msr reactor

It was only a matter of time before MSR, the Toyota of climbing and backpacking stoves, picked up the gauntlet shoved down its throat three years ago by the upstart Jetboil, which unleashed an integrated stove and pot that touted fast boil times, decent performance in wind, and the best fuel-efficiency ever seen in a propane/butane canister cooker. Jetboil did this by inventing a more-efficient heat-transfer system. Rather than relying on a simple flame licking the bottom of a pot, Jetboil welded a heat-absorbing radiator to the pot. The accordian-like device absorbs heat that would normally be lost and transfers it to the pot. Simple and effective. Jetboil, the first real stove innovation in decades, was an overnight sensation and developed a new category in which it was all alone.

It took MSR’s best minds several years to work out the bugs, but their Reactor is in most regards the best-performing canister stove yet. I liken its invention to that of the rubber tire. Like the Jetboil, the Reactor sports a heat-exchanger spot welded to the bottom of the cookpot. In this case, however, the heat-exchanger is larger and heftier, improving heat absorption. The Reactor also internalizes the flame within a wall of metal mesh covered with a special heat-dispersing fabric that glows red like a branding iron, rather than spits wasteful flame into the air like a conventional burner. When the pot sits on the burner, the heat source is virtually impervious to wind. A swing lever lets you control the heat from maximum blast to simmer.

With a full canister, the Reactor boiled a quart of water in just under three minutes, the equivalent of breaking the sound barrier in the world of cook stoves. And, owing to a built-in pressure regulator, the Reactor largely kept that performance, never taking longer than four minutes to boil even when the canister was nearly empty. In comparison, other canister stoves, including the Jetboil, saw a radical decrease in heat output as the canister gas depleted, taking nearly twice as long to boil the last quart of water as the first.

But that’s indoors, where even a pile of Kingsford briquettes will perform admirably. Only in the wind and cold can you separate the wheat from the chaff. Here, the whisper-quiet Reactor pulled away from the pack with the ease of a floored Lamborghini. In a 7mph wind—a stiff breeze—the Reactor still boiled in under three minutes. For perspective on this water-to-wine miracle, of the 23 other stoves I’ve tested in the past three years, not a single one including the Jetboil could boil water in under10 minutes in the same conditions.

The Reactor’s cold-weather performance, the bane of canister stoves, was also curve-setting. Typically, below-freezing temps cause canister fuel’s vapor pressure to drop and burner output to plummet, often to the point where the stove will no longer function. At 9 degrees F, however, the Reactor’s pressure regulator let it boil a quart of water in 5:25—a time that bests some canister stoves’ warm-weather performances.

Weaknesses? Costing nearly $150, you’d expect the Reactor to at least come with a coupon for a neck rub. The Reactor package is also heavy. The burner component itself weighs only 6 ounces, but the hefty heat-exchanger bumps up the weight to a whopping 20 ounces. If you’re looking for a featherweight cooker, one to toss in your pack “just in case” or for brewing up now and then, this isn’t it. The Reactor, like the Jetboil, also only functions with its pot component. Meals are limited to one-pot dehydrated affairs, rice and the like—no bacon and eggs for you! The pot’s two-quart capacity would be good for melting snow, and is decisively superior to the smallish Jetboil.

The Jetboil does outshine the Reactor for pure fuel efficiency, although barely. In a head-to-head test, the Jetboil boiled 28 quarts of water, and had an elapsed burn time of 197 minutes, compared to 24 quarts boiled and a 77-minute burn time for the Reactor. (Tests used a 220-gram propane/butane mix.) Lastly, the Jetboil’s built-in electric ignition simplifies lighting up. Presently, MSR is working on an electric-ignition, but the current Reactor lacks one—don’t forget to pack a lighter.

Recommendations? The Reactor would be just about ideal for two people preparing hot meals for more than one day. Its wind- and cold-weather performances put it at the top of my list for alpine climbing and situations where you melt snow for water. While the stove’s long-term durability and field-repair-ability are yet to be proven (I did test the stove 30 times and encountered no problems), it’s clean, no-fuss operation and fast boil times make it the only propane-canister stove that trumps white-gas stoves in an alpine or mountain environment.



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