This butane stove is sturdy and strong. It's big enough that you don't have to worry about the whole thing tipping over, the way you do with a tiny camping stove.
The butane canister kind of looks like a large bottle of hairspray. It's simple to install the butane canister you just put the canister in there gently and flip a lever to connect it there's no chance that you will get it in there the wrong way. (You don't have to pour any fuel in with a funnel, or anything smelly like that.) When you are ready to store away the stove, you just disconnect the butane canister, pop the plastic cap back on, and put it away.
I found out that butane canisters can be purchased on the web, but the shipping costs are more than the cost of the canisters, so it's easier to buy them locally at restaurant supply stores, or sporting/camping stores. On the other hand, if you are in the middle of a big weather disaster, and every store in town is sold out of butane canisters, then who cares about how much it costs. Thankfully UPS and Fedex deliver will stuff to your door, even in the middle of a winter wind/ice storm. Normally a butane canister costs about $2 or $3, and lasts around 3 hours. It's better to have a few in the garage, because they sell out pretty fast during a big windstorm, even in a metro city area.
This is a great stove for when the power goes out. The next time we get a windstorm, and the power goes out for 3 days, like it did during the big windstorm of Jan 2007 in the metro Seattle area, I'm all set.
By the way, I would recommend getting a butane stove even if you have a generator, because you will need the generator to run some lights and a heater. It's not much fun to have to disconnect the heater and the lights from the generator, , in freezing weather. With a butane stove, you can have your coffee, and your lights and heater too. It makes life much more pleasant during a long power outage.
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The stove comes in a nice case and is lightweight. You have to be careful to line up the groove in the butane canister and turn over the burner plate to expose the pot holders. It starts easily and has a variable flame. We got it primarily for when the power goes out and wanted a clean burning unit that we could use indoors. Butane is a cleaner burning fuel than the white gas used in our old camping equipment and this is a much more stable stove as well.
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I wanted a portable butane stove to use in emergencies. I spent a long time reading reviews of different models, and had a hard time making a rational decision because, to tell the truth, stoves of this kind hardly differ in their feature sets at all. They all use the same 8oz butane canisters, all have piezoelectric igniters and let you adjust the flame from high down to nothing. As far as I know they're all light (including this one -some online data I saw gave its weight as 7 lbs., which is misleading at best as it's really more like 4) and I think most of them come in a plastic case. I finally chose this one because it had many reviews on Amazon, most of them positive, featured a 10,000 BTU burner, and had a carrying case right in the product photo so I knew for sure it came with one.
Although I only expect to use my stove in emergencies, I tested it out when I first got it. I put a pan of water on, and it boiled in a very reasonable time. However, there are some annoyances that I have to point out. First of all, as others have said, you have to make sure the notch on the fuel can is lined up with the pin on the fitting before you press down the lever that pulls the can into the fitting. Unfortunately there's no kind of guide to help you line it up, you just have to eyeball it. In contrast, I found an instructional video for the Sterno ActionStation stove, and it has a little tab that folds down into the slot so you know it's lined up correctly. In hindsight that would be a nice feature to have. Second, when you do push down the lever, the torque of the lever-driven assembly pulling the fuel can into the fitting causes the entire stove to bend a little bit out of shape until things are fully seated. This is a little alarming, so it would be nice if the stove were just a little more rigid. Third, the control knob is a little wobbly so it's hard to tell whether you have the gas set on "max" or "min" without actually looking at the flame. Finally, like most butane stoves of this kind, this model has only four supports for your pot or pan to sit on (as opposed to my kitchen range, which has eight). This makes it seem a bit precarious if you're using a small-diameter saucepan. It would be nice if the supports extended a little farther toward the center of the burner to provide better stability.
All in all, this stove is just fine and I'm going to keep it, but I can't give it five stars.
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This stove can come in really handy even without a power outage. Used it to cook brunch for a crowd. Also was handy during an outdoor BBQ as an extra burner to sautee onions next to the grill. Would be easier to clean if the base around the burner was a smoothe paint rather than dull. Overall, works well.
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During the recent winter storms, I lost power for most of a weekend. With no way to cook (my stove is electric), I lived on crackers & cheese and cereal in frigid temperatures. I vowed that I was not going to go through another power outage like that, so I came to Amazon to find a solution.
I found and ordered this product and, while I haven't actually cooked on it yet, I have assembled it (with a butane canister that I purchased separately) and turned it on several times. It is very easy to set up, but there are a few things that I feel potential buyers should know:
1) It wasn't immediately obvious to me (and no instructions were included) that the burner top is shipped upside down, not right side up as shown in the product picture. So, upon opening the carrying case, you need to lift out the burner top and flip it over. Note that there are curved sides and a straight side--the burner will only fit into the stove one way, so you'll need to line up the curves on the burner with the curves on the stove for it to fit right.
2) When you insert the butane canister into the stove, look for an opening (a cutout of sorts) on the lip at the top of the butane can. Line up that opening with the stove's receptacle and then push down the lever on the front of the stove to lock it in place. If you put in the butane canister and you don't get a flame when you turn on the stove, it is likely because you did not align the canister properly (this happened to me twice).
3) Some reviewers have reported not being able to find butane canisters to fit this stove at their local hardware store. I bought a 4-pack of canisters on Amazon. If you do the same, be very careful to review shipping costs before adding it to your cart. Most if not all of the butane on Amazon isn't sold by Amazon but by other sellers and some of the shipping costs are outrageous--some are more than the cost of the butane! (I'm told that because butane is a flammable substance, the seller may have to pay an extra fee to ship it.)
4) The butane does put off fumes, so you'll need to use the stove in a ventilated area. I imagine most buyers of this product use it for camping, but I'm buying it for a cooking source during a power outage, so I'd use it on my balcony or outside my house.
5) Be careful about storing your butane canisters. My initial thought was to store them in the garage, but in the summer my garage gets quite warm, so I don't think it would be safe to store them there year-round.
I love that the stove comes in its own carrying case, so that I can store it easily and safely when it's not in use (which, in my case, will be most of the time). This way, I don't have to worry about dust and bugs getting in it and having to clean it each time before I can use it.
