Soto Fusion Trek Stove Review - Ultralight Outdoor Gear
Posted by Danny Pearson on Jul 05, 2022
We have long been fans of Soto stoves, especially the innovative Windmaster stove. We love the Windmaster’s quality build, ability to work in windy conditions and regulator allowing for consistent performance in the cold or with a near-empty canister. It’s a ground-breaking design that the competition has copied.
There are however a couple of potential problems with canister stoves in some situations. Firstly, they can be unstable on uneven ground due to the height of the canister, stove and pot. This is especially true when using a larger pot as the pot supports tend to be smaller with a canister stove.
The second issue is that if the pot is boiling over, access to the control is under the boiling pot! A safer option in terms of stability and control is to place the pot near the ground and locate the gas canister and controls away from the stove.
Soto has done exactly that with their Fusion Trek stove. They have taken the technology from the Windmaster stove and made a remote hose version. At the same time, they have increased the size of the burner head and pot supports making it ideal for group use. It was tested with a 1-litre pot but the supports will easily accommodate a much bigger pot. The fold-out legs provide a very stable setup on uneven surfaces.
It was windy during testing and the Trek Fusion still managed to get the water boiling in a respectable time where other stoves would have struggled. This is helped by the concave burner head and 300 separate micro-flames giving a great spread of heat! Weather conditions were down to about 5 degrees Celsius, cold enough for the gas canister to form ice on the outside because it was almost empty. The regulator made a big difference, a regular stove wouldn’t have coped with the combination of cold conditions, wind and an almost empty canister.
Yet again Soto has come up with a new stove that fills a gap in the market. If you want a stable, remote canister stove with excellent year-round performance, that is ideal for solo or group use then look no further.
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Danny Pearson |
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Dan is a keen distance walker who loves to geek over the latest gear. In the last few years, Dan has completed a couple of TGO Challenge crossings of Scotland (with another planned for 2024), GR221 in Mallorca, Dales High Route and Hadrian’s Wall plus countless other self-planned routes. A keen mountain biker but finds he doesn’t bounce so well these days when the inevitable happens. |
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