How amazing is the "MSR Windburner Personal Stove System" with its overwhelming thermal efficiency and wind resistance? We compared it with the "Jetboil"

The MSR Windburner is an all-in-one, high-efficiency stove system for one person that incorporates a revolutionary mechanism. Although it has been on sale in North America for several years, it was not officially sold in Japan for a long time due to regulations, causing frustration among mountain enthusiasts. However, it was finally officially released for sale in the 2020 season, causing quite a stir in the community.

the Jetboil a pioneer in stove systems that combine a pot and a stove . I have been using it for a long time, and I was curious to see how this model compares to it. Is it worth buying? I was curious and had been wanting to check it out for myself, so the time had finally come.

So, this time, we tried this model out in the field and the Jetboil MiniMo under the same conditions to boil water. It's actually been six years since it was released in the US, but we'll report on our experience testing it in various environments to see why it's currently the talk of the town.

*The test results and evaluations presented here are not official performance evaluations of the product, but are based solely on the reviewer's assumptions and operations. Results under other conditions are not guaranteed, and all results and evaluations should be judged at your own risk

Key Features of the MSR Windburner Personal System

The MSR Windburner Personal System is a high-performance, highly efficient all-in-one burner system that can be used reliably even in strong winds and low temperatures. Its radiant burner mechanism, rare among outdoor burners, achieves high thermal efficiency while also providing excellent wind protection. The dedicated pot (pot) can store everything you need, including the burner itself and gas canister, making it extremely compact and portable. The pot's 1L capacity is sufficient for both one- and two-person mountaineering trips.

Windburner specifications and reviews

Detailed Review

The Windburner consists of the burner itself, a 1L pot, a 360ml cup, a cap, a stabilizer, and a towel. It also comes with a dedicated gas canister (sold separately), for a total of seven items

Contents + gas can (110)

All contents can be stored in a 1L pot

All contents, including the gas canister, can be stored in the pot

Packing is super easy as everything can be stored together, making it compact and stress-free to prepare when cooking

Compact storage

When stored, it looks like this inside the pot

It is stored in the pot like this

When assembled, it is approximately 32.5cm from the ground, which is longer than expected and makes it a little unstable, so it is probably best to use the included stabilizer for the gas canister

Assembled. It is over 30cm tall

Now let's look at the burner itself. The body has a very unique shape

Uniquely shaped body

When viewed from above, the burner is quite large, with an even finer mesh underneath the metal mesh. When lit, instead of a bright flame like a regular burner, the mesh heats up, and the infrared rays emitted from it warm the pot

Its unique shape, even when viewed from above, makes it hard to believe it's a burner

When you actually light it, the mesh burns bright red and looks very hot. In this state, the flame is at its maximum and it is dark, so you can see at a glance that it is lit, but if it is bright around you or the flame is low, it can be difficult to tell if the fire is lit, so you can check whether the indicator that is threaded straight through it is red

The mesh turns red immediately when lit

Even in bright light, you can still see the indicator light turn red

Even though the surroundings are bright, you can see that it is somehow red

This burner does not have an igniter, so you will need to bring a lighter, matches, or a fire starter when using it. Most MSR burners do not have igniters

Once the fire is lit, place the pot on top. With the pot on top, the fire will be completely sealed and unable to ignite, so you will need to light the fire before placing the pot on top

Light the fire and then put the pot on

When you attach the pot, you'll notice that the burner is completely sealed. This allows the heat to be transferred to the pot without any waste, allowing for high-efficiency, high-speed boiling of water

Once the pot is in place, you can see that the burner is sealed

In addition, there is a wing-like structure on the underside of the pot. This is a mechanism called a heat exchanger, and it has two main functions. One is to efficiently transfer heat to the pot. The other is that, because the burner is sealed, it forcefully expels carbon dioxide produced during combustion, preventing incomplete combustion, and also carries hot air along with the air flow, heating the pot more efficiently

The bottom of the pot is equipped with a heat exchanger that efficiently transfers heat

When you pour water through the bottom of the pot, you can see that it comes out clearly. This is probably where the carbon dioxide is escaping

There is a ventilation hole through which carbon dioxide escapes just as water escapes

The above structure is called a radiant burner mechanism, and is essential for achieving high thermal efficiency and wind resistance. As shown in the diagram below, a normal burner requires oxygen for the burning flame itself at all times, so increasing wind resistance would result in insufficient oxygen being supplied, reducing combustion power. This forced the burner to be designed to be able to supply oxygen, which inevitably made it vulnerable to wind. However, a wind burner can supply all of its oxygen using only primary air, so incomplete combustion does not occur even with a structure that completely blocks wind (from the MSR official website)

Quote: MSR official website

Now, back to the product itself. The pot has a measuring scale inside. The maximum capacity is 1000ml, but to prevent overflow, the maximum capacity when boiling water is 600ml. In fact, the scale on the pot is engraved with "Max" at the 600ml mark

Graduations are engraved to indicate capacity

The red part of the pot is made of nylon fabric attached to a resin frame, and although it doesn't have the best heat retention, it functions like a simple cozy. This allows you to hold it in your hand unless it has just boiled. It even has a handle, so you can hold it without any problems even after boiling

The handle makes it easy to lift even right after boiling

This part can be removed, making it easier to dry and clean, making it more hygienic

The material is fine to get wet, but you can also remove it and wash it

Its main purpose is to boil water, but it can also be used for simple cooking such as boiling noodles. The cap has a draining hole, making such cooking easy

The cap has holes for easy draining, making it convenient for cooking

The cup attached to the bottom of the pot when stored is heat resistant up to 105°C, so it can be used as a dish. The pot's cap also fits the cup, so it can be used in a variety of ways, and it may even reduce the number of dishes you need if you're eating alone

The cap can also be used on cups

Finally, let's look at the weight details. The official weight is 465g, and the actual weight measured was 468g, with no discrepancy. Breaking it down individually, the main body (burner) weighed 198g, the pot 207g, the cup 32g, the cap 14g, the stabilizer 17g, and the towel 1g (1.5g)

Comparison of boiling conditions (Wind Banner & Jetboil)

We measured the time it took to boil by changing the amount of water, wind, temperature, etc., taking into account the actual environment in which it would be used

Please note that the conditions for each test were not strictly consistent, and the timing of boiling was determined by visual inspection rather than temperature, so there may be an error of a few seconds, so please use this as a reference only

First, let's compare the basic specs of the two. The Jetboil is slightly lighter in weight

We actually poured water into the container and measured the time it took to boil. As mentioned above, the boiling time was determined visually, so please expect a discrepancy of a few seconds. The tests included measuring the time it took to boil 500ml and 1000ml at room temperature, 500ml in the freezer to measure cold resistance, 500ml with a fan blowing on it to test wind resistance, and 500ml at high altitude. We tried to keep each condition as similar as possible. Each container was boiled five times at room temperature, and the average values ​​are shown (times are in minutes and seconds)

Room temperature (almost no wind)

In a nearly windless room-temperature tank (around 17°C), the Jetboil took slightly less time to boil than the lidded version, which we had expected based on the official specifications

Measure the time to boiling under the same conditions

low temperature

Next up is a boiling test at sub-zero temperatures, where the Windburner, known for its cold resistance, will likely be put to the test. However, the Jetboil Minimo also has a thermoregulator so it can be used in low temperatures, so it's unclear how the outcome will play out

Each system (pot, burner, gas canister) was placed in the freezer for an hour to cool beforehand, and then 500ml of room temperature water was poured into it and brought to a boil. The temperature inside the freezer just before the test began was -15°C at the start and -8°C at the end for the Windburner and Jetboil, respectively (-16°C at the start and -10°C at the end), and the temperature inside the freezer remained below freezing

The results were 3 minutes 9 seconds for the Windburner and 3 minutes 7 seconds for the Jetboil, which is 2 seconds faster numerically, but considering the visual error, they are roughly the same performance. When using the boiling time in the room temperature test as the standard, the Jetboil's performance at low temperatures seems to drop drastically

strong winds

Well, as the name suggests, this burner is supposed to be wind-resistant. But how does it perform in actual measurements? We measured it by blowing a fan's wind directly onto it. We didn't measure the wind speed, so we can only say that this is how well it performs in this wind. We did test it on the fan's high setting, but we'll see what happens next

A fan was installed to test wind resistance. The Jetboil was raised to match the height of the burner nozzle

When we aimed the high-powered wind at a distance from the stove, the Windburner took 2 minutes 25 seconds, while the Jetboil took 2 minutes 39 seconds. As expected, the Windburner was able to boil the water faster. As expected, as advertised as being wind-resistant, the Windburner took about 10 seconds longer to boil than the room temperature test, while the Jetboil took about 45 seconds longer than the room temperature test, clearly showing the effect of the wind

[Additional note] Additional strong wind test: The difference in wind resistance performance is clear under more severe conditions

Since the wind from a fan seemed a little weak to replicate mountain conditions, we decided to conduct an additional test in a more severe environment. We set the conditions to a certain extent (air temperature 26°C, humidity 44%, starting water temperature 26°C, water volume 500ml) and conducted another boiling test at two anemometer speeds of 3.5m/s and 4.5m/s

The airflow from the circulator was directed directly at the stove, and the wind speed at that point was measured to achieve the desired conditions. Since the limit for one unit was 3.5 m, adding another circulator increased the wind speed to approximately 4.5 to 5.0 m

However, as shown in the photo above, we used a household circulator that is more powerful than a fan (which is why the wind speed was limited to 4.5 m/s), and the anemometer was a commercially available device that costs a few thousand yen, so it is not as precise as a controlled laboratory test. For this reason, the results may not be the same as those in a real field test. However, we still observed a clear difference when using it, so we are sharing the test data for reference

As you can see from the results above, no matter how strong the wind conditions were, at 3.5m/s or 4.5m/s, the Windburner performed almost the same as normal, whereas the Jetboil managed to boil at a wind speed of 3.5m/s, but was unable to boil completely at a wind speed of 4.5m/s

To be more precise, with a wind speed of 4.5 m/s, the Jetboil showed signs of boiling on the side opposite the wind after about five minutes, but no bubbles from boiling appeared on the side facing the wind, and the entire container never reached a boil. Since such windy conditions are quite likely in the field, it seems that the Windburner has a clear advantage here

Of course, since the test was conducted under somewhat rough conditions, there is a good chance that the results will vary slightly, but even so, it's surprising that the difference is so large. The Jetboil's boil time is easily affected by conditions, so it has a short boil time and low gas consumption in calm conditions, but if you plan your equipment for use in more severe conditions, it's hard to say whether it really has an advantage. If anything, the Windburner's high stability makes it easier to plan fuel consumption and is safer

High altitude (approximately 2000m above sea level)

We also conducted a boiling test on a mountain at an altitude of about 2000m. There was almost no wind on the day, so there was no impact from the wind

Testing at an altitude of 2000m

At an altitude of around 2000m, the Jetboil took 1 minute 45 seconds, while the Windburner took 1 minute 27 seconds, which was the same as at room temperature. The reason the water boiled faster than during the outdoor test is likely due to the slightly higher water temperature, the high temperature in the village that day (30°C), and the fact that at an altitude of 2000m, the water boils at around 94°C due to the effect of atmospheric pressure

combustion efficiency

The official specifications show that the Jetboil has a slight advantage, but we wanted to confirm this with our own eyes, so we boiled 500ml of water at room temperature using the smallest gas canister from each manufacturer, weighing the canister each time, and estimating the temperature at which 500ml of water could be boiled using one canister based on the amount of gas lost

The Windburner's dedicated 110-size canister holds 110g of gas, and after boiling five times, the average amount of gas used per boil was 5.8g. Considering that some gas will escape when removing the canister from the burner, one canister should be enough for around 18 boils. Meanwhile, the Jetboil's dedicated "Jet Power 100G" canister holds 100g of gas, and uses an average of 4.4g of gas per five boils. Again, taking into account gas leakage when removing the canister, the estimated number of boils possible per canister is around 22. While both canisters are generally extremely efficient, the Jetboil appears to be the most efficient

summary

For those who have been waiting a long time, this is a tool they can call a dream come true! Those people have likely already purchased it without even reading the reviews. It's a burner that many people have been waiting for. Indeed, looking at the results of the boiling test, the Jetboil MiniMo performed better in calm locations and situations. However, the test also shows that compared to the Jetboil, whose performance drops in harsh environments such as low temperatures, strong winds, and high altitudes, the Windburner delivers the same excellent performance

As mentioned above, windier conditions than you might imagine are common in the field, and situations where you want to consume something warm are often surprisingly environmentally and physically demanding. Many people have likely experienced the frustrating experience of waiting for their water to boil. For those seeking durable gear that can be used safely anywhere, anytime, in demanding activities like winter mountaineering, which combines high altitude, strong winds, and low temperatures, as well as long-term traverses prone to bad weather, or activities that require camping in a tent in tough locations, the Jetboil is likely to be a more reliable companion than the Jetboil

When you consider the environment in which you'll be using it, it becomes clear which one you should buy. For people who don't do particularly strenuous mountain climbing, the Jetboil may be fine, but for those considering moderately strenuous mountain climbing, you'll probably want toughness and stability (and, personally, a cool look) over a few seconds of difference in normal time. In any case, the Windburner is sure to be a long-awaited and powerful option for mountain enthusiasts in the field of system burners, where options have been scarce for a long time

MSR Windburner Personal Stove System (Red) for Outdoor and Mountaineering Use (Official Japanese Product) 36219

created by Rinker

MSR

¥29,433 (as of 2026/02/02 20:56:57, according to Amazon - details)

• Amazon
• Rakuten Market
• Yahoo Shopping

   

Related reading

This year's most recommended item is the MSR Lowdown Remote Stove Adapter, which instantly transforms a lightweight, compact gas stove into a group cooking style

Best buys by type based on actual comparison of mountain gas stoves (burners) and five points to help you choose wisely

Comparison Review: Which gas stove for mountaineering is best to choose?

[An Unbiased Comparison Review] PRIMUS "Single Burner for Mountaineering" - Which is the Best to Buy Now? We Compared Them in the Field [Surprising Results]