Review: the BRS-3000T – the World's Lightest Gas Stove

At just 25 grams (0.9 oz), the BRS-3000T is unquestionably the world's lightest canister gas stove.  But is it any good?  I thought I'd see for myself.

UPDATE 02 March 2017:  Failure #2 of the BRS-3000T
UPDATE 05 March 2017:  Failure #3 and #4 of the BRS-3000T

The tiny BRS-3000T – only 25 grams!!

Classification
I think that it's fair to say that the BRS-3000T is the worlds first true super ultralight (SUL) canister stove.  What do I mean by "super ultralight?"  Well, take a look at the below chart.  The BRS-3000T is the first known canister stove to come in under one ounce (about 28 g) in weight.

Canister Gas Stove Weight Classes (Less Than or Equal To)
	Ounces	Grams
Heavy	4+	113+
Moderate	< 4	< 113
Light	< 3	< 85
Ultralight (UL)	< 2	< 57
Super Ultralight (SUL)	< 1	< 28

Basically:

• If an upright canister stove weighs less than or equal to an ounce (28 g), that's SUL in my book.
• If it weighs less than or equal to two ounces (57 g) but more than one ounce, then it's UL.  
• If it weighs less than or equal to three ounces (85 g) but more than two ounces, then it's light.  
• If it weighs less than or equal to four ounces (113 g) but more than three ounces , then it's moderate.  
• If it weighs more than a quarter pound (113 g), then it's heavy.  

I think that's a reasonable categorization, given the state of the art and the stoves commonly used.

Size
So, just how small is this thing, anyway?  Well, for comparative purposes, I thought I'd put it side-by-side with some other stoves.

• On the far left is an MSR Pocket Rocket, a moderate weight stove at 3.1 oz/87 g.
• Next to the right with the red base is an MSR Pocket Rocket 2, a light weight stove at 2.6 oz/73g.  
• Next with the yellow base is a FMS-116T (also sold as the Monatauk Gnat and the Olicamp Kinetic Ultra), an ultralight stove at 1.7 oz/48 g.  
• Last on the right is the BRS-3000T, a super ultralight stove at 0.9 oz/25 g.

Left to right: an MSR Pocket Rocket, an MSR Pocket Rocket 2, a Fire Maple FMS-116T, and a BRS-3000T.

"Bench" Testing
Adventures in Stoving is all about testing, ideally in the field.  I do typically test at home before taking a stove out into the field.  To that end, I fired it up at home.  Right away,  I noticed that there was a lot impingement of the flame by the pot supports.  The pot supports had a fairly dramatic impact on the flame, as shown by the color change in the flame in the photo, below.  Put this into the back of your mind.  We'll come back to this later.

The flame of the BRS-3000T hits the pot supports, transmitting a great deal of heat to them.
Note how the far pot support glows in the heat

Other stoves did not affect the flame as much even though their pot supports were also in contact with the flame.

The pot supports of an FMS-116T stove have no where near the impact on the flame as do those of the BRS-3000T.

Pot Stability
I was also interested in pot stability.  The BRS-3000T is a tiny little stove and of all the stoves I've got has the smallest span to its pot supports.

Top row:  An MSR Pocket Rocket 2, left, and an MSR Pocket Rocket, right.
Bottom row:  A Fire Maple FMS-116T, left, and a BRS-3000T, right.
The BRS-3000T has the smallest span to its pot supports by far.

Field Testing
Intrigued by the odd flame pattern I had seen at home, I moved immediately to field testing.  I had heard that the BRS-3000T did not perform well in wind.  I therefore chose a day with moderate winds for testing.

Arriving in the field, I began setting up to test.  Out of curiosity, I flipped over a 110 g canister of gas.  The pot supports fit easily into the underside of the canister.  The BRS-3000T is a small stove, and the pot supports don't have a particularly wide span.   Pot stability is definitely an issue with this tiny little stove.

The pot supports of a BRS-3000T are so small that they will fit in the underside of a 110 g canister.

The nice thing about such small pot supports is that they will work well with small vessels, for example the 250 ml Sierra cup shown in the photo below.

The BRS-3000T is a good match for a Sierra Cup

Pot stability is a little tougher with a larger (but not particularly big) pot like the 1300 ml Evernew UL pot shown in the below photo.  I probably wouldn't go larger than a 1.5 liter pot on a BRS-3000T, and you'd be better served by keeping your pot size under one liter.  The best fit would probably be for pots (or mugs or cups) from about 750 ml to 250 ml in capacity.

A 1300 ml Evernew UL pot on a BRS-3000T

I put approximately 750 ml (three cups) of water into the pot, fired it up, and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  After about 10 minutes the water came to a low boil.  The stove was not able to achieve a full roiling boil.  I had heard that a BRS-3000T would struggle in wind, but I had no idea it would be this bad.  All open burner upright canister stoves are impacted by wind, but I have never seen a stove this wind sensitive before.  Even at highest output it could not bring 750 ml of water to a roiling boil, and this was not a particularly windy day.  I would describe the winds as moderate.  I had to put a weight on my ramen noodle wrapper to keep it from flying away, but it wasn't like cups were being pushed over by the wind, and the trees around me were not blowing way over or anything like that.  These were pretty ordinary, common outdoor conditions, conditions that I probably wouldn't even take particular note of normally.

Well, I was hungry, so I put my noodles in, and, after a bit... what the heck?  Did I put the pot on wrong or something?  My pot was clearly listing to one side like a sinking ship!

My Evernew 1300 ml pot – canted off to one side atop a BRS-3000T

Quickly, I grabbed my pot before my lunch took a tumble!  Examining the stove, I realized that the pot support had bent.  It may be a little hard to see here, but the pot support on the right in the below photo is bent outward and down with a slight twist.

Note the bend and partial twist in the pot support on the right.

All I had in the pot was about 750 ml of water and some ramen noodles.  I mean c'mon, that is a very normal load for a stove.  If I had put a 3 liter pot on a little stove like this maybe I'd understand, but 750 ml?  That's trivial.  A stove should be able to handle 750 freaking little milliliters.  750 ml is only 0.75 kg (1.7 lbs).  Do not get distracted by the pot size.  This is not a pot size issue.  Read the Analysis section below.  The real issue in this case is the wind and the design of the stove.

Yes, I tested the stove on top of the picnic table.  Yes, it would have been better to set it on the ground behind a rock or something, but c'mon!  I ought to at least be able to boil water after 10 minutes on high.  This stove is a really poor performer in wind, and there certainly shouldn't have been any deformation in the pot supports after 10 to 12 minutes.

The pot supports of a BRS-3000T are exposed to a great deal of heat.

Remember that photo I posted earlier?  The pot supports absorb a lot of heat from the flame.  After 10 minutes on high, they had absorbed enough heat that the pot supports deformed even though they weren't under a particularly heavy load.

Analysis
I noticed during use that the wind was blowing the flame toward the pot support that eventually failed.  Said pot support was glowing brightly while the pot support opposite was barely affected. So much heat was channeled into the one pot support that even under a relatively light load of less than a kilogram, the pot support experienced "creep deformation" (or "creep failure"), the tendency of a metal to slowly deform under stress – a tendency that increases when both stress and heat are present.

The way that the flame and supports are configured, the pot supports are blasted with heat.  Magnify that effect with wind directing the majority of the heat to a single pot support, and you get creep deformation.  Yes, I realize that 10 to 12 minutes is a little long to be running a stove, but, it's not a grossly unreasonable time to run a stove, particularly in wind.  A stove shouldn't deform due to its own flame in such a short time.  The stove should not have been designed such that the pot supports are blasted with heat – or they should have been made a little more heat resistant.  Remember that photo I posted of the flame?  Most stoves don't have that kind of discoloration in the flame.  There's something peculiar about this stove and its design.

However, there are plenty of people using the stove that are not experiencing any problems.  It looks like quality control may not be quite what it needs to be with this stove.  Combine poor quality control with a design that blasts the pot supports with heat, and you have a recipe for pot support failure.

Links:

• BRS-3000T Review
• BRS-3000T Failure #2
• BRS-3000T Failure #3

Recommendations
I can't exactly give a good recommendation to a stove that failed during testing. Neither can I give a stove that handles wind so poorly a good recommendation.

Again, however, I'm aware that there are plenty of people who are using the stove and are not experiencing problems.  It’s an inconsistent stove.  Maybe you'll get lucky.  Maybe you won't.  Clearly there are duds out there, and even if you don't get a dud, the right wind conditions could still cause a pot support failure.  Also, your pot supports could fail over time, as they did in Failure #3, above.

I suggest the following:

• Run the stove  for 15 minutes on high with 2 cups of water on before taking it out on the trail for the first time.  If your stove can handle a 15 minute run on high at home, then it's probably going to be OK out on the trail.  If it fails at home, just buy another one.  It's not like they're expensive.  The chances of getting two duds are fairly low I would think.
• Make absolutely certain to shelter the stove from wind.  If you fail to shelter the stove, wind may channel heat to a single pot support which may deform and fail.  You should always shelter a stove anyway so that you're not burning through an inordinate amount fuel, but it's particularly critical on the BRS-3000T.
• Run the stove at about 50% to 75% of full flame to avoid overheating the pot supports.  It'll take a little longer to boil, but you'll actually save gas this way, and you won't have so much heat blasting the pot supports.

If you wanted to really play it safe, you could limit the amount of water boiled at any one time to, say, 500 ml.  You could also run the stove for no more than maybe 5 or so minutes at a time, give or take, and you could let the stove cool a bit between successive boils

Long Term Reliability
What impact will repeatedly blasting the pot supports with high heat have?  I have received reports from people who had good results at first but whose pot supports deformed over time.  So, there is the possibility that even if your stove is good at first that it may experience problems over time.

Alternatives
BRS has a history of problems; some BRS stoves have been banned by countries in Europe due to repeated safety problems.

If you really want a good ultra light canister gas stove, look into Fire Maple stoves.  Fire Maple has a pretty good reputation.  Their FMS-116T (sold in the US as the Olicamp Kinetic Ultra) weighs 48 g/1.7 oz.  The Fire Maple FMS-300T (sold in the US as the Olicamp Ion Micro) weighs 45 g/1.5 oz.  They're not super fancy stoves, but at least they don't channel so much heat to their pot supports that they deform and dump your dinner.

Note the nomenclature on that last stove, the 300T.  Sound familiar?  That's right, the BRS-3000T is a cheap imitation of the FMS-300T.  Do yourself a favor; get the real thing.  Yeah, it's 0.8 oz/20 g more weight, but at least it doesn't bend after ten minutes of use.  My opinion.  YMMV.

And of course there's the Snow Peak LiteMax stove at 1.9 oz/54 grams, which is very compact while still having good pot stability.

Best Use
I can't recommend a stove that failed during testing even if, yes, the circumstances were a little bit unusual.  However, if anyone were to use a BRS-3000T, it should be a soloist. This is not a good stove for two people, and it is clearly not a group stove.

I would not recommend the BRS-3000T for snow melting.  Snow melting usually requires that a stove be on for longer periods of time although there are people who are doing just that, snow melting, and are not having problems.

Summary and Conclusion
The BRS-3000T

What's good about it?

• Cheap.  Prices vary, but I think I paid about $15 for it, including shipping, on Amazon.
• Light.  Twenty five grams (0.9 oz)!
• Compact.
• Fits small cups, mugs, and pots well.

What's not so good about it?

• Absolutely abysmal in wind.  A windscreen will help, but there are times where even a windscreen may not be enough.
• Pot supports get heavily hit by the flame and could fail.
• Poor pot stability.
• Overly short valve control handle.

The BRS-3000T:  Not recommended.

Sorry I couldn't give a better report.  I was really hopeful about this stove but am now quite disappointed.  Had I bought it locally instead of from China, I would demand my money back.

HJ

Disclosures
I purchased this stove with my own money on Amazon just like anyone else would.  I have no financial relationships with either BRS or Amazon.  If I did, I might be giving a much nicer review, don't you think?  I am an independent stove reviewer.  This is my review; it is no one else's.