First, a couple photos…
![](https://elegantungulate.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_20240617_235238.jpg?w=1024)
This is a relatively low setting. It can go lower, but the flame then pulses which seems non-ideal.
![](https://elegantungulate.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_20240617_235318.jpg?w=1024)
And this is with the gas valve wide open.
In the first photo, you can see adapters so the stove can also use the cartridge style butane tanks (they look a bit like mutant spray paint cans) or propane canisters. An obvious feature is that the fuel tank is not the weight holding the burner in place, but is at least a little way away from the flame.
If some find this looks familiar, there is a reason. I took my time getting around to buying this, and longer to get around to using it (ox slow), but I first saw it on Dio’s site a couple years back:
Yes, I was using it indoors. That’s alright. The CO detectors didn’t budge, and the cook time was short. If nothing else, it shows that you CAN cook “off grid” even when the weather is miserable. I do not know the future, but I do know the worse future I prepare for the better future I will experience.
I did have a bit of time, so I ran the test Dio hadn’t (at that time). I took a cup of water from the fridge dispenser and set it to boil with each fuel container/choice. Time are Minutes:Seconds according to phone stopwatch function, started when the pot was set upon the stove, with flame at maximum or maximum safe. More after the the times.
Canister propane: 1:20
Canister butane: 1:50
Cartridge butane: 2:00 (might be 1:50 to 1:55)
The difference between canister and cartridge butane might be simple adjustment or measurement error. I did not do multiple runs, as a proper science experiment would have. It could also be that the canister is a bit higher pressure than the cartridge. I do not know if that is the case. As for the propane, while propane might be less fuel efficient than butane, it is certainly at a much higher pressure and thus a lot of fuel was burning even without the valve wide open.
I would recommend putting the adapter on the stove hose first, and then connecting the cartridge. I did the opposite and had gas escape – enough to be thermally chilling. It might not take much, but better the gas is contained until truly desired. Also, the cartridge MUST be kept upright. You want gas, not liquid butane. Yes, there are camp stoves that use butane cartridges lying down. Those are designed to keep things “just so” to get away with it. This… is not.
My first choice would be canister butane for the simplicity of not needing an adapter and not having to finesse the fuel valve. If things were cold (come home to a house with the furnace out in the Winter…) then propane would be the choice. Cartridge butane, which is at least slightly more apt to tip over than canisters, I would save for a different stove. As for the times-to-boil… sure propane has a slight advantage, but just that. It’s not like the variation between alcohols and alcohol mixes.