New MSR Dragonfly cross threading out of the box

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.

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.

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.

“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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.