Soto Windmaster stove malfunction – yellow flame

The first thing I’d try is cleaning the burner, just because it’s fairly easy to do yourself. See instructions: https://sotooutdoors.com/product/windmaster-new/

and is the path for air into the stove clear of debris?

Dan – actually, not so easy, or safe, to clean the stove. The instructions are for cleaning if you spill food into the burner head, which I didn’t do. And as far as the eye can see, clear of any debris. But OK, try to clean anyway, and then I discovered, as precisely machined as the titanium thing is, the connection that has to be unscrewed is too tight. So that, even as I could unscrew and separate the sections = very hard to do, I was unable to refit them properly, and trying to rescrew them, stripped the screw frozen in place. So…busted stove. Kaput. insert curses here___.

Very sorry to hear that, @mudjester.  :-(

Problem solved, you just need the replacement part for the Windmaster. It comes as a complete kit, no assembly required.

if you ever find out the cause, let us know. I just purchased one.

Well howdy ho! I contacted Soto explaining the problem and a customer service rep got back offering to send me a replacement stove!! Simple as that. So, obviously I want to share this sort of stellar service, which maybe is not so unusual for a cottage biz, but for a biggie like Soto, it is impressive. So I’ll leave things there – unless Soto fails to deliver, in which case I’ll post that update.

Bruce – since I couldn’t find any similar issues-solutions for my Windmaster failure online, I don’t think this is a common problem. Just a defect in my unit. Aside from this failure, I will say I’ve used the stove under various windy conditions for about 50 days, many above treeline, without issue, and truly love it. I keep a BRS and older PocketRocket as backups, but confess, in thinking I’d have to replace the Windmaster on my own dime, I was leaning to getting another one! A lot to merit the new PR Deluxe too, but given the reviews, they seem to be neck and neck, head and shoulders above other canister stoves.

The Soto stoves (Amicus & WindMaster) are excellent pieces of engineering and function.  I own a LOT of stoves and the Soto WindMaster is by far, the best canister topped stove that I have ever tested and used.  My 2 cents.

Same here, Soto Windmaster is my stove of choice, I’ve used it a lot.  It seems like the engineering might be better.

I’ve also used the Pocket Rocket Deluxe but not as much.

They’re both equally good in that neither has failed.

What Jon and Jerry said.  If I had to replace my Windmaster I would buy another without hesitation.

x4 to the Windmaster love. only cannister stove i ever had and dont need another. Hearing Jon say its his favorite is really something though. That says a lot considering how much he thinks about stoves :)

Here is the deal, I have tested a LOT of stoves in my wind tunnel.

BRS craps out above 2 mph / Stash above 4 mph / Most canister topped stove don’t make it past 5 mph

Pocket Rocket Deluxe could not boil water at 8 mph / Soto WindMaster hung in there and boiled.  It used fuel but it is the only canister topped stove that I have tested that worked at 8 mph.

That, and the quality is exceptional.  My Pocket Rocket Deluxe had pot support arms that wouldn’t keep a pot level.  I had to re-form the arm stops to get a level stove.  And recently, the auto-ignitor went belly up.  I have yet to haev a problem with the Soto WindMaster.  My 2 cents.

To close this thread, I can say Soto totally came through sending me new Windmaster w/o my even asking. So, I can add to Jon’s hard research and all of our in-field endorsements, that in addition to a fine piece of engineering, Soto excels in customer service. 5 Stars. Game Over.

So whaddya think Jon, time to retire that wind tunnel for a time?

For the Soto WindMaster?  Agreed.  I wish that all stoves were that good.  My 2 cents.

good info Jon

I’ve used my pocket rocket deluxe for maybe 30 nights with no failures, but that’s just one test

as far as wind goes, even the windmaster doesn’t work well if it gets very windy – a windscreen is really needed

just looking at prdeluxe and windmaster, I think the windmaster is better engineered, but that’s a subjective opinion

Interestingly enough, I had this discussion with Hikin’ Jim about 2 months ago.  With my Pocket Rocket Deluxe, the burner to pot distance is 0.35″.  On my Soto WindMaster 4-Flex, it is 0.23″  the PRD has over a 50% larger gap.  I suspect that is one opf the main reasons the Soto WM outperforms the PRD.  My 2 cents.

I am a Soto windmaster fan as well. It’s our go-to stove, even in winter (with copper moulder strip).But when it gets really windy, I like to use the MSR wind Pro 2 since it has the windscreen and is lower to the ground.

My friends stove started doing this same thing. He contacted the distributor and was sent a new stove. Good costumer service !!