KOVEASpider Stove, Small, Silver

Overall this is a great stove. It's very small and light when packed but very stable when unfolded. This worked great on our group backpacking trip for large pots when we were at Philmont. Unfortunately the Piezo lighter is junk. But it's still a good price without the crappy lighter. Just make sure you carry an alternate way to light it. A small BIC lighter works great.

Kovea Spider is a well built , folding canister stove. Great performance , you will need a wind shield in breezy conditions. Flame control is good .

Light weight, stable and the preheated coil prevents flare up in cold conditions.

I don't know why anyone would use those piezo ignition things, but this stove is great. Most remote canister stoves seem more like white gas stoves than canister stoves. These designs are overkill for canister stoves. This one is completely different. The fuel line, the burner, the control valve, and the style of the legs are all much more consistent with what you would expect from a canister stove. Although the burner is pretty narrow, all the jets are on the sides of the burner, so the flame is projected out and evenly distributed. So there's no hot spot like on some canister stoves, as if you were heating your food with a blowtorch. The legs lock in place, but they will still move around a bit. At first I thought this was just poor manufacturing, but it may be intentional. The movement lets you situate the stove more securely on uneven ground or rocks. Kovea has been around for a while, just not popular in America. The quality of the construction is really good. Better than a lot of opitmus and primus stuff I've seen these days. MSR's still pretty good, but I don't think they have a stove to compete with the spider. Its a very versatile stove.I've used this stove a few times in cold weather, ranging from the lower teens to the upper 20's. It performed more than adequately, but wasn't as smooth and consistent. It kind of huffed and sputtered a bit, especially as I moved the canister. I still have more confidence in a white gas stove in cold weather, but the spider performed admirably for a canister stove. This is now my go-to stove for anything but severe cold.

I recently took this on a week long hike. It is an awesome piece to have and I highly recommend it, just have a box of maches with you in case.