Light weight, very compact canister stove with piezo starter. Also available w/out the piezo and in titanium versions (the pot legs only are titanium), saves .75 oz. Manufacturer claims 3.5 minutes to boil 1 L of water. A 7.0 oz fuel canister (3.8 oz of fuel) burns 45 minutes at 10,000 BTUs. Rated temperature is 17 deg F (-10 deg C). |
Reviews
| mrolph | Untitled Review | | 
Voted 4/5 | I borrowed a Giga Power for a John Muir Trail trip last summer and was very impressed. That was my first experience using a canister stove and most of my fears proved unfounded:
- Cold weather performance: On the coldest morning (15 deg. F) I boiled about 12 oz of water in under 3 minutes.
- High altitude performance: Used on Muir Pass (11,955 ft) without problems.
- Fuel Consumption: In 16 days cooking 1 to 2 hot meals/day, I used a single 13 oz fuel cannister.
Compared to my MSR Wisperlite, the Giga power was amazing. It lights instantly, only weighs a few ounces and no priming mess!
I purchased my own Giga Power this spring. I also looked at the MSR Pocket Rocket and the Primus Titanium. On paper, all of these stove compare pretty well. I bought the Giga Power because of my previous good experience with the borrowed stove.
There is still a place for liquid fuel stoves. In some parts of the world, fuel cannisters could be hard to find. Also for winter camping and mountaineering where the temperature will be below 15 deg F, liquid fuel is a better choice.
UPDATE: The piezo lighter on my new gigapower has failed after only 6 meals cooked. I knocked a star off of the rating for that. I'll let you know how the customer service is after I get it fixed. | | Posted Jun 5, 2002 2:07 pm |
| Alpinist34 | Untitled Review | | 
Voted 5/5 | I have had my Snow Peak Giga Power Auto for several years. I primarily use it in 3-season use, but am going to experiment with it this winter. It lights easily, is quite stable if you pay attention, has excellent simmer adjustments i.e. red beans & rice.
For use in cold weather, one can always slip the fuel cannister inside the bivy sack or sleeping bag if needed.
My piezo lighter has never failed and is very simple. The heat shield accessory is helpful and keeps the heat off of the cannister. Be very careful (or don't use) wind screens that surround the entire stove and cannister. I witnessed a Backpackers Oven incident with a Giga Power. No injuries, but brownies flew every where.
Fuel consumption is very modest and no priming fuss and mess is nice. A standard backpacking trip of 3 days uses 220 grams of fuel. And that is cooking good food and not just dehy's. | | Posted Jul 14, 2004 1:00 am |
| Bignick | Untitled Review | | 
Voted 3/5 | I used this stove for 4 days recently at 10k' to nearly 12k' and it performed ok but worse than expected. The auto ignition would work about 50% of the time, requiring me to use a ligher the rest of the time. It seemed to cook in relatively good time but when trying to simmer, the flame seems to be very central and will scorch and burn food to the pans even on the lowest setting. This could be partially due to using their very thin titanium cookwear. I could never get the stove to simmer unless I physically lift and hold the pans an inch or so above the flame regardless of altitude. This gets tiring when having to simmer something for several minutes. The stove is very light and packable. I may see the retailer where I purchased it and see if their demo works better than mine. Maybe I am expecting too much. | | Posted Aug 24, 2005 1:58 am |
| David Pneuman | Doesn't perform when cold and near empty | | Voted 3/5 | I recently was able to do a comparison between the Giga stove and the MSR Pocket Rocket in 25 - 30 deg. at 14,000 ft. and was suprised at the difference.
The Snow Peak Giga stove performed good with a full cannister. Same for a friends Pocket Rocket.
However, once the cannister was down to a little less than 25% fuel, the Snow Peak stove was not burning very strong at all and could barely heat a liter of water in well over 10 minutes.
As a test, we unscrewed the Giga from that cannister and put on a Pocket Rocket instead and it roared, bringing a liter of water to a boil in the normal amount of time : less than 4 minutes. It remained consistantly strong until the cannister was completely empty.
So, needless to say, I'm returning the Giga stove to REI and buying a Pocket Rocket instead.
| | Posted Jan 28, 2007 4:59 pm |
| drewcmf | Works every time | | 
Voted 5/5 | I have had the GigaPower for about 2 years, and it has performed flawlessly for me. I've used it as high as 13,800' without a hiccup, and I haven't noticed a significant decrease in performance until the absolute end of a canister, which is actually a good reminder to change bottles. I do use the stove in cold weather, and I've found (probably no big discovery here, but maybe this helps someone) that when I put the canister in a shallow pan of water rather than directly on the snow, performance is enhanced and the bottle doesn't freeze to the surface it's resting on. I plan to pick up the windscreen accessory this season and will provide a report on that item.
I also have a partner who uses a PocketRocket...his stove may be slightly more efficient, but the difference is so small as to be negligible. Plus, I don't have to use a lighter/match to fire up my stove, which is the primary reason I bought it. All in all I would recommend this product, and I hope the other reviewers who had difficulty receive good customer support from Snow Peak. | | Posted Feb 13, 2007 8:37 pm |
| TacoDelRio | Neat | | 
Voted 5/5 | My first good stove; used Esbit for a few years before. It was a gift from a Marine friend of mine. I really love it. Really small, really handy. | | Posted Oct 12, 2007 8:23 am |
| AltitudeSickness | Slick Stove | | 
Voted 5/5 | Taking the GigaPower to the mountains and putting it through the paces has been an enjoyable experience. It has performed without a hitch. It seems super fuel efficient and so easy to use. Previously I have used the Whisperlite exclusively. Now the GigaPower is my stove of choice for going quick and fast. I have not tested it in super cold conditions yet so that is unproven. The auto light feature has worked flawlessly so far. | | Posted Jan 4, 2008 10:55 pm |
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