Originally Posted by Lovegasoline

I suppose a distinction should be made regarding a windshield vs. windscreen. Maybe these terms are not universal nomenclature accepted by the stove industry?

As for standalone items, I'm using 'windshield' to refer to something that functions like as a wind break (for example setting the stove behind a rock that protects it from being in the direct stream of the wind) and that could include a product that protects the flame without fully enclosing the stove.

I'm using 'windscreen' to mean a full surrounding enclosure. As an example, the MSR Whisperlight comes with a thin aluminum sheet which can be bent into a circle to surround the stove and with a place for the fuel line to enter. It also comes with an aluminum disk to place on the ground/substrate underneath the stove to reflect the heat back upwards towards the pot. However in this arrangement because of the protected fuel line, the fuel bottle is placed remotely - outside the windscreen - so the windscreen besides protecting the flame from the wind to increase the BTUs might actually also function to provide an additional layer of safety by creating a barrier to further shield the fuel bottle from the heat source.

On a canister stove if you completely surrounded the stove with a windscreen such as described above and then placed a pot on it, is it a possibly that the enclosing windscreen could heat up the gas canister beyond a safe temperature? This is what I always assumed to be the reasoning for the warning.
Some canister stoves have a little built-in windscreen which also deflects heat upwards and away from the gas canister ... but these aren't the super tiny gram saver micro stoves.

----



I'm curious, did you pack the little flushing syringe that comes with the Sawyer Mini and try to use it to back flush the filter? Again, I own one but have never used it. [Like you I think it's a good idea to have an emergency backup, and generally some very lightweight chemical water treatment (tablets, liquid) in my pack. Boiling would be second backup. As a last resort I'd just drink the water untreated and take my chances ... which I'll sometimes do anyway even if I have water treatment stuff, depending on the water source.

PS: Sweetwater pump water filter ... I had one of the (original?) ones from the late 80's before MSR bought the product but I haven't used it in ages. Who knows, I might even still have it stored somewhere.