

Out of my four stoves this one's my go-to stove.

Sets up fast and is fairly stable. The only thing I forget sometimes is to shut off the fuel valve when setting it up so as not to waste gas.

I have the igniter on mine and it lights fast. I have used it at 8,700' in 28 degree temps and it works ok, just be prepared to use more fuel. A winter mix would work best.

I carry heavy duty foil to use as a wind screen which works well on windy days. Fits in my titanium cook pot set with two spare fuel canisters..

Had it for five seasons and it's still going strong...

Bought this stove last year for when I just need something for just me. I love my MSR Dragonfly but this stove is perfect for solo backpacking. Add the wind screen and that's all it needs.

The best thing I like is this stove has great flame control, it can simmer foods or just boil water for Mountain House meals. You can make any food you want to pack in. Plus it all fits in my cook set along with a fuel canister.

So far it only takes a couple clicks to light. If the auto ignition fails, I have been able to light the stove with a strike or two from my fire steel. Have used the stove at temps of 15 degree F. with no problems.

Great little stove for 1 or 2 people, quick, easy to use and for extended stay you just need to bring another fuel canister.

I agree completely with the review. I've had this stove for many years, and it's absolutely the best for ultralight backpacking. It's the most compact stove out there, heats water fast on moderate fuel consumption, and is dead reliable. Like any canister stove, at temperatures below freezing, it starts to lose some oomph.

I've never had to clean, rebuild, or otherwise fuss with this stove, and the igniter has always worked. On top of that, the price has come down significantly since I bought mine.

An excellent product.

I've had this stove for years -- I previously had (and still use for winter travel) an MSR Whisperlite that is big, heavy, and is either "full blast" or "off." The SnowPeak is light and tiny, and it simmers wonderfully.

I have two gripes with the stove:

1. It doesn't do too well in wind, but most stoves I'm familiar with don't. I finally broke down and bought the windscreen, which helps tremendously in windy conditions.

2. The fundamental problem that this uses non-reusable, non-refillable canisters -- those disadvantages are obvious (the canisters aren't cheap, you either wind up with a half-burned canister or carrying a full and a partly-empty canister, etc.)

I used to use an MSR Whisperlite and it was great and then I was fortunate to find this bad a$$ little mother! It is amazing how this little guy works so flawlessly and is so light, functional, and is a decent price to boot.

I will most likely never buy another different kind of stove for as long as I live. This is a truly essential piece of gear that I never go camping, hiking or hunting without and it is so dang light that I never notice or mind the weight even if I don't need to use it.

This is an awesome stove! Being a foody, my stove is very important to me. I recently bought this stove for a four day wilderness canoeing trip. I brought it to accompany my Brunton Optimus stove as I would be cooking some pretty gourmet dishes. It blew my Optimus out of the water. I felt like I had more control over the temp. I had no hotspots that burned my food when using this stove, unlike the Optimus. Its relative size makes it my stove of choice. Next time I hit the woods, I'm bringing my Snow Peak.

This thing rocks!

PROS: Great control, easy lighting (get the piezo igniter -- why bother with matches?), reliable, very compact, comes with a plastic case, light, stable/grippy cooking surface (fold-out wires have a serated surface to help dig into pot bottoms).

CONS: Only thing I can think of is that it may be a bit susceptible to wind. There is an optional Snow Peak windscreen, but bringing it sort of negates the compactness of the product.

CONCLUSION: This is one of the best products I have ever purchased.

This stove is fast and super light. It's worth the extra money for the auto. I've only used this stove for boiling water because it's the only requirement for all the food I use on backpacking trips. When I'm in the woods I don't care about a 5 star gourmet meal, just something to fill me up and keep me going.

Most stoves have 3 cooking rests. Why have 3 when you can have 4? It makes the Snow Peak a more reliable, more stable stove.

Go get one!

I bought this incredibly lightweight stove June 2007 and have loved it for backpacking trips. So easy to start and has a powerful, yet very adjustable flame and stable stove top.

This weekend we opted to take the stove snow camping, even though a white gas stove is usually recommended. At 35 degrees and 7,800' elevation it worked perfectly every time. We did however use a higher isobutane four season mix fuel (Jetboil, Jetpower) and took care not to let it sit in the snow.

After years of frustration with various stove arrangements, I purchased the Snow Peak GigaPower Auto stove--and I'm in love with it.

It's light, stable, efficient, hot, and lights easily every time. My only quibble would be that the adjustment at very low output is kinda difficult, but certainly no worse than any other backpacking stove.

This is easily the best stove in my outdoor cooking armamentarium, which includes an old Coleman 442, a newer Brunton omni-fuel stove, and an MSR Pocket Rocket.

I have used this stove on six hikes, one with 5 people using the stove, 1 can of fuel lasted 2 days, we used mostly freeze dried food. In the wind the wind screen is worth the price and weight. It speeds up boiling times greatly. I have used in the cold down to about 10 deg f and it worked good but a little slow.

This is the best stove I've owned, hands down.

It's super light. It boils in mere minutes. It's stable, even with heavy loads. It uses very little fuel. It has optional accessories including, but not limited to, an ultra light-weight wind cover.

Get this stove, you won't regret it. And for you Gram Weenies out there, there's even a Titanium model.

I completely agree with the other reviewer's critiques. I would just add that, for low heat cooking or simmering, I had a difficult time adjusting the burner down enough to keep things from boiling or burning. I am considering a trivet or something to raise the pot a little. Anyone with similar experience...advice?

I got a starter kit along with the trek mug from REI and boy is this stove lighter and more compact compared to my Whisperlite 600. Lights instantly and requires no priming to start.

Great little stove, takes up hardly any space inside your pack. Thumbs up all the way.

All I can say is WOW. What a great little stove. We have two. One for my son and one for me. Never had problem one. Works great for simmering actual food, and if you just boil water for your food, it does that quickly. Highly recommended.

GREAT stove. VERY light. I prefer it over some of the other canister stoves at the same price and weight. It has 4 stands for better stability, and heat control is somewhat better (think somewhere between a white gas stove and typical canisters).

Very good stove. Very efficient w/ fuel. GET THE AUTO IGNITION, it is nice. And make sure you bring a wind shield. You really couldn't ask for more, it is very small and light and barely uses fuel. Nice product.

It does its job like it should be. Piezo igniter always works.

It's light and compact. I built my own windscreen for it. 

A reliable product.