Butane Stoves

Many brands in many stores at widely varying prices and I think they all come from same factory in China!

There was an issue with them many years ago and they were withdrawn from sale. Any one you buy new will meet the new safety standards.

I think the cheapest is the Campmaster brand that Big W sell. Had one for a few years no problems.

It's been hot in Perth this summer and none of my cylinders not stored in a cool dry place exploded. But I wouldn't leave them lying around in the sun.

Only issue for me is in colder weather the gas doesn't burn so well. If it's really chilly I sleep with a cylinder in my sleeping bag so I can boil the billy at dawn. And you might be reaching for a new cylinder before gas has run out. Burns low as it empties.

Cheers

Lyndon,
Rocco2010 has summed it up perfectly. I have two of them which I purchased over twelve years ago. They are different brands and I have used a great variety of butane cartridges in them with no problems whatsoever. For common sense reasons I make sure that any saucepan, frypan etc. I use is not so wide that it reflects the heat from the flame back down onto the compartment where the cartridge is stored as that seems to be a recipe for disaster.
As Rocco2010 said, the performance does drop off in chilly weather but that is hardly likely to be an issue in Darwin!
All in all, I find them very useful for specific applications such as boiling water, heating soup etc. etc. but I don't think I would use one to cook for several people.

Cheers,
Roger.

The Bunnings ones are absolutely fine to use, they are a Gasmate brand.
All the butane cartridges you buy in Australia now have a rim vent release safety feature so that they cant explode like has happened in the past.
I use a butane cooker every day and would feel safer using one over a dual fuel stove

The two negatives with butane is the flame is more wind effected than LP gas and they don’t work well in cold climates but are lightweight, cheap and the canisters are readily available everywhere

Hi Lyndon,

My experience with butane canister stoves is similar to the others. Can be more affected by wind, and not effective in cold temperatures. I got rid of mine in favour of a small single burner LPG stove and small LPG bottle.



Macca.

How old are your bad reports (or more to the point, the initiation of these reports.) I have not seen or heard of any bad reports of these from any supplier since the regs were changed to make the construction of these stoves relatively idiot proof.

Even Litchfield in the dry can be chilly in the morning. The performance of the butane will drop away. They were useless in the Simpson! Warm the canisters and you should be ok. All the blowing up ones were withdrawn years ago. Do not use a pan which extends over the cylinder housing, will cause drama.

There are also hiking stoves , metho stoves and Jetboil systems . We used a combination of a hiking stove and a Trangia nested set of pots and metho burner to cook simple meals and boil water. The metho stove was actually the quickest to boil water. I also had a wind shield for the cartridge top hiking stove (burner only).

I think one of the issues back several yrs ago was that people didn't follow the instructions. They have a max reccommended size pan to use and not indoors which I think one wally didn't follow and burt his van to the ground. I've got 2 that are several yrs old no problems.

Colman hyperflame are excellent in the very windy condition with high output .

Used one for years,no problems. A wind shield is a necessity as mentioned.

People were putting large frypans on them covering the gas canister area subjecting it to the heat of the flames.
Butane boils at or around 0 degrees, so under that you cant get it alight as it is a liquid in the canister. Ive put one down my jacket and felt it boiling before using it, throwing a canister in the tent also increases reliability.

I bought one off amazon that runs both butane and coleman gas bottles. Simple solution for my ute kitchen with limited space.

I wouldn’t touch one of those butane stoves with a barge pole!
Yes I know they are popular, & that regulations re design were instituted to make them safer, & that using larger pots/pans which overlap the canister area is a no no

BUT

My experience with one was a very lucky escape & it had nothing to do with the design of the stove.

Rather, it had to do with the butane containers themselves. Two 6 packs of butane aerosols, bought at different times from different places, both well known brands - not ultra cheapies …… failed to seal in use & leaked dangerously. All 12 of them! And not just in the stove. I also tried them in a gas blowtorch I had with the same result.

Prior to this I had used the stove regularly with other canisters without issue, so user error was not the problem.

Consequently I decided I would never risk my life, nor my vehicle with them again. Yes it could have been bad batches of butane canisters, but two different brands a couple of months apart was sufficient for my trust in them to be lost.

I've used butane stoves since Adam played fullback for Jerusalem. They're useless in cold weather, dangerous in hot, to say nothing about the first generation being deadly as well... I still use one for a quick boil up beside the track though. I have other larger but heavier Primus stoves for the camp.
What I have discovered is a 3000 w inverter will power a portable induction cooker ($70 - $90 at Anaconda or BCF) and that will allow you to cook and cook quickly, even on days of total fire ban. If you get one that can be adjusted for power down to, say 1000 w) you can use a smaller inverter but it takes longer. Check your battery will handle it all and still be good for the fridge.

Despite the small number of instances of failure I can understand the reluctance of some to avoid his product.

I wonder though how many thousands (hundreds of?) are in use without a problem.

I also have the old dual fuel stove,still got it but never used these days ,replaced with single dual fuel,Coleman,burner,compact,works great