Canister Stoves

I have the Pocket Rocket 2 – It’s a good product, how much does your remote ignitor weigh?   I didn’t know there was a Deluxe until you posted.  I just use a Bic Lighter or Flint from my survival kit to light my PRII.

I am also, Ken. There are quite a few other, better (IMO) canister stoves out there.

Less tipsy too.

I like piezo lighters.  Soto stoves.  It’s been working for a couple years.

For some reason, Pocket Rocket is not well liked on this site.  I have one of the old models.  It works fine.  Pretty much the same as many other canister stoves.  I don’t know if the piezo lighter works on the new Pocket Rocket model.

…Soto Windmaster…Great canister stove, it’s what I use now.

The Windmaster is my stove of choice as well.  Light, yet sturdy and less tippy than most.  The piezo has worked flawlessly for the 4 years I have owned it.

Can also be easily found for just under $65 right now.  Worth it!

Maybe when Pocket Rockets first came out they were more unique?

Since then, a lot of stoves that weigh about 3 ounces?

I don’t have either stove, but I’ve been waiting on the pocket rocket deluxe, because of it’s pressure regulator. It’ll help the caister perform more consistently at colder temps.

Looks to me like the pocket rocket deluxe takes some of the design elements from the Soto windburner.

Pretty similar designs as far as I can tell. Big stove test from bpl coming which will prob compare them both.

Roger, just curious on your take for a good canister top stove these days?

Hi Overshot

You could do a lot worse than a BRS-3000T stove, as long as you buy a genuine one. There are imitations on the web and reports have suggested that some of them are ‘not good’. Expect to pay in the range US$12 – US$15 from eBay.

Of course, the big Q is how do you tell a genuine from a fake/copy? The genuine ones look like this:

(pic taken from our review of the BRS-3000T at
https://backpackinglight.com/brs-3000t-review-caffin/)
Note especially the burner head and the pot support arms.

Beware: there are plenty of fakes under that model name on eBay, but they look a bit different..

Then there is the Fire Maple FMS-300T stove, also on eBay, price US$35 – US$45, although there are plenty of vendors with higher prices. Buying one from an Australian retailer will cost you in excess of $100, which is why Aus retail is having such a hard time of it.
The FMS-300T is arguably better made, with brass thread at the base rather than anodised aluminium. Brass means the thread will last longer, although with gentle handling the BRS-3000T will last for a few years.

The BRS-3000T is a bit of a cult stove here at BPL, being reasonably well made, working well, and being about the lightest and cheapest in that class. (The cheaper copies do not always work very well.) In fact, some hard-line BPL members have been known to buy 4 – 6 of them in one go to drop in various packs and ‘in case the production stops’. It is amusing that the cost of 4 off BRS-3000T can be less than the cost of 1 off brand-name (Western) stoves.

Example: the Olicamp Ion stove (US$60+) is exactly a rebadged FMS-300T.

Disclaimer: I have zero vested interest in any upright stove brands, although I do sell my own Caffin Winter Remote Canister Stove.

Cheers

Most canister stoves burn fairly cleanly. Usually they have plenty of oxygen input and unrestricted output, so, only the fuel valve on stoves really does anything. (I am discounting various Reactor type stoves.)

Oxygen inputs or air vents are usually fixed at the factory. These are usually just drilled holes near the jet. As the jet passes by them it draws air in to mix with the flame. This usually means the air/gas mix is then passed through to the burner where it is distributed and burned. A simple arrangement, generally, that works pretty well.

But, what happens with wide burners and low fuel settings? Well, sometimes, it is possible for the mixed fuel to ignite too soon under these conditions. You might hear a pop and the fuel can burn in the burner rather than outside. Not a good situation. This can cause a lot of heating of the internal parts, any gaskets could melt, and the canister itself could overheat. Since this is a safety hazard, most manufacturers use smaller burner heads, insuring that this will not happen. It also means it is difficult to get a wide burner head to run at very low fuel settings.

Since the air intake is fixed (remember, they are simply a set of drilled holes) this means that overall pressure may be overly lean when the fuel is set at low settings. While fairly good at reducing CO emissions it also increases NO emissions (http://fluid.wme.pwr.wroc.pl/~spalanie/dydaktyka/combustion_en/NOx/NOx_formation.pdf) This is not much but as far as I know, no one has studied this wrt hiking stoves.

The excess of air will also reduce the heat output further…think of it as “diluting” the overall heat of the flame…increasing CO production at very low settings. It will have the same effect as flame quenching. You can see this by turning your canister stove stove down till it starts burning with yellow tipped flames. This can be delayed by removing some of the air input using a sleeve to block some part of the air inlet holes. In practice no one does this, so turning down the stove, till it just burns clean, is as low as it will go.

Not ultralight and may not be well loved here but I have had good luck with the Etekcity stoves. They throw a decent flame and are better than the BRS-3000 in windy conditions in my experience.

Well that is one opinion