Gear Review Brunton Bantam Stove

[Deadeye008]

I was able to find a killer deal on this stove because someone had bought it and returned it to the store without the fuel bottle. The store had a Primus fuel bottle that they stuck with the stove and I got it for about 75% off. You can find the stove online for about $90. I bought the stove last fall and have only had a chance to use it a few times in the field. It has performed as expected. While on a trip to Boulder Mtn. last fall my buddy and I used this stove to do all of our cooking while we were car camping. It was nice not to have to bring my big heavy Coleman camp stove. My main attraction to this stove is that it didn't use a canister but uses a refilable fuel bottle. The one thing I don't like about canister stoves is that you can't tell exactly how much fuel you have. Canister stoves do have their place though, as they are lighter and more compact than stoves like this. This stove runs on white gas or Coleman Fuel. Stoves like this have to be primed before they can be used. The priming process includes opening the fuel valve for a couple of seconds to allow a little fuel to get into the priming pan. You then light the fuel which heats up/primes the stove. Then when the priming fuel is almost burned up you turn the fuel valve back on and the burner lights up. It took me about 5 min to boil 2 cups of water and to my surprise only used about 3/4 oz of fuel. The fuel bottle that I have holds 18 oz. There are various sizes of fuel bottles available. These stoves are also supposed to excel in cold weather. I have used this in the mid 30's and it performed great. I also like the fact that this stove has a valve that you can adjust to simmer or cook on high. Here are some pics.





Priming the stove.

 

[Nick]

Nice review! How well does it simmer? I own the MSR Simmerlite a lot like this for use on colder weather trips. Its marketed to be really good at simmering but it seems more like it has two settings, HIGH and OFF. It's pretty tough to turn it down to a reasonable temp.

 

[Deadeye008]

Nice review! How well does it simmer? I own the MSR Simmerlite a lot like this for use on colder weather trips. Its marketed to be really good at simmering but it seems more like it has two settings, HIGH and OFF. It's pretty tough to turn it down to a reasonable temp.

This stove simmers really well. You have to turn the valve quite a bit to go from off to high so it makes it easier to find a temp in between that you can simmer at.

 

[HomerJ]

Eventually I plan on getting me a white gas stove. Right now I have the MSR Superfly. I don't like how it sits on top of the canister, it makes it really tipsy. My buddy has the Whisperlite and he likes it a lot and so he brings his stove and mine stays at home.