Podcast 011 | Canister Stove Reviews

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Summary

This episode of the Backpacking Light Podcast features highlights from our recent round of canister stove reviews.

Canister stoves are notoriously difficult to compare accurately. Variations in testing conditions and methodology make any head-to-head comparisons suspect at best, especially when using manufacturer generated data. That’s why we developed StoveBench and spent hundreds of hours applying the methodology to virtually every sub-four ounce upright canister stove on the market.

The result is a 15,000 word gear guide chock full of graphs, charts, raw data, and our purchase recommendations for a variety of needs. In this podcast Ryan and Andrew use both StoveBench and the Upright Canister Stove Gear Guide as a springboard for their conversation.

Ryan and Andrew get things rolling by recommending that you listen to the StoveBench episode of the BPL Pod, read the StoveBench article on the website, or (preferably) both.

After that they spend some time laying the groundwork for stove comparisons: how they define the category, how they judge stove performance, and how they went about testing those performance considerations.

The last half of the pod is a convo covering a few of the stoves that stood out in the gear guide (good and bad!). As the episode unfolds, Ryan shares his thoughts on how design features affect performance, and Andrew gets into cost considerations. The guys wrap the episode with the champs: the two stoves that stood out in nearly every test. Spoiler alert: they aren’t the lightest.

Outline

Intro

• Intro to episode
• Recommend that listeners go check out the StoveBench Podcast and article
• What is an upright canister stove canister (how do we define the category)?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages to using an upright canister stove?

The Tests

We put the stoves through their paces. Not all of them survived unscathed.

• Control Test
• High Volume Test
• Wind Test
• Cold Test
• Stress Test
• Stability Test
• Compatibility Test
• Noise Test
• Ignitor Test
• Simmering

The Judging

All our stoves were special, but one one of them had to get the rose!

• Cost – %5
• Weight – 10%
• StoveBench Score – 50%
• Ignitor Durability – 5%
• Pot Stability – 10%
• Compactability –  10%
• Noise – 5%
• Simmering Grade – 5%

The Stoves

What stood out? We break it down for you (and discuss design considerations along the way).  For an entirely comprehensive look at the upright canister stove market, check out the gear guide.

• The BRS-3000t
• The FMS-116T
• The Snow Peak LiteMax
• The Snow Peak GigaPower 2.0
• The Kovea Supalite Titanium
• The Kovea Titanium
• The PocketRocket 2
• The Soto Amicus
• The Soto Windmaster 4Flex
• The PocketRocket Deluxe

Feedback, Questions, Tips?

• Submit them to [email protected] or Twitter and get featured on our next podcast!

Credits

• Backpacking Light – Executive Producer
• Ryan Jordan – Director and Host
• Andrew Marshall – Producer, Host, and Editor
• Look for Me in the Mountains – Music
  • Written by: Chris Cunningham and Ryan Jordan
  • Performed by: Chris Cunningham (acoustic guitar, lead and harmony vocals, harmonica), Chad Langford (upright bass), and Tom Murphy (mandolin).
  • Produced by: Basecamp Studios in Bozeman, Montana

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• This episode of the Backpacking Light Podcast is supported and kept advertising-free by Backpacking Light membership fees. Please consider becoming a member which helps support projects like this podcast, in addition to a whole slew of other benefits!
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Contact

You can contact us at [email protected], or follow us on social media –

• Backpacking Light – Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
• Andrew Marshall – Instagram | Twitter | WWW
• Ryan Jordan – Instagram | Twitter | WWW

Disclosure

• We do not accept money or in-kind compensation for guaranteed media coverage: Backpacking Light does not accept compensation or donated product in exchange for guaranteed media placement or product review coverage.
• Affiliate links: Some (but not all) of the links in this review may be “affiliate” links, which means if you click on a link to one of our affiliate partners (usually a retailer site), and subsequently make a purchase with that retailer, we receive a small commission. This helps us fund our editorial projects, podcasts, instructional webinars, and more, and we appreciate it a lot! Thank you for supporting Backpacking Light!