New MSR Dragonfly cross threading out of the box

[Quintus]

Hello!

Back in march I purphased a new MSR Dragonfly. I got to test the stove at home twice, before it cross threaded while trying to adjust the flame after doing a boiltest.

The flamecontrol feelt very gritty right out of the box. My hope was it would improve with some use, but I was wrong. I took the stove apart after it crosstreaded, upon inspection I noticed a copper-colored substance that reminded me of copper-grease. No clue why this was inside the stoves body.

I got to adjust it a couple of times before dissaster struck, the controller was gritty and when you adjusted the flame it would shoot fireworks, like there was debris losing from inside(the copper-like substance).

I got a new replacement after some time, and I was curiouse if this stove also had this copper-colored substance inside its body. And sure was I right, there were loads of it!

I started to clean the stove with the provided cleaning tool for the dragonfly(Flamespreader, jet, shakerneedle and spindle was removed). I did follow the cleaning procedure explained by MSR and flushed the stove several times with white gas. At the end I lost count of how many times I did this procedure… it was impossible to get rid of the copper-colored substance. Controller still feelt gritty, but I wanted to see if it could work. Put the stove back togheter, primed it, started it…it was shooting fireworks, still gritty, and started to block the jet a few times. Then I said to myself, Im going to return this stove and get a refund. While trying to adjust it you had the feeling the threads would cross-thread any minute. Upon inspection you could allready see defects in the threads.

This explain the gritty feel on the controller and why the stoves was shooting fireworks when you tried to adjust the flame. The substance inside the stoves are causing a major problem, no person would have a chance having a reliable stove.

I have no clue what MSR have been up with these two dragonflys, they were produced back in 05/22.

I noticed somthing on the boxes the stoves comes in from MSR(I own several stoves from them).

MSR XGK says “Made in the USA”

MSR Whisperlite International and MSR Dragonfly say “Assembled USA of U.S. And Imported materials”

Im not sure what exactly this means, but for me it seems like they are producing the parts for Whisperlite and Dragonfly somewhere els than Seattle. If they have outsourched the manufacturing of Dragonfly it could very much be the problem in this case.

I found one other guy at classic camp stoves that had the same experiance with his Dragonfly, this stove was also made in 05/22. Also found a case at reddit with exactly the same problem back in 2021, in the picture provided the copper-colored substance could be seen.

I have a fair bit of experiance with liquid fuel stoves, I have several of them in fully working condition from 1950s until todays models.

Anyone els had this type of experiance with Dragonfly? I still want a Dragonfly, but thinking of getting a second hand one, one that has a productiondate far far away from 2022.

[Quintus]

Pictures in first post did not work.

The crosstreaded spindle after two uses.

Copper-colored substance/debris inside the new stoves. This is just some of it.

2nd spindle showing marks after two uses. No wonder the controll feels gritty. Allready some signs of crosstreading in the rear part of the spindle.

[Bruce Tolley]

When you say got new replacement, was that under warranty direct from MSR?  Historically MSR has stood behind their products.

The spindle looks like a quality control problem.  I cannot tell what the copper substance is.  Does it appear to some sort of metal or a distillate of some liquid? Could the stove have been used/abused before then packaged up for resale by an unethical reseller?

Now to really digress at the risk of thread drift.

The grammar in your quote Assembled USA … seems a little off, perhaps suspicious.  The MSR website says the Dragonfly is Made in the USA and the specs on the web say Made in Seattle,USA.   Did the packaging have the State of California Prop 65 warning.

 

[Quintus]

No, I did not get the stoves directly from MSR.

Since I live in Scandinavia MSR got regional distributor for different country/region. They are bought from one of the bigger resellers in my country. They refunded me the same day I contacted them about the second faulty stove.

The residue inside the stove reminds me of copper-grease which looks to me that was used creating the threads inside the stove body.

These stoves did not show any signs of use other than the test-burn MSR does with the stoves. Some discoloration of heat (total normal).

XGK EX Box.

Dragonfly box. Whisperlite boxing is marked exactly the same.

[Roger Caffin]

“Made in the USA’ seems explicit.
But the text on the other box would have me putting it back on the shelf – fairly fast.
Could it be a copy?

Cheers

[Bruce Tolley]

Just based on photos, I would conclude bad quality control at the manufacturer.

 

[Quintus]

MSR liquid stoves is regarded as some of the best stoves in the world. Bad quality control does not work very well in that case. Im sure there is a reason behind the bad quality controll, something is done different in the process or someone is not doing their job right.

This is a stove that would last a person a lifetime if used correct and maintenanced, not with major problems out of the box making them useless.

I will not risk a 3rd time, going to buy a second hand one that might require a normal service to be in perfect working condition.

For me this is a big problem, people who dont have any experiance with liquid stoves end up buying a stove with major problems from the factory. They’ll give up and get rid of it….and probably never go back to them. Because they never got to experiance a good working liquid stove..

Primus has had this type of problem to, residue from production inside their Omnifuels. Not as bad as this two dragonflys, but enough to clog the jet and making problems agian and agian. People give up on them, sell them and never buys one agian.

Time to time you get to buy Omnifuels for 1/4 of the price and they look unused because the owner gave up. When the problem is sorted the stoves are really good.

[Bruce Tolley]

Yes it is unfortunate that you got two bad stoves from MSR.  There have been other reports here at BPL of the decline in quality of MSR stoves but they included no specifics.

[Quintus]

Sad to hear, I have always recommend MSR stoves to people looking to buy a stove, because of their simple design and reliability.

I understand liquid stoves are not “pop” anymore, most people use canister. Its easy, clean and light.

Personaly I prefer liquid stoves and use canister once in a while summertime. Most of my outdoor hiking is done wintertime with pulka and skiis, no canister stove would have worked for my needs.

Anyway, found myself a deal on a 5 year old Dragonfly in working condition. Picking it up on friday. Stove is probably “old” enough to be without factory defects.

[Bruce Tolley]

“Stove is probably “old” enough to be without factory defects.” LOL

There are many Svea 123 safety stoves out there that still work fine.

[Quintus]

Haha! I have two kerosene stoves from the 1950s, they got a service and some cleaning. Working perfectly every time I use them. So old enough to be without factory defects is in a way true 😆 or it might be someting like pre-covid and post-covid stoves.

Ive had a thread about this problem over at classic camp stoves forums, two guys are saying that most of their production is moved to South Korea.  I cant backup this statement, but im pretty sure that the dragonfly is not made in the USA anymore.

The XGK EX is used by US army, so that stove is for 100% sure made in the USA.

[Finnegan McBrisket]

Have you contacted MSR about this? It might be a good idea to provide them with your experiences and photos so that they can figure out what’s going on here.

[Quintus]

I did, they was more like bla bla bla. “We have not had a batch of faulty stoves.” I beg to differ.

I did not want to waste my time anymore, bought a second hand one from 2017. Gave it a good clean and its working perfectly.

[Bruce Tolley]

Even if MSR moved production to South Korea, that is IMO no excuse for poor quality control.

Korean manufacturing and quality control is world-class. Many US stove manufacturers use Kovea as a contract manufacturer which makes excellent stoves under its own label.

[Author]

Posts