Sierra Ledge Rat wrote:I've always cooked inside of the tent during the winter with my MSR.

When possible, I cook in the vestible, though.

Only had one bad incident. We had a propane stove with the metal gas canisters. One morning the stove decided to start shooting flames everywhere. I was the unluckly lad sitting by the tent door, so when the other guys scooped up the flaming stove it got tossed to me. I fumbled the pass and dropped the stove into my lap. -POOF!- went my down pants. But I did get the stove out the door right after that.

Kinda amusing, heh. Burned at all?

At OSU they offer some physical activity classes (judo, fishing, mountain biking, dancing, winter MOUNTAINEERING, etc) and needless to say I have done a few mountaineering/climbing ones they offer. In the class they have a over-night outing at Mt. Hood. THey specifically only show us (and make us use) white gas stoves, because they are the most difficult. At the dinner time on the outing they do 1-2 big group tables, carve it out of snow and what-not. One of the instructors was telling us that on the outing 2 years back a stove flamed up. Well the guy using it flipped out, grabbed the stove and arbitrarily threw it over his head, behind him. THe instructor and one of the aids were sitting behind and saw a flaming white gas stove fly and land in front of them a short distance off. Heh, so they emphasize not to freak out if the stove flames up, as they generally do.

For a canister stove, keep a hand warmer under the well of the canister, block the wind and get-er done

the ortik heat it my friends!

I've always cooked inside when weather and conditions dictated over the years with my XGK msr without incident.
My key to deal with the unavoidable flare ups is to have my foam sleeping pad in hand and use it as a "tent" shield" to hover over the flame until it burns off.
Even in the worst flare up the foam never burns,melts or is a concern. Been doing it for thirty years. Having your cooking pot/cup on the burner reduces the flame height a bit as well but expect a tiny amount of soot on the pot bottom when doing this.

People have pretty much covered the "burn down the tent" problem. All I have to add is that it is no fun to burn down a tent. I have had one catch on fire while I was sleeping (started by a ground fire, not by a stove.) My friend still have the scars from burning nylon dripping on his arms.

As for CO poisoning: If you've got a 40 mph wind, you probably don't have much to worry about if a window is open.

Yeah I too am a fan of the MSR Reactor with a modified JB hanging kit.

I can only speak for the Reactor (and I'd assume the Jetboil is similar).

I personally don't cook food in these types of stoves, so not much babysitting is needed if just boiling the water to add to dehyd food. Melting snow to drink requires some love, however. If you're in that situation, chances are you're on snow and have dug a pit in your vestibule. Great place to place the stove is on something insulating in the bottom of the pit. Just watch your ventilation, and keep in mind your condensation levels increase from the cooking steam.

If it's just raining/blowing, for an easy boil just place it outside the door, and zip it up - grab it when it's done. Wind has a tiny affect on the Reactor, so that's one good thing about it. Not being able to really cook well inside it is a downside, if you're into that.

In China, they had a fantastic stove that hung from the center of the tent. Had to cook snow into water constantly and it took a really big stove. Really nice unit. Like a sphere when locked down.

Hello!

I've used an MSR Dragonfly inside the vestibule before. I gotta say I was more worried about attracting wildlife than I was about CO poisoning. As for burning the tent down with one of these jet engine type stoves: You can always take a small nalgene bottle of isopropanol (higher % is better) and prime your stove with that. I've never seen alcohol flare up and after about a minute the stove should be warm enough to start letting the white gas flow and vaporize. That's how I've always avoided those 12+ inch flares you usually get with these stoves.