The Kovea Spider (KB-1109) Remote Canister Stove

What's this?  A package?  For me?  Why how nice.  You shouldn't have.  I mean really... but I'm so glad you did.

The Kovea Spider's package

And look!  It's the new Kovea Spider, a remote canister stove that is capable of running with the canister inverted (if you're not familiar with the cold weather advantages of running with the canister inverted, you might want to check out my article on Seattle Backpacker's Magazine, Stoves for Cold Weather II).

UPDATE 10 Mar 2013:  I've added a cooking report for the Kovea Spider.

Why I've been lusting after one of these ever since I saw it in the Kovea catalog.  Aye, and she's a nice one.

The Kovea Spider

Look how compact that is!  Yes!  What a sweet little stove.  Now, I own a number of stoves that are capable of running on a remote gas canister (Rapidfire, Windpro, Omnifuel, OmniLite Ti, Whisperlite Universal, etc.), but every one of those stoves is essentially a big, white gasoline type stove converted to run on canister gas.  None of them are particularly light or compact.  The lightest remote canister stove that I've got is the Windpro II at 187g/6.6oz.  The Kovea Spider weighs in at 168g/5.9oz which while almost 3/4oz lighter isn't really all that much of a weight savings to be perfectly frank.

A Kovea Spider (right) next to a Monatauk Gnat (left)

But weight's not the whole story, now is it?  Packability ranks very high on my list thank you very much.  I like to be able to put my stove and a canister of gas inside my pot.  It is here, in the packability department that the Kovea Spider shines.  I tried my Kovea Spider in my 780ml Snow Peak Ti pot.  It fit great, along with a 110g Snow Peak canister of gas.  Note:  The 780ml Snow Peak pot has a frying pan lid.  Not all 780ml pots will work.

A Kovea Spider fits easily along with a 110g canister of gas inside a 780ml Snow Peak Ti pot.

I was also able to fit the Kovea Spider into my 850ml Titan kettle, again with a 110g Snow Peak canister of gas.  It's a bit tighter fit even though the Titan kettle has a larger capacity due to the kettle's proportions, but I was able to get it to fit and to close the lid.  Now that's pretty sweet.

The Kovea Spider will fit into an MSR Titan kettle along with a 110g Snow Peak canister of gas.

By comparison, while I can fit the Windpro II into either a Snow Peak 780 or the Titan Kettle, I can't even begin to fit a canister of gas inside when there's a stove in there.

An MSR Windpro II (left) in a 780ml Snow Peak pot.
A Kovea Spider (right) in an 850ml MSR Titan kettle.  With the Spider, there's room for a 110g gas canister!

Now don't get me wrong, I like the Windpro II; it's a good stove.  It's just that I've been wanting something lighter and more packable for some time.  For groups of 3+, I might still choose the Windpro II, but for smaller parties, say from 1 to 3 people, I think the Kovea Spider will do very nicely.

Here's a video where I compare the packability of the Kovea Spider with that of an MSR Windpro II.  In the video, I state that the Windpro II weighs 8 ounces, which is NOT correct.  I must have been thinking about the stuff sack and windscreen or something.  The correct weights are 168g/5.9oz for the Spider and 187g/6.6oz for the Windpro II.

Well, that's very nice that it's a bit lighter and a whole lot more packable, how about the stove itself?

Ah, good question.  And in answer, let me say that I'm suitably impressed by Kovea's workmanship.

The Kovea Spider is very well made

I like the overall build quality and fit.  There are some nice touches like the fold out wire flame control.

The Kovea Spider has a fold out flame adjuster.  Works great with mittens.

Some of the cheap stoves coming out of China have a small knob here which is much harder to work when wearing mittens.  I've also seen the knobs on cheap stoves jam -- and unscrew right off the end of the spindle.

The stove comes with a pre-heat loop, so that you can gain about a 20 Fahrenheit degree (about 10 Celsius degrees) cold weather advantage over conventional upright gas stoves by running with the canister upside down, which causes the stove to be fed liquified gas.

The pre heat loop on a Kovea Spider

Here again is why I prefer an experienced and accomplished stove maker like Kovea over some of the cheap stoves coming out of China.  In inverted canister operation, some Chinese stoves have had particles break off from their hoses (improper materials were used) and still others had a "stutter" caused by liquid fuel reaching the burner even though the stove had a pre-heat loop (bad design).  At least with inverted canister operation, Chinese stoves don't appear to be quite up with their European, Japanese, Korean, and American designed counterparts.

The burner head of the Kovea Spider is small, but this should be nothing new for those who have been using light weight conventional (upright) gas stoves.

The burner head of the Kovea Spider

Now, take a look at the photo below.  Notice the downward pointing arrow on the leg/pot support?  The legs of the stove snap into place with a very positive lock.  No flopping around here.  To release the leg, simply push down as the arrow indicates, and rotate the stove's leg inward for packing.  Nice touch.

The legs of the Kovea Spider click into place for use. 
The legs are then pushed down as indicated by the arrow to release the lock and fold for stowage

In terms of flame characteristics, I found that I could go all the way from a low simmer.

A Kovea Spider simmering

To a very full blast.

A Kovea Spider on high flame.

The Kovea Spider has plenty of power and easily brings water to a full roiling boil.  Notice also, in the photo above, that the flame angles outward from the burner head.  Even though the burner head is relatively small, the flame is well distributed, and you don't get as much hot spotting as you might from other similarly sized burner heads.

A vigorous boil

With a rotating coupler, the Kovea Spider is easy to use in either normal canister or inverted canister mode.

A Kovea Spider with the canister inverted

And of course, since it's a remote canister stove, you can use a full 360 degree windscreen without fear of overheating the canister.

A Kovea Spider in use with a full 360 degree windscreen.  No problem; works great.

In terms of pot sizes, the legs can support a wide variety of pots.  The smallest diameter pot I tried was an MSR Titan kettle, but a smaller pot would be no problem.  However, if you want to fit both the stove and a canister of gas in your pot, you can't go smaller than a Titan kettle.

A Titan kettle on a Kovea Spider

The largest pot I tried on my Kovea Spider was a 1300ml Evernew Ultralight Ti pot.  It worked great, and there's no reason why you couldn't use an even larger pot.

An Evernew 1300ml pot on a Kovea Spider.  Very stable.

The stove comes with a detached piezoelectric ignition.

The Kovea Spider comes with a separate piezoelectric ignition

The ignition is nice, but since I carry a butane lighter on every trip already, I found myself sometimes leaving the piezo ignition at home.  Interestingly, the Kovea lighter appears to be identical in every way to the MSR lighter sold with the MSR MicroRocket, except for the color and brand name.

The Kovea and MSR piezoelectric ignitions appear to be identical

The Kovea Spider is easily my favorite gas stove to have come out in 2012.

Testing the Kovea Spider on the PCT this past summer with my daughter.

Summary
The Spider (KB-1109) remote canister gas stove from Kovea
What's Good about it

• Compact!
• Relatively light
• Capable of inverted canister use for cold weather
• Compatible with a full 360 degree windscreen
• The flames from the burner head angle outward which helps prevent "hot spotting"
• Well made; well designed
• Very affordable.

What's bad about it

• At 168g/5.9oz, it's still a little heavy for what it is.  More on that in my concluding remarks.

The Spider (KB-1109) remote canister gas stove from Kovea:  Highly recommended.


Concluding Remarks
I mentioned that I thought the stove was a bit heavy for what it is.  Now, don't take that out of context.  This is a very nice stove and has definitely made it into my "go to" gear bag.  But I think more progress can be made here in future generations of the stove.  The stove should be at least one ounce lighter than it is now and preferably two.  To you Kovea, I throw down the proverbial gauntlet.  If you don't do it, the Chinese will.  I'd like to see you succeed because I know you will make a far better stove.  I sincerely hope that you will take up this challenge.  I want the stove that you will build!

Lastly, the Kovea brand is not available through conventional channels in the United States, but I do see the Kovea Spider being sold on eBay.  The price I see listed is $52.90, which is roughly half of similar stoves from American producers.  The Kovea Spider is not only a darned good stove, it's a darned good deal.  It's my favorite inverted canister stove and my first recommendation to anyone looking for either a remote canister or inverted canister stove.  In case you haven't already figured it out, I really like this stove.

UPDATE 30 March 2013:  The Kovea Spider is now available through a US retailer, The Gear House, in Virginia.  Note:  I haven't ever purchased anything from the Gear House.  This is just for your information.

Thank you for joining me on another Adventure in Stoving,

HJ

Appendix I, Radii of Stoves Featured in this Post

Stove	Radius (cm)	Radius (In.)
Monatauk Gnat	5.5	2.2
Kovea Spider	6.5	2.6
MSR Windpro II	7.2	2.8

Keep in mind of course that an upright canister stove's burner sits up much higher than that of remote canister stoves like the Spider or Windpro II. Generally, pots are more stable on a remote canister stove if the pot supports are equal in length to an upright canister stove's. If the pot supports are longer, the remote canister stove has an even greater advantage in terms of stability.

Appendix II, Additional Video
I shot a video with my new camera.  I'm still learning the ins and outs of my new camera, so I managed to cut off the video before I was done.  Since it's cut off, I won't put this video in the body of the review, but even though it's cut off, the video should still give you some idea of what the stove is like.