MSR Rapidfire

Great stove. Pretty sure this was the first canister inverter stove to come out on the market. MSR was way ahead of the curve.

Now they have a smaller lighter version that I also own called the Simmerlite, completely different look.

As the Rapidfire is a little heavy stainless and brass beast from the days of old when we still wore Cordura parkas.

The Rapidfire itself performs flawlessly as it should, needs a wind screen in windy conditions as well as breezy locations, does better in a sheltered location.

If this had a pre-heat bowl attached to the bottom like a WhisperLite this stove will burn liquid fuel.

I tried it once using a Primus Ergo Pump and a piece of welders felt under the vapor tube and some alcohol, heated it up then turned on the fuel.

Worked like a liquid fuel stove..👍

With adapters it can run on Propane and Butane as well.

Now the Cons: The hose is the stiffest braided fuel hose I've ever worked with on a packing stove, like something off the space shuttle!!😆

It makes it a PITA to invert the canister while having a pot on it.

It's hard to keep the stove level because you have to fiddle twisting the valve or the stove on the hose to get everything just so.

And now to cold weather.🌬

The comment about it losing efficiency in cold conditions is that someone didn't realize the vaporizer tube across the edge of the burner head is for inverting the fuel canister feeding it straight liquid fuel out of the canister while the stove is hot.

This stove seems to be one of the least mentioned MSR stove in its past inventory. It's a keeper Just wish it had a more manageable less aggressive hose and a pre-heat cup to use liquid fuel with a pump.

Background

Been out in the wild since I was a kid.
Many backpacking adventures until my knees said enough!!😞
Now it's motorcycle camping.

Excellent remote canister stove, much beloved, but long discontinued.

I can't remember how long I have owned this stove, but I just wanted to add that although the fuel hose is very stiff, the coupling is designed to rotate easily, in order to allow the fuel canister to be upside down for use in cold weather. This stove was discontinued I think over 20 years ago at this point, so the coupling might be a little stiff due to surface corrosion bonding. It *will* rotate, if you apply a little WD-40 and a little force to it.

The main problem with this stove is that it is so old that MSR no longer produces repair kits for it, and the most likely item to fail is the rubber o-rings, as they age and get stiff. Every time I go to use my Rapidfire, I find myself adding a small amount of silicone grease, of the kind used for SCUBA equipment, to the canister valve o-ring, to ensure it seals properly. Finding o-rings of the appropriate size is not easy, but not impossible.

The stove came originally with a heavy-duty aluminium foil windscreen, which I have but never use, because it is bulky and weighty and annoying.

I have used this stove to cook at home for extended periods of time, both when I lived in an off-grid cabin, and when my propane ran out for my home range where I live now. Because it is based on the MSR WhisperLite stove, it can hold big, heavy pots. This is about as close as it gets to "bombproof".

For actual backpacking, I now use a SOTO Amicus, because it's much lighter, and I no longer do cold weather camping.

I have owned this stove for about four years and have used it on many hiking trips through Australia. The stove performs really well in all conditions, and is reasonably 'wind proof'. When used with the supplied heat reflector and wind sheild it exels, and can boil a liter of water in about 3.5 mins.

Another great feature of the stove is its design, it looks exactly the same as an MSR Whisperlite, and the canister is of course 'remote' (not connected to the bottom of the stove) - this is good because the canister doesn't become dangerously hot.

The only issue I have with any compressed fuel canister stove is that they tend to become less efficient in the snow. This however can be overcome by putting the canister in your sleeping bag at night (to keep it warm) or to put a few spoonfulls of warm water (from the pot) onto the canister whilst cooking in cold conditions - surprising how well this works.