The MSR Dragonfly Stove Review

The MSR Dragonfly Stove

I have had my eye on a petrol stove for a while, as I have used gas stoves before and have some issues with these. Their performance in the cold can be poor, and of course you are always trying to gauge how full the gas bottles are and how many to take. I though a petrol stove would solve all these problems, although I was not so sure. I have heard they are noisy difficult to simmer with and on occasion temperamental.

After some research, I got my hands on an MSR Dragonfly because of the good things I heard about it (a good simmer control, and a good reliable stove).

So what do you get? Well first of all, you do not get a fuel bottle as standard. Not a huge problem as long as you know in advance but something to be aware of. Certainly it gives you the option to select the size of bottle that most suits your trips.

The stove itself comes in a small bag which will hold the pump as well but I tend to leave this on the fuel bottle for convenience.

As well as the stove you get the pump, instructions, a circular aluminum foil to protect the ground, a windshield and a repair / service kit. One of the things that attracted me to the MSR stove is the fact that you can service / repair the stove. Far too many things now develop a fault and you need to replace the whole unit. With the MSR stove (and with their water filters as well as I have one of those) not only can they be repaired but you can buy the parts yourself without having to send them away to some service centre. This also allows you to stock up on parts if you wish to cover for emergencies if you are going to be away for a while.
Speaking of boil times no stove review is complete without an in-depth analysis of the boil times in comparison to other stoves. So for completeness I can confirm that the Dragonfly boils any given quantity faster than a trangia. Much faster. By any standard it is quick. There may be quicker stoves but I suspect we are talking about differences in time that have no real relevance in use. The only way to have boiling water available discernibly quicker would be to take a vacuum flask with boiling water in it.

It is hot enough to fry with, controllable enough to bake with and has a burn time long enough to bring beef to a boil and simmer for an hour. Cooking wise there is really nothing it cannot do that other stoves cannot. And as I have mentioned it is as hot as the hinges of hell.

Once the stove has cooled you pack it away by doing the reverse of the set up procedure, except for de-pressurising the stove. Now let me be blunt about this I hate de-pressurising the stove. There must be a better option. If it were not for those petrol bomb concerns of mine I would leave it pressurised all the time. To release the pressure from the bottle you are instructed to hold the bottle away from you and slowly unscrew the pump until the pressure releases. Of course as it releases it sprays out a mist of petrol vapour and liquid. Not great if your companion is having his fag break or you are near the fire. There simply must be a better way to release the pressure.

Likes & Dislikes

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  Well nothing is perfect. I have dislikes about this stove. The noise is not something you can ignore. When you shut the stove off it is as if you have gone deaf. You certainly could not use this stove somewhere where you needed to be very quiet and undetected. Of course I may be more sensitive to this as I have been using soda cans as a stove and it is entirely silent but even so the Dragonfly is way more noisy that any gas stove I have heard either.
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  I could wish the stove was even more simple and easy to service with fewer parts that could go wrong but this would be unfair. I think the stove has been kept as simple as it can be and provide the functionality. If it were more simple it would be less capable.
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  Lets not forget I hate the way you de-pressurise the bottle. This just seems wrong on every level and I live in hope that I have misread the instructions and someone will point out the real way of doing this.
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  The other down side is the smell. It is fine as long as you let the stove air after use but if you had to pack it away straight away I suspect your kit would acquire a petrol smell. I am hoping this can be addressed by using the Aspen 4T as a fuel.However, let us not wallow in the negative as these are small points.

The plus points are many.

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  The stove packs away small. Very small when you consider the power of it.It is user maintainable and this can be done in the field with minimal tools.
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  You can see how much fuel you have and how much you have used.
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  You can refill the bottle every trip and do not have to dispose of gas cannisters just as you do not have to carry spare gas canisters as you do not know how much is left in the part used one.
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  This also means you do not have the problem I have had in the past where a gas canister runs out half way through cooking something and you have to faff about changing the canister to continue the cooking.
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  While it is hard to say a petrol stove is “green” I do feel this saving on the disposal of gas canisters does make this type of stove more sustainable than the gas alternatives.
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  The Dragonfly can burn a selection of fuels. This is a benefit but to be honest not a big one for me. I will be burning unleaded petrol or one of the equivalents and cannot foresee a situation where this would be unavailable and an alternative would.

So a 4 out of 5 from me. If they make a quieter version that you can de-pressurise easier then it would get a 5.

For my MSR Dragonfly stove boil test videos, please wtach the videos bellow:

MSR Dragonfly Stove Boil Test Part 1

MSR Dragonfly Stove Boil Test Part 2