Optimus Crux Lite Stove - Compact Camping & Backpacking Gear

I do a few multi-night backpacking trips a year. I'm no Bear Grylls but I've spent enough nights under the stars to have a qualified opinion on camp gear. I first picked up the Optimus Crux Lite for a 6 night trip through Section J of the PCT about 10 years ago. It has been my trusty camp stove ever since. I like this little guy. If you're a weight weenie, you can definitely shed some grams on more expensive options. If not, this stove will suit a 35 lb pack just fine. It disperses heat well, operates nice in wind, lights and cools easy, and packs up nicely. I field tested it once against a buddy's Jet Boil and the Optimus won out on time to get a quart of water to a rolling boil. I paired mine with the Optimus 2 piece cook set which packs the stove, gas, a gas canister stand and a flint lighter in the handy cinch sack the cook set comes with. I don't see any reason why this handy and hardy stove will not be trekking with me through the Cascades for another decade. Happy trails!I've had the Crux lite for about a year and a half and have enjoyed using it on about a dozen trips since then. I got this instead of the Optimus Crux because the joint on the Crux that lets it fold is a bit wobbly and I was worried about putting my dinner on something I wasn't sure would hold it.The Crux lite is tiny and super light. It's so light that if you are the kind of person that uses canister fuel stoves you'll never notice the weight of the stove compared to the canister. It is sturdy too, being made primarily from machined aluminum and steel. The valve and vertical riser tube are aluminum and the burner and pot holder are steel (at least I think they are steel; magnets are weakly attracted to the metal).The burner puts out a very respectable flame and I regularly get 1 Quart boil times of about 4 minutes, even at high altitude and in cold weather. The flame spread is medium width so works well with both wide shallow pots and tall narrow ones. The flame is adjustable, but is finicky at lower settings and seems to burn down to a lower flame within a minute or two after adjusting. When you touch the handle to adjust the flame it opens the valve and when you let go it closes it down again so you have to hunt around to get the right flame. Still it's not too bad to get it adjusted to simmer a pot at low boil.I also have the Optimus Terra Weekend HE pot that really works well with this stove. For the price and weight, this is a great product. The only reason I do not rate this at 5 stars is the fact that the control valve is very finicky. As others have stated, when you are trying to maintain a low burn, just applying pressure to the valve (not actually adjusting it) causes the gas flow to be adjusted and can easily cause the flame to go out. I does not really bother me that much but it is kind of a PITA when your boiling water on the ground and you try lowing the burn flame to a simmer and it goes out (you may not realize it went out because the cooking pot is blocking the sight of the flame).<< The following review was written by my son, who saved his money to buy this stove. He is a Boy Scout, and he does a lot of camping. He researched a number of stoves, and was very excited about this one. However, one of the pot supports is much higher than the other two after they are extended, which causes the pot to sit at a noticeable angle. He is right -- this stove should not be so far out of alignment. We expected better quality from Optimus. It's going back. >>I would not recommend purchasing this product. I thought this would be a good stove for backpacking, but I returned it for my money back. My pot sits on all three supports... but not flat. Even when I took it out of the package, I noticed that one of the supports was much higher than the other two. It was so off I couldn't use it for any type of cooking. I don't want another one because this stove shouldn't have passed quality control. I think I will stick with my Evernew titanium stove. Much better quality. Highly recommend the Evernew.I bought this as a gift for my boyfriend because he's really been wanting a butane stove even though he already has the MSR Whisperlite. He is an engineer and thinks the small design is fascinating, and wanted the alternative of butane fuel. We tried it out on a weekend trip to New Mexico and were very disappointed. We bought one of the optimus gas canisters for the weekend, and were pretty disappointed. He thinks it ran out of gas, I think it just didn't have enough power. After one day we couldn't even get the water for our oatmeal to come to a full boil. Luckily we weren't out in the middle of nowhere and it wasn't a big problem for the rest of our meals, but had we taken this to the backcountry, we would've been in trouble. I was under the impression that this was a high quality product, so maybe it's just not meant to cook for two people. He says he prefers his Whisperlite to the Crux Lite for everything now, so this was just a waste of money :/This is one of the lightest stoves and at the same time it has a good power output.It will match almost any cook-sets along with a gas canister.1 Cons (so far):The only thing you should pay attention in the beginning is the valve (it's very gentle) but when you get used to it everything will be fine :)Bottom line:This stove is a perfect choice for a solo or a small company trips.