Unusually for me in a long time I bought a brand-new stove, attracted by the design and by the opportunity to compare it with an Optimus Gemini, which it closely resembles and which I took a look at in some detail recently … … in THIS post. The Robens is the heavier of the two, at 1126 grammes, bagged, with the Optimus weighing in at 829g. In terms of price though, the Robens is a featherweight at half the asking price for a Gemini Mk2, much less than half depending on the retailers. Weight apart, their dimensions are pretty much identical. Looks-wise, it’s whether you go for the angular lines of the Optimus or favour the blended-in contours of the Robens which should wipe down more easily after a food spillage at least! Electronic ignition on the Robens (triple A battery powered) but no such refinement on the Optimus. Pot rests/legs folded for stowage. The Optimus’s cllck into clips on the body but have no detent when opened out, so can fold back on themselves if nudged. The Robens has spring-loaded detents open and stowed. The Robens has much more going on on the underside, with a lidded housing for the sparker battery and plastic clips to stow the flexi hose neatly against the steel base plate. I’d be hard pressed to find a butane stove that didn’t have a capability to simmer through to full power and neither stove fails to deliver exactly that. A major selling point of the Optimus and ultimately its undoing in the Mk1 version, leading to a product recall, was the gas regulator, which I referred to as the ‘black box’ in my post on the model. In cold conditions, or simply when the gas in the canister cools due to evaporation, leading to burner output tailing off after a few minutes’ burn time, the ‘black box’ compensates and maintains a steady output. There’s no mention of such a device in the Fire Finch and indeed, the manual specifies each jet orifice as 0.33mm diameter, when a stove with gas regulation would have larger jet orifices. In theory, the Optimus should maintain burner output when the Robens would not. Perhaps because of the gas mixture I was using compensating for evaporative cooling, or because my test wasn’t of sufficiently long duration or on a cold day, the burner output of the Robens didn’t peter out. Also, I used a 450g gas canister. Expecting a smaller canister to ‘keep up’ with the demands of two burners on high setting might be too much to expect. The justification for the Gemini/Fire Finch concept (back-packable they say) requires some thought. Their bulk and weight, together with that of the fuel, pots, utensils and provisions to exploit their potential fully, rules out their inclusion in a pack for anything other than a short excursion from base (car) camp or home. John
Thanks Ken. Forgot to mention, the Robens does the right thing by incorporating a gas shut-off valve at the canister, woefully lacking with the Mk1 Gemini, only rectified with provision of one on the Mk2’s fuel hose. The Fire Finch box and texts. A manual that sorely tests close-up vision, and I’m fresh back with new prescription lenses from the optician …
