Review of portable butane camping stove

In recent years, many camping shops are stocking the butane portable stoves. They are pretty small, easy to use, come in their own carry case, and have a self-ignition system.

But how do they perform and are they economical?

We first tested one in controlled conditions;
• inside (no wind)
• 19 degrees
• one litre of room temperature water for each test

Test one
With a brand new cartridge it took 5 minutes 40 seconds to boil, using 18 grams of fuel. This equates to 20 cents to boil one litre of water. At that rate you would be able to boil one litre of water about 12 times from one cartridge.

Test two
We then tried it again with a cartridge that was forty percent full. With this cartridge it took 5 minutes 30 seconds to boil and used the same amount of fuel.

Test three
We boiled another litre of water straight away after completing test two. This consecutive boil took a full 10 minutes but still used the same amount of fuel - that is, it cost the same but took nearly twice as long.

We then took the stove outside. There was a mild with light gust between two to nine kilometres an hour, according to our wind meter. In other words, typical outside conditions. We didn't set up any wind break, just to see how the stove performed as even the best wind break lets a few gusts through.

Test four
In these conditions, with a new cartridge, it took 13 minutes 45 seconds to boil a litre of water and used 40 grams of fuel. That is 18 percent of the cartridge or 45 cents. That means you would only be able to boil one litre of water five times from one cartridge.

Conclusions
The longer the cartridge is continuously used, the cooler the cartridge gets. The cooler the cartridge gets, the lower the pressure in the cartridge and thus the gas output declines. It doesn't use any more fuel to boil a litre of water but it takes a lot longer.

The stoves cost about four cents a minute to run at full heat with no wind.

It's performance declined dramatically in light wind, both in terms of time taken to boil the water and the amount of fuel used.

They are suitable for picnics etc where you are not using them for long periods of time, perhaps to boil water for a cup of tea. But this too requires that you manage any wind very carefully.

They are not suitable for family camp cooking conditions in which they are required to burn for longer periods. A solution would be to keep swapping the cartridges so that a warmer cartridge is always being used. That is, use one cartridge for five minutes and swap it, then put the first cartridge back in after the second cartridge has been used for five minutes. That's annoying.

They are too heavy for hiking and would require too much fuel to be carried.

In comparison we also tested an MSR Reactor. It took 2 minutes 30 second to boil a litre of water, costing 40 cents in fuel. The performance of the MSR, however, doesn't deteriorate the longer you use it, nor is it affected by altitude or wind.

Final word
These stoves are rubbish, usable only in the most of ideal of conditions for short periods of time. You cannot use them for periods required to cook a family meal and normal outdoor conditions cause it's performance to deteriorate dramatically.

Spend the extra money and get a decent camping stove.