In the beginning, we used a butane Camping Gaz burner, until that ran out. Stuck for the night in a small French village, we procured some agricultural diesel and decided to put the MSR Dragonfly multifuel stove to the test. After worrying that the stove was about to explode, we realised that the initially-large flame was in fact a normal part of the priming process.

It was used for several months burning diesel, before problems began as a result of a lack of maintenance and cleaning. If you’re using automobile fuels in the stove, it will work, but you’ll have to spend a lot of time cleaning to keep the performance up. This is part and parcel of using multi-fuel stoves with this kind of fuel, however. Kerosene, if you can get it, results in far fewer dirty deposits, and white gas (Coleman gas) is supposed to be the holy grail of fuels, although we’ve never found any so far.

We chose the Dragonfly over the Whisperlite or XKG because the adjustable flame level is great for satisfying those moments of culinary inspiration — duck a la road-kill being our crowning achievement so far.

Beware, however, of the fact that the stove is supplied with 2 fuel jets — one for diesel, and one for everything else. The diesel jet is not installed by default, and while fitting it is a doddle, one must remember to do this, or else the stove will still work but quickly become caked in black soot from the improper burning of the diesel oil, as we discovered on the first couple of occasions. Prevention is better than cure here, regular cleaning being the key. On long tours, bring the expedition service kit for long-term spare parts and maintenance, as the seals will become brittle — the pump connector seal was the first to go for us.

The windshield and the base, both made of flimsy, folding metal, are showing a lot of wear after having been repeatedly folded and unfolded. This is possibly the stove’s only weakness. A more durable and innovative heatshield solution would go a long way here.

The stove is expensive, but comparable in quality to other similar multi-fuel offerings. All stoves are prone to the mitigating effects of bad-quality fuel, but the Dragonfly’s simple, rugged construction is such that it really can be deconstructed into its component parts, cleaned, and put back together quickly with very little in the way of tools — only common sense being a true pre-requisite. I recommend it if you want to cook, but if you just want to eat, the WhisperLite or XKG might be a simpler option.