BRS stove review

HZJ73

FNG
Joined
Mar 6, 2017
Messages
17
Location
Springfield, MO
Hello there,

I figure for my genesis post I should provide some value (about 25 grams worth) and offer a review of the BRS stove that is much beloved by the ultralight hiking crowd.

I bought mine recently and have put about 50 grams worth of gas into testing it. So far so good. Having said that, there are cases of faults from the factory, along with failures of the o-ring. The former can be chalked up to being a cheap Chinese knockoff product (that is ironically superior if weight is the only factor). For the latter I plan on buying a spare and keeping it with me.


Compared to my MSR Micro Rocket it is 25 grams versus 75 grams. I don't think the form factor itself is of any value. Both are capable of fitting into my 500ml pot.

What I've noticed:

It's noisier

The threads can be damaged if you torque it down too hard (I did this intentionally). Be gentle with your gear and you'll be fine. Even with my damaged threads it still screws on. Just don't go on a roid rage.

Marginally less efficient. Using my experience and what others have posted online in light breezes you can expect about 30 cups of ~475ml rolling boiling water using a 220g canister. I never bring water to a full boil unless I'm testing a stove. For both freeze dried meals and coffee/tea "hot enough" works for me; which means even less fuel consumption.

Pot supports are small compared to more mainstream stoves. I wouldn't use anything wider than your typical 500-700ml pot.

BRS Stove (25 grams) - Album on Imgur

BPL thread on a MYOG windscreen


What my complete setup will be:

BRS stove
MYOG screen
Toaks Ultralight 550ml pot (note there are two versions of the product, one being heavier and thus beefier)
Toaks 5" 7 gram spoon (if you want to eat store bought freeze dried meals with this spoon you'll get messy knuckles. I'm going with DIY freezer bag meals)


TL;DR: If you're a gram weenie who largely only needs to boil water for yourself this is a low-cost way to shave 25-50 grams depending upon your current stove.
 
Last edited:

oenanthe

WKR
Joined
Aug 21, 2014
Messages
415
Location
Fbks, AK
Thanks for the info! I've been using a BRS-3000 the last couple of years, it's worked well although as you point out it is a bit delicate.

It's not clear how much fuel you used to boil those 30 cups. Could you please put your fuel consumption numbers in terms of weight of fuel used per volume of water?

My previous stove was a Gigapower, and I believe the BRS-3000 is noticably more efficient (although somewhat slower). I haven't tested them sided-by-side; this is just going off of the fuel used on a few trips. I've got the numbers written down somewhere - will try to locate and post them up.
 
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
2,814
Location
Littleton, CO
I've always been critical on shaving weight on your cooking setup as any inefficiencies will increase weight depending on duration. If you only go on 2 day trips then by all means, but if it takes you 20% longer to boil water then over 5-10 days you have well exceeded any weight savings.

Full disclosure: I'm the opposite of a gram weenie.
 
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HZJ73

FNG
Joined
Mar 6, 2017
Messages
17
Location
Springfield, MO
Thanks for the info! I've been using a BRS-3000 the last couple of years, it's worked well although as you point out it is a bit delicate.

It's not clear how much fuel you used to boil those 30 cups. Could you please put your fuel consumption numbers in terms of weight of fuel used per volume of water?

My previous stove was a Gigapower, and I believe the BRS-3000 is noticably more efficient (although somewhat slower). I haven't tested them sided-by-side; this is just going off of the fuel used on a few trips. I've got the numbers written down somewhere - will try to locate and post them up.

Th BPL post on the windscreen I mentioned above covers it much better than I can anytime soon:


Average time to boil 500.0 ml without windscreen was 7:03 min using 6.0 grams of fuel. Average time with windscreen was 6:47 min using 5.8 grams of fuel. So it actually improved efficiency about 3%. Then I set up a box fan outside and turned it all the way up, which produced a steady 4.4 mph breeze, and again did five burns without the windscreen and five burns with. Average time without windscreen was 10:31 min. using 9.0 grams of fuel, versus 8:50 min and 7.5 grams with the windscreen. An improvement of about 16%.


Two things to note... this guy is probably at an altitude lower than where most gram weenies will be hunting. On the other hand in my opinion running a stove at full blast and bringing it to a full boil is largely a waste.

When I continue testing I'm going to do 500ml at half throttle and only take it to 160f or so.
 

AK_Alpine

FNG
Joined
Sep 15, 2015
Messages
13
I've been using this stove for 2 years paired with a Ti Jetboil cup, with zero issues. I check my o-ring every season and have not had it fail yet. With the cost of this stove (~$10) I'll probably just replace it with a new one after this year.

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oenanthe

WKR
Joined
Aug 21, 2014
Messages
415
Location
Fbks, AK
So here are some fuel consumption numbers comparing the BRS-3000 to the Snow Peak Gigapower. All numbers are from solo backcountry trips where I typically boil a pint in the morning and a pint at night. Sometimes I skip a meal, sometimes I have an extra one with hot drinks, and (rarely!) I'll even heat some water for bathing.

Snow Peak:
2010: 9 days, 26 grams per day
2011: 10 days, 25 g/d
2014: 6 days, 22g/d

BRS-3000:
2015: 5 days, 17 g/d
2016: 14 days, 21 g/d

This is obviously not a controlled experiment, but the BRS-3000 does seem to use less fuel.
 
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