Hi all, figured I'd check in and say I used my new Whisperlite international edition for the first time last weekend. It fired up great, as I was expecting of course (thank you NHOC stove training)! I only used it a couple times to boil water, but so far so good! It boiled about 5 cups of water (1.25 nalgenes) in about 4-5 minutes, without the aluminum shield for the first minute or so because I forgot. But then I had to take the shield off while cooking my pasta because the stove was too hot. Certainly in windless 70 degree weather it is way more powerful than necessary! Turned down as low as possible it kept the water at a roiling boil, occasionally boiling over if I didn't stir it. But we all know this about the Whisperlite...it's heavy on power, light on control.
They say the international edition uses a bit more fuel than the regular stove because it has a larger jet (or something). Just eyeballing it by looking in my fuel bottle, I did notice that the fuel level was slightly lower after ~15 minutes of stove use. However, at that rate of use (using the stove once a day to cook pasta) I could have gone about a week without running out of fuel. This is with the 20 oz fuel bottle. Take my numbers with a grain of salt and plan accordingly for colder weather, etc.
Anyways I just wanted to note my positive experience with this stove. I'll check back in 20 years with an update, hehe.
