MSR stove cleaning
 

Hi All

Ive a MSR Stove (think its a wisperlite, old version) bought it off a guy who used it for a few trips to Africa.

Anyway ive had it for around a year and used it about 5-6 times just to make sure its all working and messing around generally.

The other day took it on the bike for a 150mile ride and used it to cook some bacon (was very nice) but it started to burn very smokey while the burner was spitting all the time not really making a constant flame.

When i got it home a gave it a quick wash and unscrewed the jet (where the flame comes from) to find a wee small needle. Seeing this didnt want to break anything so put it back together again.

So how do you actually clean these stove to make they work properly or for a life time?

Can you strip them anymore than what i did?

Do you need to buy a service kit like the ones you find in a camping shop to service them?

I plan on using it for a 3month trip around Europe to cook at least 2 times a day so need it to be reliable and work properly.:thumbup1:

The needle is in there for self cleaning.

The idea is you shake the stove up and down and the needle rattles back and forth, thus cleaning the jet.

From memory there is also a plaited length of wire in the fuel line which you can pull out then push back and forth to clean the interior of the fule line.

When cooking with petrol, they say it is advisable to clean once in a while.

This should help. Click!

Thats the one Warthog, read about the shaker needle but didnt understand what way you are suppose to work it, etcetcdoh

Hello there!
May be it too late now to reply and you have already solved it...
just adding some info if soeone is still looking and also i bought the stove two days ago. In the manual it says that the needle cleans the jet. when you the shake the stove you will hear a small ticking sound of the needle moving up and down. in this process its cleans the jet.
If you dont hear anythg may be it has lot of soot or particulate collected in. you can remove the jet and clean it up the usual way.
the instructions said not to se with leaded fuel and has two jets to use with two kinds of fuels.

Pare.

It was the removing the jet and cleaning it. Got my MSR second hand so the instruction on cleaning where a bit hit or miss at the paper had got wet, ripped you know what its like on the road.

Anyway yea is working the best now, but only cleaned it and then tested it by boiling some water but seams a bit less smokey now.

I've been using MSR stoves since they were first put on the market. I always carry a parts kit--it consists of a bunch of miscellaneous o rings and other rubber, plus a spare jet, spare pump leather and an all-purpose (stove-specific) tool. Sooner or later, you'll wish you had one or more of these parts at a time when it's horribly inconvenient that you don't.

You need to learn how to clean your jet, and you need to do it regularly or it will clog permanently. You need to learn how to oil your pump leather (takes seconds, and water can be used in a pinch), how to clean the fuel tube (described in a post above), which takes maybe two minutes. After that, you're good for almost anything which can go wrong. Be gentle with the pump, since the plungers tend to break, but know that you can use them even when broken....for years, if not decades.

I will leave the endless debating about the relative merits of other brands for another day. I've been happy with MSR's, and I've used them a lot over the years, but there's no denying that a bit of advance know-how will save you a lot of heartbreak sooner or later in their use.

Hope that helps.

Mark