BRS-3000T stove Spotlite Review

[Ken Thompson]

Just got mine today. Came packaged on printed card stock and a clear plastic cover that slipped off during shipping. I'll pull it apart here in a bit and report back.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Adam

> This is all enough to make me want to forget about using my two.
I would not do that. Test the stove at home first by all means (always!), but all the ones I have work just fine for upright use. We have only one report of any problems so far; I have stripped 5 down and reassembled them, and they work just fine.

Cheers

[Stephen Parks]

It's quick and easy to pull the valve needle out and see what you have. If the seals aren't damaged, clean everything up and you most likely have a good stove.

[Ken Thompson]

Sorry no photos, but mine came apart easily. Almost no loctite on the threads. Clean machine work and no extra bits of metal floating around inside. Simmers well. So tiny! I'm happy.

[Stephen Parks]

Ken, great news! Hopefully my bad one is a rare exception.

I put new o-rings on mine tonight and reassembled it and it works. I had to screw the valve in very tight at first to get it to completely close, but I closed it hard and opened it several times with a small wrench and it is better now – not quite as good as my first stove, but good enough.

[Clifford Deakyne]

I just took my BSR-3000T apart. I had already tested it months ago and it worked fine. Like Ken, I had little if any sealant on the threads when I took the body apart. The Jet was undersized for the expected 6mm maybe by almost 0.5 mm. The needle valve came out cleanly. All of the thread machining looked perfect and there was no chips or junk in any of the parts.

I'd encourage any one who had one to break it down before assuming it is bad.

Cliff

[Stephen Parks]

Here's the reassembly. There are a few optional steps related to making the stove "self-servicable" which you can easily ignore.

First, here is my valve with new o-rings. I inserted and removed the spool several times without damage, so I'm satisfied with the deburring job I did earlier. For reference, I used 75 durometer Viton o-rings, 1.5mm width x 3mm inside diameter. I have 23 extra if someone needs a couple replacements.

Ok, back to the procedure.

Optional step: If you want to be able to push out the valve lock pin with the valve handle as I mentioned earlier in this thread, remove the handle from the valve spool and force one of the small bent ends into the lock pin hole from the burner side as shown. It may take some pushing and twisting to be able to push it all the way in.

Now clean out any bits of aluminum that you might have scraped off and check that you can push the lock pin in from the canister side (flush or nearly flush with the valve body) and push it back out with the valve handle. Once you push as far out as possible with the handle, it should be loose and easy to remove the rest of the way with your fingers.

Optional step: If you want to add some filter material, do so now. I used a little tuft of cotton from a q-tip, not very much at all. I'm interested to get others feedback on this (filter material, unintended consequences, etc.)

I gently pushed the cotton into the valve body – don't pack it in, just ease it down into the hole.

Optional step: If you want to store some wire inside the stove to have on hand for unclogging the jet, first you'll need some brass wire. I used wire from an ancient brass brush I had in the toolbox.

Clip off a couple of wires and check that they fit in the jet, then fold them in half. Don't fold them completely, as the ends should be a little wider than the inside of the jet body.

Now squeeze the bent wires just enough to insert them into the body of the jet. The idea is that since the wire ends want to spring apart, there is no way they are going to get into the jet hole and cause trouble. It also retains them inside of the jet body so they won't fall out as easily.

Why two wires? Because it doubles my chances of finding one of the little damn things when it's dark and I'm hungry and my fingers are cold and the stove doesn't work and I need to get the jet unclogged.

Ok, now back to required steps. First, make sure the valve body is clean and free of debris. Spray it out with some carb cleaner or brake cleaner if you have it. Screw the jet back into the valve body. Tighten it snugly so it doesn't leak but not so tight that you can't get it apart in the field.

Put a little grease on the o-rings and screw the valve spool back into the body (keep the tip of the needle clean – don't leave any grease on it as you see in the photo). If you have a high temp silicone grease, use that, otherwise, use the best you have on hand. Petroleum jelly would be my last resort, but if that is all I had, I guess I'd use it.

Now install the lock pin if you are keeping it, put the handle back on the valve spool if you removed it, and screw the burner assembly back on to the valve body.

Close the valve and screw the stove onto a canister and listen very carefully for leaks. Check that the valve opens and closes properly. Put some safety glasses on and fire it up!

One modification remains to allow you to service the stove in the field without carrying any tools, and that is to turn one of the pot supports into a wrench as I showed earlier. I'll try to get that mod written up soon.

-Stephen

[Bob Gross]

Great closeup photography.

–B.G.–

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Stephen

An excellent write-up. Thank you.

Using the handle to push the pin out – very clever! I did not think of that. Me, I just left the pin out there-after. Mind you, a bit of bent copper wire threaded through the hole might also work as a safety if you want.

Viton O-rings: the right material for sure.

Cotton wool fluff – works fine. Hopefully natural cotton and NOT a synthetic – which could melt. Try a flame on a bit: if it chars it's cotton. Melted synthetic will really block the jet!!!

Storing the jet pricker inside the jet – also rather clever. Can I add my suggestion that any strip-down should be done at ground level over a white handkerchief … to catch the bits.

Getting the jet out. Some jets are jammed in rather tight. If you get the jet out, I recommend you file (or turn) the little shoulder down to just level with the inside surface. See the third-last picture for this. There is not much to it, but doing this exposes a bit more of the hex part of the jet, making it easier to keep a spanner on it. Yes, the hex brass is a bit undersize for 6.0 mm, but I could not find an imperial size to fit it either. Dunno what they were doing here.

Silicone grease: good stuff, but keep everything forwards of the inner O-ring clean. Don't get grease on the needle part.

Cheers

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Agreed, great write up. I just took mine apart and it was in perfect condition; no burrs, no dirt or loose bits. Actually, I was pretty impressed with the overall machining quality on mine. Maybe it was made at the start of a new shift.

I found an easy way to get the jet out. If you plunge a crescent wrench in from the top, the tips of the wrench gives you more contact with the nut. The jet was easy to remove.

[Tom D.]

I received my first one yesterday and stripped it down. It all looks good, except for the jet that I was unable to extract. I didn't see any thread compound on the body threads, although I cleaned them anyway.

I was unable to extract the jet. A 6mm wrench rounded the corners just a tad. I tried the nose of an adjustable wrench and that really rounded 2 of the corners. I should have ground the edge down to expose more of the hex beforehand, but what's done is done. The stove works well and I am overall pleased with it. I just won't be able to remove the jet on this one.

I have another one coming that I ordered a week ago. We'll see how that one goes.

[Nick Gatel]

Use a quality brand 6 point socket, although it will probably cost more than the stove.

[Clifford Deakyne]

Tom.
I had a similar problem. My 6 mm 6 point wrench just rounded the corners. A pair of Vice Grips from the top allows you to get two parallel surfaces tight on the jet to break it loose. Put it back in snug but not too tight for later removal.

Cliff

[Roger Caffin]

One of the 4 stoves I disassembled gave problems. The jet was too much smaller than 6 mm, so I used a machinist's clamp like this
clamp
to get a very tight grip as deep down as possible.
I am not recommending this one at all – it's just a convenient picture from the web. My clamp is an old Eclipse unit.

Cheers

[John Vance]

I received two a couple of months ago and no problems – everything looked good.

[Tom D.]

I was motivated by Roger's and Clifford's posts and made another attempt to remove the jet. I filed the edge around the jet to expose it a bit more, then filed two opposite edges of the jet itself flat for a purchase point. Then I clamped the jet down in a bench vise. That jet was in there tight, and even with it clamped down I couldn't loosen it by turning the body by hand. I had to use plyers around the jet housing and turn it, but it finally broke loose and I got the jet out.

I cleaned out the chamber and the jet, then sprayed them both out good with brake cleaner. I then put a tiny bit of silicon lubricant on the jet threads and reinserted it.

One interesting side effect of my efforts was that the jet section now screws a little farther onto the burner section (due to my filing down the material surrouding the jet) so that when reassembled. one pot support arm hits the needle handle and won't go all the way down for storage. I just backed it off a tad for storage so that it will fold down, I just have to make it part of my pre-use check to tighten it again.

I did a final test boil and it seems to work beautifully.

Edit: One good thing about my "modified" jet shape is that I won't have to remove as much material from the stand arm to make the wrench…;)

[DGoggins]

Excellent pictures and procedure…thank you all! I received 2 in the mail, and already bent one of them to fit my jetboil (I was dumb and it took longer than it should have).

One question…is there any modification that I could make so the hissing sound of escaping gas doesn't happen when I take the stove on and off?

[Jerry Adams]

I think most stoves let out a bit of gas when you're screwing on/off. Just at one spot. Quickly screw past that. Insignificant amount of gas lost.

[Tom D.]

Roger mentioned grinding the pin down just a hair to shorten it. With mine, I screw the stove onto the canister just to the point where I start to feel resistance (where the pin makes contact with the canister), then position my hands and do a quick turn (about 1/2 a turn) to get past the point of hissing as quickly as possible. You then turn it just a bit more to snug it down, keeping in mind the aluminum threads. After one or two times doing this, it's easy to do it quickly to minimize any loss of fuel.

That being said, anyone try grinding down the pin yet?

Edit: Jerry beat me to it

[Stephen Parks]

You could try to shorten the brass pin that pushes the valve in the canister, but it wouldn't be easy and if you remove too much material you might have a problem. Keep the canister upright when you connect/disconnect so you only lose gas, not liquid. No big deal.

Edit to add: I considered shortening the pin on mine, but haven't thought of an easy way to do it while maintaining the roundness of the tip and not risking damage to the threads, so I'll just live with it. If you were going to shorten the pin, you could calculate the amount to remove by multiplying the fraction of a turn between start to hiss to o-ring engagement times the thread pitch.

On an older 8oz MSR canister that I have, I don't get the hissing.

[Roger Caffin]

One non-destructive 'modification you can try is to experiment with slightly fatter O-rings. That way you should get the sealing before the valve opens.

Cheers

[Tim Zen]

8 pages over 1.6 ounces. Wish, fix, take a part, clean, retrofit, all you want, but it won't make it an MSR. I know there are real engineers here and they know what it means to produce quality product within spec.

[Bob Gross]

"8 pages over 1.6 ounces."

Where did the 1.6 ounces come from?

–B.G.–

[Roger Caffin]

> but it won't make it an MSR.
Chuckle.
MSR Reactor CO emissions: about 1200 ppm – totally lethal
BRS-3000T CO emissions: ~20 ppm
Yeah, real good MSR engineering there.

Cheers

[Tom D.]

"8 pages over 1.6 ounces"

---

.2 oz per page, that's not too bad….

I don't have any problem with MSR, but if I can get something that does the job as efficiently at 1/3 the cost and 1/3 the weight, I'm going to look seriously at it.

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