Single Burner Standalone Stoves

[padlin]

The Coleman 2 burner went up in flames last week, looking to replace it but only need 1 burner. Anyone know of a good single burner that works in light wind and simmers? Size matters, not looking to fry turkeys. Something fairly compact but not backpacking style. Anyone have experience with butane?

Double burners need not apply, plenty of threads on those.

[gbaglo]

I have two butane stoves ( cause I won one at the Escape Rally ).
They are cheap ( $29 ish ). The compact butane canisters cost $1.97 here in Vancouver.
It burns hotter than propane, so if you are boiling water, it is faster and uses little fuel.
For simmering, I'm planning on using the bottom from one of those wire toasters to raise the pot off the burner, because if you turn it down too much, a light breeze will blow it out.
I love the size and weight of both the stove and the fuel.

[padlin]

I imagine a heat diffuser would work. Have any issues when it gets cold out? I know my lighters get cranky unless I warm them up some before trying to light.

[gbaglo]

I haven't noticed cold affecting the butane, but if it's that cold out, I'm probably using my three-burner propane stove inside the trailer. I'll BBQ when it's cold, however.

[GusGill]

I'll vouch for the smaller Gas Master unit. I've had mine for a number of years and it works fine. I just grabbed my unit out of the 5.0TA today as our electric stove top is on the blink and I plan to use it till I get a new one someday. I once saw a documentary about Japan and they were using this type unit was their main stove. Works for me.

[Brian B-P]

Any liquified petroleum gas is substantially reduced in pressure by low temperature. Butane is more affected than propane (below 0°C or 30°F butane has no pressure at all), and the smaller the container the worse the problem... but any fuel container held right beside the burner has the advantage of being heated as a side effect of operating the burner. Butane and butane-rich propane/butane mixes are commonly used both for backpacking in North America and for RVs in Europe, so it is obviously workable in common camping conditions.

The adiabatic (ideal or maximum) flame temperatures for burning propane or butane in air are essentially the same. Common portable single-burner butane stoves (such as baglo's) simply tend to have larger burners than common propane camping stoves, so more heat is produced.

For one of the many rounds of this discussion, see Do you cook inside your Escape? - post #22.