Hi All, My first post. I'm interested in light weight butane stoves similar to the MSR pocketrocket for backpacking, and car-camping butane stoves that can run off the cheap asian butane canisters (CP250). (Have a fuel stove--MSR dragonfly--but trying to get away from liquid fuel) I was wondering if these stoves are reliable or not. For the price I'd like to give one a try. Wild L-7 Wild L-4 Generic1 generic2 generic3 generic4 Thanks for the feedback
With the exception of the first 2 the only thing between these and a lot of brand name stoves is the lack of brand name. The only thing that ever goes wrong is the piezo lighter but a Bic Flick fixes that. The first 2 are quite cheaply made so might not last well but I like the windshield on that second one
For under $10, you can afford to take a small risk. I worry about the materials used and whether they can stand up to the heat repeatedly.
I am with Sparky on this where material quality would withstand the heat and repeated use. Then again for $10~$20 you can perhaps take a chance. Since its not a big investement. Ron
My expectations are not high, but I've bought a lot of things (not stoves) from the website and most things are descent quality and a bang for the buck. I'll report when I've tried one. Thanks for the comments
Like always with cheapo chinese products, one of the cheapening factors is the lack of quality control. Which leaves that up to you. Since we're dealing with gas and fire here, I recommend you to check all couplings, gaskets and o-rings thoroughly before first use. You're not likely to get a refund from hongkong on lost eyebrows or worse That said, I'd have bought the stoves aswell if I needed any of them.
You say you wish to use the cheap butane canisters (bayonet style); note that only the first two in your list use those, the rest use screw on cartridges. I have played around with a couple of the Asian made bayonet adapters and they either don't work out of the box or tend to fail after a few uses. In most cases it is due to a misaligned o-ring in the port that accepts the bayonet cartridge. This can be fixed but it involves a lot of fiddeling with a couple small parts and tinny screws and I would not want to try it in the field with my pocket knife. It looks to me like those first two stoves use the same cheap design.
An Englishman from the last century, whose name escapes me, said: "There is nothing that cannot be made a bit more cheaply and sold for a bit less and people who buy on price alone are this mans lawful prey". Yup.
There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey. This is a quote by John Ruskin that used to be posted in all Baskin-Robbins ice cream stores. ----------------------- John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was English art critic of the Victorian era, and social thinker. He believed in the interconnectedness of nature, art and society. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, botany to political economy. From wikepedia biography
Now THAT is a great qoute gentlemen! The best I've seen for ages, and even it's an old one it still is VERY true indeed. Thanks very much for sharing! Best regards, Wim
Yeah I read those bad reports on the bayonet type fittings too. I know the style that converts to a male lindal that was sold by plus2city on ebay had a bad rep (as well as the stand version), but I wasn't sure if the same was true for the Wild L-4 and L-7. Thanks for the word of caution. I was going to use the Kovea adapter to get the lindal thread fit. RonPH wrote a great review and it seems to be much better than the bayonet. Then I was going to put one of those "pocket rocket" equivalent stoves ontop of a Brunton Stand, which connects to the Kovea which connects to the cheap asian butane. If the chinese stove has problems I can use the regulator on the Brunton to shut it off. But I've ordered all sorts of things from that website before and they were surprisingly good quality--at 1/5 the normal price.
