BRS 8 Booster+1 Multi-Fuel Stove Customization

The BRS 8 Booster+1 (modelled closely on a similar stove by Kovea) is a relatively cheap but powerful multi-fuel camping stove.
Its factory construction includes a large and heavy cast alloy frame with 3 attached folding legs-come-pot-rests, which can be easily removed, leaving just the burner unit.
In this video, I show how I added lightweight stainless steel legs/rests to the burner unit to make a more compact and significantly lighter stove that fits neatly into my 900ml titanium Evernew pan with some folding cups and bowls, titanium spork, wooden spoon, fuel line and piezo ignitor.
The design includes a protruding silica wick for easy lighting and more efficient pre-heating of the vaporization tube/chamber. I intended encapsulating the wick and a short section of the vaporization-tube in a shield to increase the efficiency and contain the sooting, but never got around to it.
The featured boil (23:05 - 26:20 ; the water did boil behind the windscreen, I promise) was of about 800ml of chilly stream water.
* The stainless steel rods are 3mm diameter from Amazon.
* The wicking is a tubular woven silica, once available as a vaping product called "Voodoo Wool", now possibly called "Ekowool", with a length of copper ground wire stripped from some heavy duty electrical cable fed through it.
* The aerosol can contained some cheap and nasty perfume spray bought (for the can not the horrible content) from a pound shop (dollar store), and is the older type with the rolled/folded lip around the base.
* The windscreen is a purpose made ultralight titanium sheet from Amazon.
* The fuel I'm using is Aspen-4 petrol from Amazon, but can also use other liquid fuels and butane/propane canisters.
Music by Nils Iver (containing samples of Ghost in the Machine by The Wimshurst's Machine - which is why there are adverts and licencing info under this description) used with kind permission.
For more about Nils Iver: www.last.fm/mu...
For more music by Nils Iver: www.last.fm/mu...
For more about, and music by, The Wimshurt's Machine: www.thewimshurs...
Disclaimer: This video is uploaded with the intent of showing what I did to my stove, not as a set of instructions or suggestion for what you could do to yours. If you choose to do something similar, those results will be entirely your responsibility, whether a great success or dangerous failure.

[@adventureswithfrodo2721]

really stupid video shows nothing waste of time.

[@FredGandt]

Thanks for you constructive feedback. Please stop off at the gift shop on your way out!

[@19wael96]

If you knew anything about fabrication you would have appreciated it much more. His idea is fantastic and not to mention how difficult it is to put your ideas into a finished product.

[@uwanitbad]

It wasn't stupid for me at least. I learnt a few skill from him.

[@finno123456]

@@FredGandtgreat video i have a Apg Brs55 stove there brilliant. Your mod is really good by the way. Was the location filmed in Ireland i have seen that scenery somewhere beautiful it is so quiet.

[@FredGandt]

Hello Fionn; thank you. The location is on the South West of England's coast. It was quiet that morning, but sadly gets swarmed with tourists and holiday makers for months of each year. I'd like to visit Ireland some day, along with Iceland, Norway, Japan, Italy, New Zealand ... this planet is really quite pretty :)

[@GospodinJean]

GREAT IDEA! now you have a very inexpensive MSR like stove!

[@bigstick5278]

Watched all that great custom work and you block the final results with a wind guard!! I have the BRS 8 two as a matter of fact one has been used to death and I never had an issue. What does give you a problem is the hose it is not a strong hose like MSR or the other main brands. Its compression fittings are aluminum don't get the stove end too hot the rubber hose inside the stainless braided cover will slip out of the fitting end. So a pot or pan with a wide base will reflect the heat down to it when you are using a wind block. I learned this one time replaced the hose and never happened again. Also make sure the hose is tight to the fitting of the stove I think the newer models have the hose permanently mounted to the stove fitting. Great mod and a labor of love my friend.

[@FredGandt]

+Pete Lucchini - Yeah, sorry about that. It was windy ;-) Actually it was the very first petrol burn which, although I recorded it, was really more of a test than a demo. I'm just too lazy to record another burn, so meh. I appreciate your appreciation of my work. I'll definitely keep an eye on the hose, but so far it seems fine. Perhaps you just had one duff. In no way though, a labour of love. I'm leaning in the direction of switching to alcohol as my primary fuel, due in large part to it being so easy and very cheap to make at home. This was just a thing I did, which made a thing I had better than it was :-)

[@peterlesko8644]

@@FredGandt What type pf alcohol are you using?

[@FredGandt]

@@peterlesko8644 No alcohol involved; it's burning Aspen-4 petrol.

[@UnitedElectric]

Great idea. Most of the weight on liquid fule stoves is wasted. There's plenty of room for improvement. The Omnifuel Ti was a good start. Plenty of room to go. BTW a spring loaded centerpunch is your friend to stop the bit from wandering!

[@FredGandt]

Yeah, when drilling the flame spreader, I wasn't expecting much wandering because of the trench, but i was wrong. The, um, _bowl_ part was punched before trying to drill it, but a mix of using poorly ground cobalt bits on the surprisingly hard metal made the requirement to shove a hardened nail through it instead 😆 None of it was tight tolerance; I'll let you into a secret: I retired the stove in favour of a superior design and will probably get around to uploading video about that at some point.

[@UnitedElectric]

@@FredGandt I edited my original post to correct a number of mangled syntax! Well that's very exciting I'm following along here I would love to see that new design once you post it. I always cringe when I see people's responses to modifying white gas stoves. Usually it's something along the lines of "you will die and so will your children and neighbors!!" No dark arts here these have been in circulation for over a hundred years now. My dream set up would be an ultra light white gas stove, self pressurizing, with a much more efficient preheating scheme. My first mod was to take a Primus 8r and remove its housing and created a windscreen pot stand combo out of titanium. Was able to get the total stove weight down to 8 oz or so.

[@donaldtrumpjr]

​@@FredGandt Awesome. I want to see the improved version!

[@UnitedElectric]

​@@FredGandt Hi Fred! Did you ever complete your improved version of this idea?

[@VictorNolochemical]

Great fabrication! Looks a lot lighter 👍 wish you showed the flame after the stove heated up. The pot stand is good improvement good idea, may borrow it. ;) Thanks again from Canada 🇨🇦

[@FredGandt]

I did show the flame briefly at 22:39, but in daylight it's pretty hard to see anyway. The flame pattern and power is unchanged [edit: from the original] by my modification.

[@boonsakkiatchai7925]

Good idea

[@phonesmith5189]

Excellent workmanship 👍👍

[@FredGandt]

Thanks :)

[@peteraugust5295]

Thanks for the Video. Just made me order one of those. I was worried about the zink cast frame failing on me , but after I saw the inside of it in this video im not worried about that as there are plenty of ways to build another frame if the original one fails :)

[@FredGandt]

You're welcome :) The original cast frame and the attached legs are pretty heavy gauge, and unlikely to fail unless you run it over or throw it at some rocks or similar. But yeah, it's just a single nut holding it to the burner unit, so relatively easy to swap out if needed. Good luck :)

[@peteraugust5295]

I ordered a widesea which seems to be the copy of the copy :D Bigger bottle and a different pump. Will report :)

[@19ghost73]

Master-Craftsman!

[@FredGandt]

😆 You are too kind ♥

[@veociego]

Woooow... ¡Eres un genio! Excelente modificación.

[@donaldtrumpjr]

I'm a little late to the party, but this is very interesting! You know your stoves. What else have you modified?

[@Adisey]

Очень хорошая поделка. Приятно видеть что люди делают хорошие вещи руками. СПАСИБО ОБГОМНОЕ!!!

[@FredGandt]

Thank you :)

[@mudmug1]

Very good!

[@FredGandt]

Thanks :)

[@kroton5067]

Genius!

[@FredGandt]

Thank you :)

[@GospodinJean]

Great video sir! Question: What is the point of that wire and fibergrlass sleeve that you placed on the lower part of the stove. as shown from 16:04?

[@FredGandt]

As stated in the description: "The design includes a protruding silica wick for easy lighting and more efficient pre-heating of the vaporization tube/chamber." When using liquid fuel, the preheat is required to vaporise the liquid in that tube, so it can burn furiously enough to be useful. In order to heat the tube more efficiently, I added the protruding wick to draw liquid from the base under the outlet nozzle directly to the bottom of the upright section of the tube. The result is a much faster and cleaner preheat, easier ignition and less wasted fuel. Once the burner is up to heat, the horizontal section of the tube is heated by the burner flame (self sustaining), so the wick has done its job and simply dries out. When using gas fuels, the preheat isn't required since the "gas" is already a "vapour" (without getting into the nitty gritty sciency stuff).

[@GospodinJean]

@@FredGandt . Thanks for your reply. So. basically. If i heat the tube myself, with a lighter, for some seconds, after lighing up the fire. would I eliminate the need for having this wick thingy? I'm asking because It is hard to get hold of these stuff in Brazil. Another question is: I don't know how well you understand about stoves. But one fear of mine, (for both the modified and unmodified) stove is that. Would the fire ever travel back into the hose and therefore into the bottle and explode everything? if the pressure was low enough for the flame to be faster than the flow of gas?

[@FredGandt]

@@GospodinJean If you cannot find a suitable wick alternative (such as fibreglass tiki torch wicks possibly; it must be flame and heat resistant as the fuel will completely burn away and leave the wick dry next to the burner, so cotton, for example, would turn to ash by the time you'd boiled a cup of water) I would suggest keeping a small bottle of liquid fuel with your stove, and adding a little to the concave (spoon-like) part of the flame deflector at the top of the burner. It sits just below the vaporisation tube, and could be heated by lighting a small puddle of fuel in that dish. As for the fire going up the tube and exploding the bottle. No; that won't happen. Combustion is absolutely capable of travelling faster than the flow of liquid fuel, but combustion requires a significant supply of oxygen at a fairly critical ratio to the vaporized fuel. The types of liquid fuel you would use in a stove like this will not actually combust ... "what?" ... seriously, the liquid won't burn. Only the vapour from the liquid when mixed at a suitable ratio with oxygen will combust. When you ignite liquid fuel, you are actually seeing a self sustaining vaporization at the surface; assuming the ignition source is hot enough, it will cause a small amount of fuel at the surface to vaporize, which combined with an available supply of oxygen will combust. The heat of the combustion very close to the surface of the liquid, will radiate back to the liquid and cause more vaporization and so on until either the liquid or oxygen is depleted. This process cannot take place in a closed tube or bottle unless you do some very stupid things like directly heating the tank and forcing air into it, to create an internal environment suitable for combustion. A similar condition exists when using gas; since there is no oxygen in the "gas" (actually liquid) cylinder, no combustion can take place inside it. The only significant difference between the use of "gas" and liquid fuels is that the liquid in a gas cylinder will vaporize at far lower temperatures than liquid fuels like petrol/gasoline; just releasing the liquid from the pressurized canister is enough to cause vaporization at normal atmospheric temperatures.

[@19ghost73]

You might try the sealing material for wood fire stove doors, these are braided fibreglass and come in various diameters.

[@FredGandt]

@@19ghost73 Good idea :)

[@shahabadolf3227]

Fantastic, can you built a silencer for the flame? Or maybe flame control for simmering will be also great .

[@FredGandt]

The burner is fully controllable from the fuel supply whether gas or liquid. If you watch the burn at the end of the video, you will see the flame turned down around 22:35 before I take the windshield away to show it, then turn it back up before replacing the windshield. I would worry about the flame noise if I were a ninja or SAS insurgent, but I'm more interested in making a quick cuppa tea or bowl of food than living in a 1980's action movie cliche.

[@peteraugust5295]

Dafuq is that noise? Nice video, but damn... How much weigth did you safe with that?

[@dearfriend3928]

Металл этой горелки практически не поддаётся сверлению, но Я нашёл способ сверления. Такой металл с лёгкостью берёт сверло-перо для кафельной плитки.

[@FredGandt]

The drill bit I tried first was a cobalt bit that wouldn't bite, so I pushed a hardened nail through it, filed away the lump then drilled out the remainder (6:00 - 7:20). That metal is so hard! Glad you found a better method. Thanks for sharing 😊

[@HFbastler1]

Great idea and great detailed video. Can you tell us the weight of the modified stove?

[@FredGandt]

Hi HFbastler1. Please refer to the answer I provided to Germiniano. Thanks :)

[@street1163]

great :) thanks

[@germiniano3403]

how much does the original weight versus the customized? thanks for sharing! great work!

[@FredGandt]

Hi Germiniano. I moved home since modifying my stove, and am not sure if I still have the original frame. If I have still got it, I don't know where it is, but if I find it, I'll see what I can do about getting you an answer. Although the modified version I made is significantly lighter (I'd guess around 20% of the original weight), I consider the greater benefit to be it's reduced size. The whole thing, including the hose, will now fit inside a drinking mug with a little room to spare.

[@GospodinJean]

@@FredGandt you could weight the modified stove. and I can weight the unmodified stove in my precision scale. then we can compare

[@FredGandt]

@@GospodinJean I don't have any scales even remotely accurate enough for that. If you still have the standard assembly, you can just remove the cage/legs and weight the burner to get a rough idea. The three wire legs I added weigh very little and the bits of sheet metal from the aerosol-can weigh next to nothing.

[@botakk6943]

Nice

[@GospodinJean]

Is that fabric looking thing made of asbestos?

[@FredGandt]

Silica - see the video description.

[@songqizhang6687]

巧思👍👍

[@peterd1234567890]

Probably to late to ask but do you think it would be possible to combine think burner with a jetboil type system

[@FredGandt]

Assuming by "Jetboil type system" you mean some kind of interlocking of the burner to the pot to increase efficiency by decreasing heat loss/waste, then yeah sure, something could be made using the burner. Fundamentally, pretty much all burners are a tube, from a fuel supply, with a small hole at the end, through which is forced fuel vapor, which is ignited resulting in a jet of flame. Liquid and multifuel burners heat the tube to vaporise the fuel; gas fuels vaporise as they are released from the pressurised container they come in as liquid. A flame guide of some kind is then employed to maximise efficiency of heat transfer to the, let's just say, "pot". It's the flame guide part of this stove that you'd be interested in modifying, and on the BRS I modified in this video, it's just a convex dish (from the perspective of the flame; concave from above) forcing the flame to fan out in a 360 degree ring. It would be easy to replace with an alternative of your own design/manufacture as it is not an integral part, but rather just sits on top of the cone shaped part, which itself could be replaced with an alternative design/manufacture. Be aware that if you come up with a design that replaces a significant amount of the original unit, it might be more cost effective to buy or even make the parts you actually need, instead of stripping them from this prebuilt stove.

[@peterd1234567890]

@@FredGandt looking a little more in to it you can buy the interlocking burner units and they completely disassemble. So it would just be a case of removing the original burner and mourning the multi fuel burner to the interlocking plate. I think the next problem is would the other parts survive ( the plastic legs of the burner body, the jetboil cover, the heat exchanger)

[@FredGandt]

@@peterd1234567890 It seems to me that you want a multi-fuel Jetboil, and the only substantially "unique" (there are similar alternatives) element of the system is the integrated fins on the base of their pots (increasing surface area catchment of the flame's heat). I would forget trying to attach a multifuel burner to a Jetboil pot and instead build a Jetboil-like pot to attach to a multi-fuel burner. Take a relatively ordinary comping pot and weld a heatsink (available, off the shelf, in practically any size and shape you can imagine) to the base, wrap a ventilated windshield around it that fits snugly inside or outside a similarly ventilated 'shield around the multi-fuel burner, and you have a Jetboil-like multi-fuel stove. The legit Jetboil system is very much built as a system, and trying to modify it might be an expensive waste or time at best, or worse, bloody dangerous.

[@OlegSven]

Awful music, good idea

[@user-ym4mv2go5c]

Звуковое сопровождение видео ужасно.

[@FredGandt]

Art appreciation is entirely subjective. Mute the video if you don't like it. Be grateful to have been introduced to music you might otherwise not have heard, and that your horizons have been expanded.

[@MaNi-cn7to]

Do you sell this stove :)

[@FredGandt]

No. I modified a BRS Booster+1, which is available pretty cheaply from eBay, Amazon etc. If you want a stove like mine at the end, you can do roughly what I did to a BRS stove, and you'll be good to go, or you may find a ready made commercial stove that suits your needs, but there are so many, I wouldn't know where to start with recommendations :)

[@spicecrop]

What music is this, anyone?

[@FredGandt]

It was created by an acquaintance of mine called Nils Iver. You used to be able to download his music from subspine.org but that site seems to have died (R.I.P.). You can still find some music by and info about him at www.last.fm/music/Nils+iver/+wiki The music artist name is actually in the video description.

[@FredGandt]

I've added links to relevant music related sources in the description :)

[@peteraugust5295]

Sounds like a car accident to me.

[@alexbon437]

@@FredGandt excellent soundtrack! Thank you)

[@reivanen]

congrats, by modifying it all wind protection is gone, and now you need to carry that very large wind protection sheet to make it work. Sure, it weighs less, but is that 100 grams really worth it?

[@FredGandt]

There was practically no wind shield by default. The removed basket weighed significantly more than 100 grams, and was very bulky. The titanium sheet weighs next to nothing and wraps neatly around the liquid fuel bottle along with a heat-resistant mat (to protect the ground from reflected heat and give a little more stability on some surfaces). I'm afraid your snippy sarcasm is neither funny nor clever and only demonstrates that you have no clue how reality works and that you are an asshat. Congrats!

[@reivanen]

@@FredGandt OOF, triggered! The original housing is exactly the wind shielding you can use in low to medium winds. Then you put on the external shield in high wind. Your version only works in none to low wind without putting up significant shielding. I agreem if your hiking is improved by 150 gram weight reduction, then you should take on that loss of performance. If you can manage extra 150,g then it was mostly an exercise in "i was so preoccupied if i could, i never thought if i should?"

[@user-dz8pu7qp1z]

Насколько стало легче?

[@FredGandt]

Google translate tells me that you asked "How much easier has it become?" It is much smaller and lighter to carry, and the preheating is more efficient/faster. It is less stable, but, with care, it's fine for small, light pots.

[@jayk3784]

저소음 연소캡 잇써요

[@angkarlsaiwanich5565]

I watch your videos. And try to observe what you are doing with the burner, what you do it does not have any difference with the original in any way. If you want to present your actions to the prototype. Show the difference between the prototype and what you do. Probably the best presentation. For the last time, I still do not see any difference.

[@FredGandt]

I did not intend any modification to the functionality of the burner, only to reduce the size and weight of the whole unit (see description).

[@Ower696]

Какой в этом смысл? Разобрать хорошую горелку и сделать ерунду))))

[@Standswithabeer]

????

[@FredGandt]

!!!!!!!

[@sidratulmuntahasheikh2139]

Charwoi

[@mikerilling2745]

Waste of time and voids the warranty

[@FredGandt]

Damn! I hadn't thought of that 🤔 Text based sarcasm FTW!

[@ernieschatz3783]

OK, so you have fabrication skills. Is the objective to put form over function? This is no better than what you started with. I suppose you had fun creating this, but I'd never spend so much time for no practical benefit other than improved aesthetics. To each his own I reckon.

[@FredGandt]

The result is significantly smaller and lighter with improved preheating and zero loss of function.

[@UnitedElectric]

Weight bro. The weight.

[@jayk3784]

저소음 연소캡 잇써요