User Review: Soto Muka

Summary

Great stove, complaints about pumping not warranted.

"Also, the pump is threaded and removable for some reason. Im my case, I went to pick up the pump and fuel bottle by the pump handle and to my surprise and alarm it popped off leaving a pencil sized hole in the pump through which I could see inside the fuel bottle! In other scenarios this would mean fuel spilled all over my kit or even worse!!!"

Elkorn in his review in September posted the above, so I immediately got out my stove to check it out. His claim is, in my opinion, preposterous. Yes, the pump handle does thread onto the pump barrel and yes, it can be unscrewed but in no way, shape, or form does it leave a "pencil sized hole" through which you could see the inside of the fuel bottle. On the other end of that barrel (the one inside the bottle) there is a brass fitting that does NOT unscrew. On the end of that brass fitting is a pin hole sized jet. When I looked through the barrel I couldn't even see light when the pump was held next to a light bulb!

Obviously this leaves me concerned about the remainder of his review — particularly the part about the liquid fuel fire. I've used my stove for an entire summer season and I don't find the small amount of fumes that vent when selecting air to be onerous at all especially given the fact that you don't experience any of the smell problems associated with priming most other liquid fuel stoves.

I would much rather do a little extra pumping as a tradeoff for the no priming feature and the lack of soot on my pot and the stove. In addition to this liquid fuel stove I own an MSR Whisperlite and an MSR Dragonfly. The Muka is no more adversely effected by breezes than either of the other two stoves and is a lot less noisy.

This stove has become my go-to stove when temperatures drop into the range where canister stoves become ineffective — and yes, my canister stove is also a Soto Micro Regulator and no, I don't work for Soto, I just like well engineered gear that works well.

I would recommend this stove to anyone that asks about it.