so Chris, I've always found the Whisperlite to work perfectly fine. Yours is probably the "white fuel" only version, the stuff we buy at Canadian Tire in a metal container, but there is an "International" version that by changing a jet inside somewhere (a doohicky with a hole in it that the fuel passes through) you can burn gasoline and maybe diesel fuel etc, handy if you are traveling where gasoline is the only thing easily available. I have read that dirty gas etc can clog up the jet and the stove can burn wonkily until you clean it out with the little pokey thing that comes with the stove or the repair kit that used to be sold or maybe still is.
Ive only used white gas, and my stove has always worked perfectly fine.
re pressuring the container with the pump. Dont overdo it, you go by feel so cant describe it, but you get the drift. After you let some luiquid fuel into the bowl and do that preheat thing that will burn your tent down if you do it near your tent, right after the flames go out, it generally lights easily. Ive never had a problem other than putting too much fuel initially and having a good high flameout number, or not enough and the tubes dont heat up enough.
Its easy to figure out right amount trial and error.
Mine has always burned well, they put out a prettty good amount of heat and you can lower the flame down to a reasonable low amount for simmer, but you'll see that at some point, you may notice the burning blue flames out of the stove may start to lessen in intensity, or sputter, and this usually happens cuz you need to pump a bit more pressure back in the bottle.
Obviously be careful and hold stuff still properly when pumping if a pot is on , common sense prevails.
soot will form on the stove, generally from the initial lighting of the pooled fuel in that bowl, so Ive always kept the actual stove part and attached coiled line , in a plastic bag so not to get soot on inside of pot , where I store the stove and cleaning scrubby thing, little bottle of soap, matches lighter or whatever, pot handle and whatever crap I can stick in there.
Oh, and releasing pressure from bottle after use is important so that any fuel doesnt vent out when its in your pannier and give everything a fuel smell.
traveling with these stoves airplane wise is always going to be tricky. Ive never flown with one, cuz of anything with a fuel smell can get flagged and taken from you, so tricky and I never took the chance. Borrowed a simple screw in stove thing that attaches to those blue propane or whatever gas containers, buying a couple of these at some store in France or whatever when I get there. These are always common to find, so makes traveling in places like this easy.
white gas isnt that common in other countries, so a heads up.
whisperlite vs the Trangia I mentioned-- trangia is super basic, less hot, slower, not as easy to adjust flame, its basically a fondue burner stove if that means anythnig to you. They are silent and have no moving or clogging parts, so as long as you can get stuff to burn in them, they just work, but are more sooty when burning depending on the alcohol that you find.
I use it just to boil water mostly, and the occasional heating up of food, so got one just cuz it made for a smaller lighter cooking kit. I got a trangia mini stove kit at MEC to try it out, you'll see in the mec page what it looks like, and I use the whisperlite windscreen to go around the stand and stove, which is imiportant given the flame is a passive flame so not that strong and wind really reduces effectiveness.
have fun playing with whisperlite, dont burn the house down as David Byrne would say