Soto Muka Liquid-Fuel Stove

Comments about Soto Muka Liquid-Fuel Stove:

Biggest complaint about this stove is the temperature control, it varies from hot to extremely hot; simmering isn't really in the cards. Love not having to prime and it works great at 12,000 ft. Soto having a proprietary bottle is somewhat annoying but the wide mouth is nice.

Comments about Soto Muka Liquid-Fuel Stove:

This stove is the best I have used so far. It performs exactly as claimed. It is a little larger and heavier than some other backpacking stoves but the small extra weight is the result of far superior hardware and design. This stove starts up immediately with no mess or fuss. It has simple and effective controls that allow very precise flame control. It will crank out the heat at the wide open setting. It simmers very well also. It is very stable thanks to widely spaced legs which also serve as pot supports. The stove is expensive but well worth it when in use. Great product.

Comments about Soto Muka Liquid-Fuel Stove:

I have been using the Soto Muka for about 6 months and am currently into my 2nd gallon of white gas. That is the context of my experience. I have read many of the reviews here on REI. I believe them. After all, why would someone lie about something like this? That said, my experience has been different from a number of the reviews.

1. I have used this stove on numerous occassions with a reflector and windscreen to melt snow in my Evernew 1.3L pot. My heat shield is a piece of 3/8" closed cell foam wrapped in aluminum foil (to create an appropriate base) and the windscreen is the screen that comes with the stove. I have experienced no warping and certainly no outright disintigration of the stove legs.

2. At the highest flame setting this unit burns gas at a rate that will make your jaw drop. However, if dropped to about 1/2 that, which still puts out an incredible amout of heat, this stove is efficient.

3. I have not burned my pot with this stove. I cannot comment on burning food becuse about the closest I come to cooking is making ramen and oatmeal. I've had no issues whatsoever.

4. While we all know the dangers of cooking inside a tent, this is the only liquid fuel stove I would consider using for that. I've done so on a limited basis and with care (and open vents) I've felt safe. I would not dream of using any stove that requires priming inside a tent.

5. When it is truly cold out the pump does miss the ocassional beat. I've not found it to be a significant issue but can understand why others would. You definitely need to pump this puppy. But, I also feel people overstate this requirement. You do not have to be Popey and it does not somehow "wear you out". It's not difficult, just time consuming and boring.

6. The attention to detail and quality of this stove make it a winner. Soto seems to have thought of everything. The caps for the hose connectons is something every manufacturer should be doing, the little pressure level pop-out pin is a dream come true, the fuel line is as sturdy as I've seen, the pump is basically a standard setting item, the stove folds up and stores nicely and my experience has been the entire thing is rock solid and durable. Time will tell the tale of course. But, to date, I could not be happier.

7. Downsides? The fuel bottles - Airstream trailer and dirigible are your size choices. Also, while nothing to do with the product, I'm presently working with a propane adapter that lets me use my remote canister head. This just might make the need for dangerous white gas/unleaded fuel unecessary. We'll see.

Comments about Soto Muka Liquid-Fuel Stove:

This is by far the easiest to light and use, white gas stove made. I mainly bought this stove for alpine and glacier mountain climbing for snow melting purposes.
It really worked great in this regard until its 3rd day of use on only the 2nd trip I took it on. Using the supplied windscreen and a reflector base the stove completely collapsed under a small 2qt pot full of snow.
I really like the design of this stove and how easy it is to light, but the mfg will need to improve the materials before I every buy another one.

Comments about Soto Muka Liquid-Fuel Stove:

First time using it, just brought this up to elevation. Worked well at home/sea level when I tested it...got it to light easily and even simmer. But at about 11,000', couldnt get this to simmer at all...it was full on or nothing. I was trying to reheat some homemade stew that I had frozen in a ziploc bag but wasnt able to to bring it to a low simmer so it ended up burning the food to the bottom of my pot. I had to rig some rocks to elevate my pot 5" above the Muka flame. My Jetboil, on the other hand, saved the day as I was able to cook the meal as I intended using the pot stabilzer accessory. I was able to precisely control the flame to bring the stew to a slow simmer so don't let anyone tell you the JB is gimmicky...it works!! And yes...the Muka requires A LOT of pumping...

I'm giving it 2 stars because if you're camping at lower levels, then I'm sure the Muka would work well. But I'll be returning this because most of where I like to camp is at higher elevations.

Comments about Soto Muka Liquid-Fuel Stove:

Good stove: easy to set up and light. Quieter than my old svea-123, and no soot; but bulkier (at least for a short trip)--since it requires a fuel tank which can't nest in a cooking pot. Moreover, it has many moving parts (compared to 123), so it's long term reliability may be compromised.
Significant pumping is required, but it's not difficult. Control knob is smallish, but has the advantage of a detent off. Also, as noted by other reviewers, it's difficult to achieve simmer. You can simmer by releasing some air pressure, but then you have to pump again if you want to get full heat.

Comments about Soto Muka Liquid-Fuel Stove:

Took this stove on a week-long full winter backpacking trip. Was a big fan of the compactness, ability to quickly melt snow, and clean burning no-priming functionality. In these aspects, the Soto Muka definitely beats the msr stoves. I was more than willing to put up with some of the negatives: pumping required and lower level of stability (small tripod legs) on the snow compared to the msr stoves.

However, Soto needs to look into the durability of the metal they use for this stove. Half way into my trip my Muka irreperably broke. What seems to have happened was that the flame heat made the base (the housing for the air intake) very fragile. As I was pushing snow into the pot, it's to be expected that there would be some uneven pressure on the legs. What happened was the base sheared off at one of the tripod legs. The result was 2 problems: 1.) Instability, I could balance the pot on only 2 legs, but this could be remedied to some extent with a rock or or metal spoon/etc. 2.) Air intake was off, resulting in a red flame that really couldn't cook much of anything. This problem I couldn't fix in the field. Ended up cooking the rest of the trip with my backup msr...

Comments about Soto Muka Liquid-Fuel Stove:

This stove outperformed expectations melting snow. I used this at 9.5k ft in an October storm last year and totally sold. Yes you have to pump the stove to prime it, this is a great feature btw. Priming the pump is easy too, maybe 2 mins. I passed it to my partner while I built a windbreak and when I was done we were ready to go. I was surprised how fast I was able to melt 4L of snow and make a hot 1/2L. Great stove for making hot water and melting snow.

Comments about Soto Muka Liquid-Fuel Stove:

Summary:
Quick/Easy to light: Yes
Simple to use: For the most part – like anything new, try it at home first.
Easy to use: Definitely. The included instructions could be better but it's pretty intuitive (I thought)
Safety: The fuel line is metal, flexible and uses a quick disconnect instead of a screw connector. The stove itself gets incredibly hot and takes a bit longer than the Jetboil to cool to temperature where it can be handled/disassembled.

The long part:
I wanted a liquid fuel stove as a back-up to my Jetboil PCS. The main feature of the Muka that really attracted my attention in that it doesn't require priming. It really doesn't. With the fuel control knob in the "Start" position it took one match to light. The initial flame was yellow and it sputtered a bit but quickly (less than a minute) settled down to blue. Moving the fuel knob to "Run", I let it go. The heat this thing throws out is phenomenal! Initially it was about as noisy as my Jetboil but got a little quieter once it got really hot. (And it gets REALLY hot!)
Next test was shutting it off. With the control knob turned to "Stop" it went out in about 2 seconds, maybe less. I waited until the unit was cool to the touch and re-lit it. There was no sputtering this time so I assume there was something on the metal, a preservative perhaps, that had caused it the first time but had since been burned off.
As several posters have noted, it requires a lot of pumping to build up the required pressure but the more fuel in the bottle, the less pumping required. I have the 1 liter bottle and with 8 – 10 ounces of fuel it took a good 5 minutes to get it up to pressure. With nothing but a 70s era Army stove on which to base any previous experience, I will withhold comment regarding the efficiency of the pump itself . It is however, all metal except for the seals and fuel/air lines and that once pressurized I did not have to pump any more.
I did not try the wind screen or heat reflector though I can see how (as mentioned in another review) they would be pretty much more hassle than help and maybe even melt.
In the half hour or so I cycled it on and off it used and insignificant amount of fuel.

Comments about Soto Muka Liquid-Fuel Stove:

I'd love to give 5 stars to an item that I would definitely buy again but I'll have to wait until I've used it for more than five years - its simply too new. I cooked two camp meals over it over the weekend, and on balance would say it's only major issue is the lack of information on long term reliability due to being a new product. It could be very reliable, but the jury is simply out. The cooking experience: as other reviewers have noted, it requires pumping at two intervals: before lighting, expect to pump about 70-120 times on a 3/4 to 1/2 full container of white fuel. At that point, a small pop-up indicator will tell you it is fully charged. After it is lit, it requires another 10-20 pumps and then it burns consistently and for a long time (45+ minutes according to one review) without any adjustments. Pumping takes relatively light effort; think of airing up a mountain bike tire and divide by 3- easy when the unit is upright, but slightly awkward once the stove is lit and bottle laying on its side where it MUST remain in order to stay lit.I'll set aside the high purchase price ([$] once you buy the required Soto fuel canister)and limit my comments to 3 categories:-ProsVery high heat: 15,000 BTU's= fast boil. Combined with a stable base it could be the go-to unit for group cooking under a larger pot.Beautiful engineering- it's a well though out, very light unit with a wider more stable base than the Whisperlite and very sturdy looking metal pump unit. I believe it is rated to hold 10 lbs and I believe it. Stove is very compact (fits perfectly inside my Bugaboo triangular cups, the fuel line is aesthetically right: its very flexible, has a swivel base on the stove, nicely engineered quick disconnect at pump, and fitted plastic caps at both ends to keep clean when not in use. No priming - lights quickly after pressurizing and quickly settles into a consistent blue flame that reportedly will run for a long time without further pumping. After 10-15 minutes, it was still burning at exactly the same level. Clean, and soot free air vent control at shutoff eliminates all sooting and excess fuel and i suspect would eliminate clogging if running gasoline rather than white fuel. There's simply nothing left in the lines. I would love to see some testing on this.Relatively quiet for a high pressure system- At high output, it's much quieter than the Dragonfly. At lower settings, its a hiss that does not hinder conversation and would not wake other campers while still boiling water effectively.Maintenance/Reliability- there are some factory instructional videos on this unit on Youtube which suggest ease of maintenace. Only three things to maintain: the generator with integrated jet ($29), which reportedly will wear out after about 100liters of fuel are run through it, the o-rings ($1) at the bottle seal, and the pump unit ($100?) which requires periodic lubrication. The simplicity suggests a high degree of reliability while the high pressure fuel delivery technology reduces or eliminates (?) clogging due to having unused fuel sitting in the lines. A small maintenance kit with tools, grease, and a couple of o-rings comes with the unit. -ConsIn cold weather(27 degrees farenheit) I could feelthe pump not pressurizing on every downstroke- it would 'slip' about every 5th stroke. This was a new unit. I unscrewed the pump to check the internal pump seals (a pair of parallel rings/seals)- they were properly lubricated. If I had to pick a weak point in the engineering, this could be it. Problem is- it's an integrated seal and besides lubricating, does not appear to be a maintenance or replacement item. How will it wear? I suspect that since it must work across a range of temperatures, it will feel tighter when ambient temps are higher. -Fuel consumption - According to Soto's website and my experience, REI's reported use of 100ml for 31minutes at high heat is INCORRECT. I used about 300ml (slightly less than 1/2 of the smaller 1000ml bottle) to cook two meals at low to medium settings. I think I could cook 2x per day for two people on a two day trip at that rate but gourmet cooking with side dishes is out of the question on a longer trip without one or more large bottles. -I beg to differ (where other reviews were favorable/unfavorable):Heat shield: it comes with a foldable aluminum heat shield base and windscreen. Flimsy, yes, but not your mother's aluminum foil:its comparable to the MSR base and windscreen and for that reason I think will last a long time. In practice base and shield worked well but I think any liquid fuel unit will be a pain [*] when its windy. The stove did not scorch either the semi-leaf littered ground or the picnic table I cooked on. Simmering and suatee-ing: I like to cook, and simmering is the achilles heel of portable stoves. No liquid fuel stove gets consistently good reviews for this but people do find ways to manage the idiosyncracies of their own stoves. Its inherent to the small burner surface. I endorse one reviewer's approach: get a diffuser plate- something that creates a bit of separation between the pot and the burner but I haven't found a reasonably light solution for that yet. I managed to get to a very low boil while still staying reliably lit (no wind) by setting the temp control between its lowest marked setting and the 'air' setting.-High pressure (safety)- some reviewers were concerned about the fact this stove runs at higher pressure. While I would absolutely not want to pressurize a badly dented can, with well maintained equipment, you will pressurize before lighting and you'll very quickly know whether any compromised seals result in leakage. The soto specific canister is reportedly thicker than the MSR canister. On the safety plus side, it requires no priming- ie uncontrolled flame, and has a quick shutoff stop switch that killed the flame immediately, so I would still rate this stove 'top of class' for safety. Pumping- As other reviewers have pointed out, there is significantly more pumping (perhaps 2-3x the effort involved in starting a Whisperlite)but you will NOT need Popeye's forearms to do it, and the prime free start, flame consistency,fiddle free burn time of 45+ minutes, and lack of flareups, fuel smells, and soot are a reward that more than offsets the additional effort. Summary: Excellent backpacking cookware. In a butane/propane canister vs liquid fuel shootout, it neutralizes many of the liquid fuel cons plus gives you dual fuel functionality. Now lets see how it holds up! Despite its price I'll rate it a best buy IF you've got a backup cooking option (alcohol stove?) but you should still consider MSR liquid fuel stoves due to 100% field maintenainability and a generation of reliable field results.