Primus Eta Solo Stove Review

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There are quite a few small upright heat-exchanger stoves on the market now. In general they consist of a stove unit which screws onto the top of a canister and a special pot with a heat exchanger on the bottom. The first one was released by Jetboil, and we believe that it was made for Jetboil by Primus. It was distinguished by having a very bulky black plastic surround on the stove, which was meant to support the pot - except that the bottom parts of the support didn't connect with the canister.

Well, this stove looks very similar to the Jetboil - but it also looks similar to the copies made by other brands

Heat exchanger stoves are all a bit more fuel-efficient than the basic upright stove such as the Primus Express, but you usually pay for this small saving in fuel weight by a large increase in the weight of the stove system. Exactly why a heat exchanger stove needs such a bulky lump of stuff around the basic burner is not at all clear, although this one does have an extra feature not found on other similar models. It comes with a 'hanger system' which has two parts.

ARTICLE OUTLINE

Overview
Field use
Summary
Specifications and Features

# WORDS: 1410
# PHOTOS: 2

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Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

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May 17, 2011 at 5:02 pm #1273985

Addie Bedford
BPL Member

@addiebedford
Locale: Montana

Companion forum thread to:

Primus Eta Solo Stove Review

May 17, 2011 at 8:30 pm #1737917

ROBERT TANGEN
Spectator

@robertm2s
Locale: Lake Tahoe

My rating would be "Eta Solo TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!" In your report you said: "While I was trying to get the pot off the stove I found that the cozy could easily slip downwards, covering the air outlets at the bottom of the pot. If this happens while the stove is running two very nasty things could happen. The first is that the heat build-up under the stove would quickly melt the bottom edge of the cozy, and very possibly set it alight. Not good. The second, and even worse possibility, is that the blockage could suffocate the flame inside, causing it to go out. That would leave gas pouring out of the canister, but not being immediately burnt. The consequences could be less than desirable."
THIS IS A STOVE THAT CAN KILL YOU!

May 18, 2011 at 3:19 am #1737985

Ken Griffiths
BPL Member

@hillwalker
Locale: Snowies-Tas-NZ in turn

The Primus Eta Solo certainly looks very like the Jetboil PCS. I have used the Jetboil PCS for a couple of seasons and it suits me very well. I used to have a fast breakfast – add cold water to oats and powdered milk, and to coffee. Now I boil 600ml and pour boiling water onto the food. Three servings, three containers, one boil up. Similarly, in the evening, I heat to a boil then turn the stove off at once. Then detach the Jetboil 'cup' by a small screw motion and pour out onto freeze dry vegies or cous cous. So I never have anything but water in the upright Jetboil pot/cup thingie. I leave the top off during heating, for safety. The Jetboil cozy makes handling the hot water easier. Though I purchased a hanger and the plastic feet and the stove top adapter, admiring their design, I have never used them. If the ground is uneven under the Jetboil, you can actually hold it so it does not tip, because 3 or 4 minutes are only needed. So this type of stove certainly suits a person like me who does not want to simmer anything. I love the design of the Jetboil. It looks like the Primus Eta might need some tweaking or production quality control.

May 18, 2011 at 5:33 am #1738004

William Brown
Spectator

@matthewbrown
Locale: Blue Ridge Mtns

I have a number of Primus products that I would highly recommend. But as soon as I saw this model at an outdoor trade show, I was extremely put off. Sorry to see I was right in my visual assumption.

To knock off another's design and make it better is one thing. To do it poorly is quite another.

May 18, 2011 at 10:02 am #1738099

Allen Childs
Member

@childthor

Hard to understand why they let this one go into production given their good name and previous products. I bought my first stove from them in 1977 but wouldn't touch this one.
Allen Childs
Waynesville, NC

May 18, 2011 at 10:22 am #1738114

George Matthews
BPL Member

@gmatthews

Enjoyed reading. This is a good example as to why we need experts testing new gear.

To: Primus

Fix it.

May 18, 2011 at 2:19 pm #1738242

carlos fernandez rivas
BPL Member

@pitagorin
Locale: Galicia -Spain

"""To knock off another's design and make it better is one thing. To do it poorly is quite another.""

Im agree………… but I´m really surprised with the review …. because primus manufacture really good stoves … and because primus was the manufacturer of some parts of the first original jetboil …¿?

May 18, 2011 at 3:16 pm #1738263

Roger Caffin
BPL Member

@rcaffin
Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

Hi Robert

There are many ways a stove could kill you … :-)

The probability of the cozy slipping is not high ***if it is wrapped tightly around the pot***.
The probability that you would not smell it cooking if it did slip is pretty low as well.

So while there is a possibility, I would not rate it as very highly probable.

Cheers

May 18, 2011 at 3:45 pm #1738278

Ralph DITTON
BPL Member

@aushiker
Locale: Manning

Roger, you had the same experience as me. In fact, the cosy did slip down over the heat exchanger whilst running. It snuffed out the flame. Fortunately I was watching it at the time. On another occasion I made the mistake of putting the heat resistant cover on upside down.After a short time the flame went out and I couldn't work out why straight away. The gas bottle was full and it was not freezing so the gas should burn.
Then it dawned on me. I could only see into the burner section through the inverted U shape. Hang on, that was supposed to be on the top just under the bracket for the suspension kit.

The heat resistant cover was below the bracket and this caused the bottom section of the cover to block off the air vents apart from where the U shape was.
I had starved the flame of air.

Once I realized this I removed it completely and lit up the stove again.
This time I got another flare out of flame through the air vents and the flame singed the hairs on the back of my right hand.

Re the tilting:The vessel takes on a slight lean.
The reason for this is because there is a bit of play between the control knob housing and the moulded bracket that holds it and the Piezo igniter. In addition, there is also play at the top just under the burner head where the stem passes through the bracket that has the two red buttons that release the burner unit from the vessel.

May 20, 2011 at 5:30 pm #1739143

Roger Caffin
BPL Member

@rcaffin
Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

Hi Ralph

Yeah, not sure why Primus did not fix the tilt before release. Me, I think it's a serious design fault that the manufacturer is initially responsible for, Primus should have demanded it be fixed.

Cheers
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