Purchased the stove for this season after a lot of research. Very pleased with what it has to offer. Built like a tank, but light as a feather.

Pro's
Simmers well, lights quickly, and packs well, and incredible construction.

Cons
Noisy, unsure of parts availability, takes a while to turn off given the method used, a little pricey.

Right now I am very pleased and highly recommend the stove if you can afford the quality, and all metal construction.

Similar Products Used:

Optimus Hunter
Peak 1
MSR Dragonfly

I just got this stove, actually my first liquid fuel stove. I picked up at whisperlite international, but returned it after a closer look at it and at the reviews of the Nova. After using the Nova, I'm not sorry about that choice.

Priming is a snap, literally 20 seconds. I was amazed at how low you can get the flame without it going out.

It feels solid without being too heavy. It's not quiet, but it's not loud either. It fits easily in my backpacker's pantry one liter pot.

All in all, I'm very pleased. It's a bit expensive, but if you consider that you'll probably never need to buy another stove, it's worth it.

Customer Service

I had one quick question. Called customer service and they were very helpful.

Similar Products Used:

homemade alcohol stove (light, quiet, but, oh man, it's slow)
various cannister stoves

I bought mine using an online coupon for REI. I have used it this winter in cold temps and at high altitude. It simmers well at all temps. What, can I say?....it's an easy stove to use, primes easily(once lit), simmers well,, and folds up nice and small. The jet cleaning is a no brainer. It has been built to be very durable. The pump assembly is a durable metal. The nonheat conducting properties on the legs and simmer control is nice, The non slip groves on the potholder part is nice...a very stable platform too!

Being a SVEA123 owner as well, Nova stove is like the SVEA would be after several evolutionary jumps forward!...very comforting and I'm sure I will be using this stove for many years.

On the iffy side, it sometimes is hard to get a flame into the priming area to get it lit because the holes are a bit small, it's not super fast to bring water to a boil, it's a bit loud, the fuel line has a tendency to freeze up in real cold temps, and the flip stop feature to clear the fuel line takes a little too long.

Customer Service

I have used A& H enterprises in California to get spare parts for my SVEA ...they are excellent!

Similar Products Used:

None

Good stove. Solid build. Good flame control. Sets up and breaks down easy. Turn it off flip the pump/tank over and its off and purged shortly. Pump is all metal and well built. burns white gas, kerosene, jet-A & clear lite no problem. Priming with alcohol works very nice. When I set the flame to a very low level with kerosene or jet-A the flame will turn yellow and soot the pans. Clear lite (synthetic kero) is less of a problem. White gas works perfect regardless of flame setting. The magnetic jet cleaner is very novel. The stove stows nice & small.

Customer Service

A&H folks try hard. Easy to deal with.

Similar Products Used:

Optimus: Explorer, Hiker, Ranger, Seva.
Petromax.
MSR: DragonFly. Whisperlite.
A&H R1 (Hunter copy) Russian.
Primus: VariFuel.
Coleman: Feather400, 533Dual fuel, 2&3 burner suitcase type.

I finally got to try out my new Nova while on a canoe trip to the Sylvania Wilderness in the Michigan UP. The stove did boil water much faster than my MSR dragonfly. It does have very good flame
control.

Some nits. The stove is noisy. I also had some trouble with the coupling system of the fuel bottle and connecter hose. I finally realized that I had to use much more force than I had thought to get the two connected. Another concern was that after releasing pressure from the fuel bottle as directed, that I noticed a leak in my
fuel bottle when the pump was still installed. My hunch was that this was caused by the leather washer in the pump that needed oiling.
After applying oil I think the problem was fixed. Otherwise, a nice
stove thats sturdy. It primes easy and quickly heats whatever you
want.

Customer Service

MSR dragonfly, Peak 1 multifueil, Peak 1 Apex II

Similar Products Used:

None

After having been through much Walmart equipment in the past years (mostly car-camping), I decided to get more serious about the outdoor life and wanted to get reliable equipment that would hold up for many years. I did quite a bit of research before purchasing, and am pleased to report that the Optimus Nova is definitely worth it.

On a recent weekend treck, I got my first chance to try out the Nova. I was quite amazed at the intense heat output and the low fuel usage. This is a very fuel efficient stove. An important feature to me is the ability to simmer, one of the primary reasons I didn't go with the MSR XGK. Another attractive feature is the all-metal pump.

Priming is a snap, at full throttle, I had water boiling in no time, and the simmer feature allowed an awesome pan of cornbread to bake quite evenly.

Construction is very solid, the unit is quite compact and I expect to be using this stove for years to come.

Similar Products Used:

None

I am quite impressed with this stove I just got it last week for a trip I have comming up next week, so I gave it a start up today to see how it fuctions and how it is said to be able to simmer just like any cannister stove out there. Well sure enough it is a snap to light and I took it from afterburner all the way down to a nice low simmer just like it was supposed to do,no complaints. Shut off is a longer process actualy than start up you tip the fuel bottle over and wait for the pressure inside to burn and die out, so it takes longer at a simmer setting and shorter at blowtorch. Anyway not a problem.
If you do ant winter camping I think this is going to be the stove to own From what information I have gathered alot of the exreme cold stoves out there can go full tilt but not many can give you a simmer at zero degrees. When I get back from my field test I will post a follow up

Customer Service

none yet

Similar Products Used:

primus cannister models

None

None

Was I expecting too much from the Nova? At $300 ozy dollars I would expect a stove that didn''t waste fuel and would operate as a multifuel stove as outlined in the sales propaganda. The quick disconnect coupling joining the fuel bottle jammed several times spraying fuel all over my clothes. This would explain the lack of wildlife I failed to see. Kerosene sputtered in the unit and failed to live up to the stoves so called "super simmer" capabilities. Trying to find parts? For get it. Stick to the MSR Dragon Fly. Yes it''s loud but it''s a proven stove and parts are more readily available.

Similar Products Used:

MSR Dragon fly. Whisper International. Coleman Peak 1 Multi Fuel.