Coleman Xtreme Stove REVIEW

Another reason to buy this great stove: it easily cooked for five in mild weather (with a windscreen of course), and probably could do the same in cold weather.

One minor problem: One of the fuel containers stopped delivering fuel when less than half used up. The o-ring looks a little chewed up…perhaps a bit of it got logded in the feed mechanism somehow. I complained to customer service, and even sent in pictures, but got no action. I guess I should bring it back to where I bought it.

Otherwise I'm very happy with the stove, both for winter and for cooking for a large group. For really large groups they make a fairly heavy two-burner model, the Expedition if I recall.

I love the idea of not having to mess with petrol, especially when my fingers are cold. Given the difficulty of finding the powermax canisters, I have two questions:
Are there any fuel canisters that will work nearly well as the Powermax canisters in cold weather, assuming the cartriges are inverted?

Is there any mail order shop that sells the Powermax canisters? I can't seem to find any locally.The one mail order shop I was able to find wanted an extra $20 as they say UPS will charge extra for handing hazardous materials.

Thanks much.

Eric Douglas

Hi Eric and Roger,

“Are there any fuel canisters that will work nearly well as the Powermax canisters in cold weather, assuming the cartriges are inverted?”

Any of the 30% propane mix canisters should work nearly as well Powermax is supposed to be 40% propane mix. I have tested a 30/70 inverted canister at -20C with no problems. Roger Caffin’s web site has some PT curves on it that you can look at. (http://www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/FAQ_Mixtures.htm)

I purchased a Powermax Extreme last week from Moontrail (http://moontrail.com/stoves/colemanexponent_xtreme.php) US$59 free delivery in continental USA, was delivered to my friend yesterday hope to have in OZ soon can’t wait to try it. Powermax canisters are hard to get in OZ so I also purchased a screw canister adaptor from REI.

Tony

50 bucks at campmor

Hi Tony

> I found this screw thread canister adaptor when researching the Powermax stove on the Coleman site. I have ordered one to try.

Snuffle – they promised to send me one when it became available, but I have yet to see it…
Hum – but as I write this all our mail for the three months we have been away is still at the local mail delivery centre, so maybe a parcel awaits …
Thanks for pic. I will pursue and review.

Hi Roger,

Welcome back, I received my Coleman Xtreme stove and adaptor last Saturday, I have fired it up but not tested it properly yet, although it is heavy I like what I see.

Tony

What matters is not the canister but the fuel – and whether you operate the canister in liquid feed mode or not.

Cheers

Roger,

I'm wondering if you might have an estimate as to how many ml a 300g Powermax canister might be able to hold. I'm doing some write ups right now on stoves, and I'm trying to compare the weight of a Simmerlite to the weight of an Xtreme. The Simmerlite of course can't function without a bottle, so I want to include the weight of the bottle. The question is, which size bottle would make a fair comparison? I'm thinking the 22oz (~0.6 l) is about the same size as a 300g Powermax canister, but I'm not sure.

I'm wondering if you have an old 300g sized Powermax canister laying around that you could pop the top off of and pour some water into and see how much water fits.

Why, yes, I am crazy. Why ever do you ask? lol.

Thank you,

HJ

@James

Since Jim asked for mL, we need to know the density. A very quick look shows the density to be about 60% of water, so 300 grams would be ~420 mL.

Measure the can and fudge a bit for the domed end and the thickness of the shell. The rest is just calculating the area of a cylinder.

REI lists the size of the canister as 2.6 x 5.3 inches.
http://www.rei.com/product/618124

The volume of a cylinder is pi x radius squared x height. The radius of 2.6 is 1.3, and squared is 1.69, soooo, 3.14 x 1.69 x 5.3 = 28.12498 cubic inches. According to the Google converter, that is 460.885847 ml. I would take 10%-15% for the dome shape and the thickness of the walls, so it is about 400ml.

Or allowing for density as was already done. That was how the 300g got converted to ~400ml or so. It doesn't really matter. There should be enough info for making a decision.

Anyway, the choice remains 11oz bottle or 22oz bottle. For saftey considerations, the bottle should be able to be pressureized for the stove. Optimus, Primus, Brunton, Trangia, and a few others are the only bottles I know of. All are 11oz or 22oz by English measurements. Jim had mentioned a 22oz bottle, so I assumed thats what he wanted…11oz, 22oz or 32oz. 22oz is the bottle that fits his criteria, given room in the bottle for pumping. Likely the MSR 22oz is what he will end up with, at a guess.

No. The 22oz bottle works. The pumping needs some space to expand into, else you get really bursty pressure until you burn down about half the fuel. It runs best at about 1/2 to nearly empty.

The trouble with the Simmerlite is that it does not simmer well. It it does not take a low heat setting without a lot of fiddling.

I have tried 40 pumps, 3 pumps and everything in between. On less than three pumps, it starts hard. The fuel will pour into the cup but not heat the preheat coil all that well. In high, it really pours out the BTU. This means a lot of heat lost to the outside air, unless you are cooking for a large group with a large pan (6qt, 10in or larger.) For solo or paired hiking, it burns wastefully. Even with the heat screen and reflector, a lot of heat is lost. Maybe it is just the one I have, though, I actually tried two of them. A friends ran about the same so, I didn't bother to run tests in it.

The most efficient WG stove I have run was the old SVEA. In a lab, I got .17-.18oz per liter (averaged over 10 runs, best was .13.) In the field, closer to .26-.33. The Simmerlite gave about .43(2 runs) in a lab and about .55 in the field(4 runs.) Even the Whisperlite gave somewhat better results at .42 in the field (3 runs.)
(In Lab: Water temp 50F, air temp 68F, no wind under a hood, of course.)

That said, both units have their place. For longish canoe trips or hiking trips, I bring my SVEA. It saves weight compared to other stoves and does a decent job for two. But at 4700BTU it is too small for larger groups. For three or four people, the Simerlite is much easier.

My old Whisperlite blew the guts out of the pump. For a week, we cooked over the fire. I got the Simmerlite instead. But, it was worse at cooking on low than the Whisperlite.

I don't have a Coleman Xtreme or any canister stove. The fuel density is slightly higher than WG…I believe around 19000BTU for WG, 20000 for gasoline and 20500 for blended Isobutane/propane. Give or take, depends on the actual blende and will vary from batch to batch. I think the canisters are better than WG is for QC, though.

I usually carry my fuel in a PET bottle (.5oz) so, after adding in for canister weights it is a wash on the two fuels. I use WG + SVEA. It's a lot cheaper for fuel costs…personal preference…I am usually broke.