Stove comparison chart

Optimus Clip-On Canister Stove Windshield, 4in. x 4.5in. x 3.5in.

This is a great windshield that is generally stove agnostic.

Basically it’s two quarter slices that bend where they meet, allowing you to hook the base onto any gas canister (100gram or 220-240 gram canisters).

I tried a few stoves with it, and the basic results for fit are:

– Snow Peak Giga Power: Yes. The low height of this stove means great win protection.
– Soto Compact: No. The pot stand portion hits up against the edge, forcing an angle. Probably still could use small cups, but limited.
– Soto Windmaster: Sorta. The included pot stand works, but the optional quad-arm pot stand is too wide. Also, the tallness of this stove means the stove is about level with the upper rim of the wind screen, so while it might help a little, I’m not sure how big a difference it would be.
– Snow Peak Litemax: Yes. in fact, I think this might be the best fit for this screen.

 

Low and wide pots won’t fit very well on this, but just about any cup or liter sized tall and narrow pot should do just fine.
– Terra HE Weekend. Yes
– Snow Peak Trek 900. Yes
– Snow Peak Hybrid Summit. Yes
– Snow Peak cookset. tight and off center, but sorta
– Toaks 1600. tight and off center, but sorta.
– Terra HE cookset. Not really. Too wide.

Overall, this is one impressive wind screen, and it’s a bummer that it isn’t sold in more places.

If you already use a compact gas stove, don’t want to do an additional investment in a jetboil, MSR Reactor, or a Primus ETALite, and depending on which compact gas stove you own, this might be perfect for for problems with wind.

—-

With so many options, some of you might be wondering what’s my favorite setup with this windshield.

My current favorite is actually a discontinued product:

The GigaPower, with the floor heat shield.

There are a few reasons for this.

– First, the Snow Peak GigaPower has one of the shorted Lindal valve to stove lengths.  Or, put another way, it has the most vertical distance between the stove and the upper rim of the Optimus windshield.  More windshield = better.

– Second, the Snow Peak GigaPower is the only “on-top” stove that has a separately sold floor reflector.  This does two things, it protects the canister from heat, and reflects heat upwards.

   

Until recently, I paired this with the Snow Peak Trek 900 and the Snow Peak Summit Hybrid.  Interestingly, the Trek 900 fits perfectly into the GigaPower windshield, which then slides perfectly into the Optimus windshield.  The doubled windshield doesn’t improve efficiency by any real percentage, but it will help in very windy conditions over a worst case scenario (or at least, this is what I’m assuming).  Either way, the very clean and precise fit makes it worth it for me.

Currently, I pair this with the Optimus HE Weekend.  Boil 24 oz in about 3 minutes.  Strong breezes are still a problem, so have to be a little careful, but this has proven the most fuel efficient.

There have been some QA problems with the piezo igniter on the GigaPower, which is why newer version have since emerged.  But the newer versions don’t have the optionally sold heat reflector, so for the time being, the GigaPower will remain my favorite.