Isobutane Canister Stove Fuel Test - Which is the best?

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

Demand for a cold weather test is high. Please give me some testing ideas and let me know what you would like to see. Thanks for watching!

[@shoefly757]

You could put the fuel canisters in the refrigerator or freezer for say 3-4 hours then repeat your currents test. Use this information vs the low temp to show which ones are affected more

[@2laughandlaugh]

Love the stash....you have a career in 70s style porn if your KZbin channel ever fails.

[@5shotgroup451]

Leave the canisters in a freezer over night then do the same test. I think that will really separate out the good from the bad.

[@asesinodezombis2077]

The primary culprit is butane, which stops vaporizing at 31 degrees Fahrenheit. (Isobutane-a chemical variation of butane-continues vaporizing down to 11 degrees Fahrenheit.) Isobutane is best. Boom, done.

[@majormojo]

Perhaps you could get access to a commercial walk-in freezer to do some testing. Leave the canisters inside over night then test lighting difficulty and boil time. Overall, (warm or cold) I think what’s important for me is availability and $/min of run time.

[@Martyupnorth]

I'm an engineer in Alberta Canada. I spent 30 years working in natural gas facilities that extracted propane, n-butane and i-butane from natural gas streams. The composition of our product varied by 2% on a daily basis. In other words, I could sell you propane that was 95%-99% propane and 1%-4% ethane on any day. Same for all our other liquid streams. The companies that make these cartridges source their feed on the open market. They do a rough blend at their facility and then fill a batch of canisters. You could repeat your test with different canisters from the same company and get different results. I'll go out on a limb and say that there's not much difference between one brand and another because they all source the same product. In the past companies advertized a summer vs. winter blend. That made a difference because it changed the percentage of propane from 10% to 20%. I don't think anyone does that any more. Everyone sels an 80/20 blend in a heavier canister. Also, the difference between iso-butane and normal-butane is not significant as a fuel. We separate butane into its two isomers for the chemical industry. The butane found in fuel canisters is a blend of the two, even though most companies advertise iso-butane. Otherwise, cool video.

[@AdventureOtaku]

Martyupnorth I was wondering if barometric pressure on the day the canister is filled would effect how much fuel is in the canister? On higher pressure days do you get less fuel?

[@Martyupnorth]

@@AdventureOtaku No, that's why they are filled by weight. You always get the same weight. But you are correct that volume is pressure and temperature dependent. The test results for the same canister will be different during different seasons and at different elevations. Years ago the manufacturers had a summer blend that was 90% butane and 10% propane and a winter blend that was 80% butane and 20% propane. The reason for the different blend was because at cold temperature a pure butane won't vaporize. It's all quite interesting. That's why these tests are fun, but have to be taken with a grain of salt.

[@johnnyboy8498]

@@Martyupnorth I haven't gone backpacking for a bit, but I had issues with some of those summer blend cans burning in cooler weather (40°F) vs the winter blends and that was a few years ago. So its my understanding they're still available.

[@Martyupnorth]

@@johnnyboy8498 That's certainly possible. A 100% butane canister in freezing temperatures would barely vaporize.

[@gertvanpeet3120]

@@AdventureOtaku no, the filling is fluid. No pressure! So at very low temp..

[@u2pda]

Great video! Another performance factor I looked at was dividing the time until empty with the time to boil to get an average number of boils per canister. Coleman=65, Olicamp=63, Perune=62, Energy=60, Primus=57, MSR=51, Jetboil=50, GSI=48, Snow Peak=48. If you boil an average of 3 times per day the Coleman canister will last roughly 6 days longer than the Snow Peak!

[@florianradu6944]

In the end, this is the only number that matters.

[@kristaps2010]

Makes lot more sense, thank you!

[@chrisladouceur4093]

This is what I was going to recommend. Great work

[@flyfishervt]

I was going to recommend the same data.

[@wzomar]

Kinda/Sorta ... You'll probably get less number of boils because you lose some gas everytime you screw and unscrew the fuel canister to the stove.

[@outbackwack368]

Coleman for me... always works and is available everywhere for a reasonable price. Thanks!

[@bobbymoss6160]

This man is a legend. Not only is he speaking on screen, he's also transmitting the words in Morse code with his eye lids concurrently. I've never seen this on a youtube video before.

[@GTFBITK]

His eyes are saying torture.

[@AWretchedMan]

Blinky bill

[@stanleyi2726]

Between the editing and the information this is one of the best videos I've ever seen.

[@andyc1621]

Love the conclusion, 'just buy whatever'. Was thinking the whole way through who doesn't buy the cheapest / easiest to get hold of / what your local store stocks, glad to see I was right in my thinking.

[@hooXpoo]

After watching hundreds of videos on gas canisters and stoves, this video had more info than all the rest combined. I thank you:)

[@ZahraArman]

I saw your movie from Iran ❤ and thank you for your good information ❤

[@JewishJuice]

What more could you ask out of this video? Great job friend. Thank you!

[@thebubaloomonkey]

Good test. As a control test it would be interesting to try several "identical" canisters of the same brand, perhaps bought over a period of time so they are from different production batches, to see if these inconsistencies still exist. It may be that no 2 cans are the same, even when from the same brand!

[@donaldbolton84]

FANTASTIC DATA. Excellent notes regarding labels. Really solid value can be gained from this video. I wish more content providers would provide the due diligence, detail, and value you have here. Scientific Method approved!!! Notes: include temperature of the fuel canister, water, cooking vessel, burner, and room during tests to control variables. There was a 1 gram variance in Coleman fuel from the beginning and end of the video. Nitpicking notes: better control the ignition of the fuel and timing to ensure consistency, make sure the control knob position is always consistent (if not controlled already). Weigh in-between first burn and long burn. Document testing parameters for long burn EG: how did you determine the tank was empty, did you leave it open for an hour to ensure. I know it's in a basement but humidity, wind guard, the time between tests. etc. Bottom line this is a fantastic video, please, Please, PLEASE DO NOT LET MY NITPICKING DETRACT FROM THE VALUE HERE.. Way above what most review videos are. Empirical, testable, documented facts and data are present. And after collating the data myself I completely recommend the Oilcamp. It has the lowest price point as of December 2021. It contained the (acceptable variance) correct amount of fuel at 229 grams. Had the 3rd best overall burn time (pending controlled room/water/cooking vessel/burner temperatures and ignition/control knob standardization) and had the second-highest number of boils per container at 63. Therefore you will pay $.08 USD per 11.6 oz boil. Based on the data here you will pay $4.95 be able to boil 16.5oz of water 63 times per canister. Outstanding and fine work @TheSideburnHunter

[@SnowyAspenHills]

Great video, a lot of time and effort put into this test. In the UK Coleman is the main contender so I'm glad it came out well in the test.

[@jrcflaus]

This was excellent. Right to the point, good looking bar graphs. It got me exactly what I needed (how many to bring on a trip). Nice going.

[@John-vi4ys]

Epic exhaustive comparison, great job! If you ever wondered about this sort of thing, and most of us have, the sideburn hunter just answered it.

[@Ghostbit]

You put a lot of work (and some money for canisters) into this. It was edited well and informative. Really well done effort, thanks for the video!

[@maika0staretza]

This video remains a benchmark over the years !

[@fixedG]

I totally put this on my Watch Later list thinking it was a Project Farm video but I was not disappointed!

[@michaelmcphee2930]

Without a doubt the best video on the subject topped up with great contributions

[@Angelus11280]

The most polite and soft spoken hunter. :) Keep it up. God Bless

[@Shane-Singleton]

I really appreciate you taking the time to run the numbers on all of these different brands. With a ~2.5-3 hour runtime each this took quite a while to collect all of the data.

[@Chicagoguy.762]

As a newbie backpacker, I was debating on which one to use but I was leaning towards the jetboil and thanks to this Great video I'm definitely going jetboil.

[@Bazzie_B]

I would just like to thank you for your time and all the detail in this video. Thank you again!

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

Thanks man!

[@willverify1606]

I have the jet boil and it's a small business in New England and it's incredible. Lasts a long time.

[@elephantcup]

Excellent job, truly. They only analysis missing is one where you combined all of the parameters- heat, boil time , total use time and how much product the package contained and come up with an overall winner, based purely on the numbers. You presented all of that data, someone might crunch those numbers and come up with an answer. Having said that though, I'm confident that none of those brands actually operate a refinery and produce any of that fuel, nor do they buy it in bulk and package it. All purchase it already packaged in brand/ logo printed bottles from a small handful of producers, maybe only one, and those producers package the product in a generic containers printed with each company's logo. Like various brands of canned vegetables or oil in the supermarket- all made and packed by the same producer, just branded and priced differently, taking advantage of differences on consumer brand value perception. "The Italian sounding brand of tomatoes must be better than the supermarket brand". Nope, they're the same, but the supermarket brand is much cheaper. Any variances that you saw are due to variations in manufacturing and bottle filling. Buy them all again in a month and run it again, you'll get different results. So I concluded as you did, just get whatever is cheapest and readily available, regardless of brand. I did see one camp cookware reviewer who said that only certain brand canisters will fit inside his cookware, so the fuel bottles can vary in size/ diameter slightly. Again, maybe down to whoever the refinery buys their bottles from in bulk and may change within brands regularly. Solid, solid review. Scientific methodology. Thumbs up.

[@blackdogbite]

Thanks so much. Perfect measurement criteria. Perfect objective testing and data reporting with no meaningless chatter or speculation.

[@zm5887]

Finally someone knows how to make science-based videos.... thanks man, very helpful

[@leif2335]

I just had a boil fail in -8 degrees Celsius. Warm crunchy noodles was the end result. This was using a Coleman can and BRS burner. Next time out in the cold temps I will be using my MSR whisperlite. Great video!

[@jeepnicc]

Man, I hope someone bought you a frosty pint for this one. OUTSTANDING VIDEO!!👏😄👏 Thanks for all the hard work and thanks for sharing!!

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

Thanks man!

[@voldemortified]

All things being equal, I’d go for the MSR canisters, for one simple reason! They have float markings printed on the side, so you can check canister capacity in the backcountry. A simple innovation that weighs nothing, changes nothing about the performance of the canister, but adds a significantly useful feature to their product over all the others! Also they print _both_ net and full weights on the sides, which makes weighing and calculating fuel left at home so much easier. Still can’t figure out why most of the other brands don’t at least do that… 🤔

[@djbreakfast]

I love how detailed this test was! The graphs were a nice touch 🤌

[@orilion1820]

Outstanding video! Like the editing and the PowerPoint data. Exactly what I was searching for. Subscribed :) 👍🏻

[@johngould7548]

Thanks great video. But... I should mention that if you are taking the Coleman with you in cold weather better be prepared to sleep with it because it doesn’t like the cold. I was camped near Yellowstone two weeks ago and it was cold enough I had frost on my tent. (in July!) In the morning the Coleman wouldn’t work but luckily I had a Jetboil with me and despite the cold it fired up no problem. I think it is due to the fuel composition.

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

Yeah, judging by the comments, I may be doing a cold weather test soon

[@davidcolin6519]

And this is why I bought...A multifuel stove. My Svea 123 cost about 60 UK pounds about 30 years ago and it still works faultlessly. They're about 100 now. But the fuel lasts for literally 1-2 weeks for the cost of maybe 50p of fuel. And that is boiling 2 cups of coffee at breakfast. Main meal at lunchtime and another meal in the evening. Under the same conditions, I'd get through a primus canister every 3-4 days. When I bough the Svea I was doing 1 month tours. After a month, that worked out at 8 canisters or, in today's money 30-40 uk pounds, plus the price of the burner (usually about 30-40). Oh, and white gas/petrol burns MUCH, MUCH hotter than propane, and works faultlessly at low temps and high altitude. As you can see, my Svea paid for itself in under 2 years. But a gas burner has literally zero s/h value, whereas a Svea will always fetch good money on the s/h market. For almost anybody, under almost any conditions, a decent multifuel burner makes much more sense than the damned canister.

[@dimazimmer175]

I love my Svea 123R. But i had to modify it for the cold season with a wick for priming.

[@BushPigADV]

I have had very good luck with my olicamp stove and fuel. I love it

[@Ravidist]

Crazy how much effort you put into these tests. Though not "scientific" crazy to see how similar they all are

[@bettersteps]

This video was far more enjoyable than I thought it would be. It was actually very interesting. Good job.

[@AHR671]

From your video I got the idea that in countries which don’t have very cold environment, the Colman is best choice because it last longer than the rest. Thanks for comparing performance of different canisters, really helpful 🙏

[@mattharte7334]

I have a MSR Pocket Rocket but the MSR gas canisters aren't widely stocked here in the UK. You can buy them on-line but it's a hassle and they are expensive, and then you have to pay almost the same again in postage and delivery charges! It was nice to see that Coleman canisters performed well in your test especially as they are available pretty much everywhere in the UK, so I'm going to buy them from now on. I really enjoyed your thorough review, it was excellent. Thanks.

[@tedphips23]

How have the Coleman canisters worked with the pocket rocket? I just ordered the pocket rocket deluxe and have a bunch of the Coleman C500 canisters that are 70/30 blend. Started getting nervous reading about some of the potential issues with colemans.

[@colinwatt00]

I appreciate the amount of work that went into this and your conclusion. Hopefully this comment will help your algorithm.

[@elizabethingram9784]

Great video, Coleman forever! Thank you. :)

[@normanmallory2055]

I have done close to the test you did .. I bought 4 different brands i could find local just to see where i was at on performance and boll times .. I did not weigh the canisters before and after the tests .. Your test is a lot more more in depth than mine by far .. Just something i was curious about when i started to use canister stoves 20 years ago .. I still use white gas stoves and have always liked them for the passed 50 years plus .. Canister stoves are not the Holy Grail of cooking or boiling water , they are just very small and very easy to work with .. But it adds up inside my pack either a 2.4 ounce stove or 17 ounce stove ..Each have their place out there .. With White Gas the price of fuel comes out to $0.08 per ounce, while a Snow Peak 220 gram ctg for $4.99 comes out $0.62 per ounce and i get around the same time out of 220 gram ctg which is real close to 3 hours depending on the flame setting control , i have had 4 hours out of a ctg before ....great test thanks for this one ..

[@eM-ed5pz]

What an excellent review! I've always thought about running this test but could never get my hands on that kind of variety. Subscribed. Best of luck in your future hunts!

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

Thanks man!

[@danielfinch362]

I just bought two colman performance canisters and two extreme canisters. I was told that the extreme don't last as long but I'm so glad I can get over 3 hours out of a can. Bearing in mind you had the canisters on full, if you were cooking on a simmer with the temp down the canister would last a lot longer. I recon you everyday you coulc get a week out of a canister.

[@sbeckij]

The Mister Rogers of Hunter's. Thank you 👍

[@321southtube]

WOW.....AWESOME.....Thanks so much. This test was well prepared and executed. No BS or fillers. Use, application, consistency and quality control of course produce variables however....this is by far THE best video to give an idea of what to get...and what you're getting. Well done

[@billrussell7672]

What also pulls from your data is the temp tells the tale of the butane propane mix , higher temp = more butane These cartridges are good for high altitude/ snow Coleman are high propane cartridges and are hard to start as canisters get low in high altitude /snow Great vid , I know this took days . To educate me in min.

[@Stantube1000]

Actually quite the opposite! Propane is the so-called 'winter gas'.

[@billrussell7672]

@@Stantube1000 check again , I fix propane and propane accesories

[@Chadb11]

Great video. After watching the testing is was thinking “if he suggests buying anything other than whatever is easiest to get your hands on at a decent price, he’s full of it”, and you sure aren’t full of it.

[@thehotcool1]

Thanks for the comparisons. The only problem is that the Olicamp was used with the stove. Great video

[@swnorcraft7971]

Very interesting exercise. Thank you for your expense and time involved. From your data, I can see that I can figure out cost per minute of operation for each of the fuels you tested. In the end, this criteria makes the most sense for me to determine which fuel I will buy. Thanks for sharing...........

[@Meowski_2]

Keep doing the good Lord's work

[@hansh.9199]

Thank you for doing the test. I would say that for backpackers nearly one hour burn time difference is a very big deal. For this reason alone, I will stay away from MSR, Snowpeak, and Jetboil.

[@alaskabornheathen8902]

The Coleman might have been like 25% more in cost but you get almost 50% more burn time. That’s the best deal to me. Glad I watched this, I’ve stuck to Jetboil brand but I’m switching to Coleman!

[@Dreyno]

Coleman bought French company Camping Gaz in 2016. Camping Gaz is a massive brand in Europe (and Coleman is big as well). So Coleman is producing some of it’s gas canisters in the Camping Gaz facilities I think.

[@beavix]

I will admit I was only coming to this video for a single canister but watch the whole thing. Absolutely impressive and well thought out. Subscribing just for the quality of content

[@kevinmcdonough9626]

A very detailed review and comparison. A few thoughts… - Firstly, as many people have said, it would be nice to do the sums and list how many boils each canister could expect. - While some burned quite a bit hotter than others, they mostly had very similar boil times (GSI and Primus aside) which means that extra heat was wasted, probably not being absorbed by the pot and just floating up the sides and into the air. Using a stove with a more efficient heat transfer system that could capture some of that extra heat would perhaps have changed the boil times for the hotter ones, making them boil quicker and increasing the boils per canister. Alternatively, they could perhaps have been turned down a bit and still boiled in the same time, increasing their run time. - Cold weather will have a massive effect on all of this. The canisters containing a high proportion of Butane will do way worse in low temperatures, the ones that have higher mixes of propane and isobutane included will do better in cold temps as they stay gaseous longer and burn more efficiently in the cold. A lot of variables to consider. You’re tests make a great start in terms of answering the questions, and then open up quite a few other test routes that could allow further experimentation 😀

[@jaschawalter3500]

Outstanding Video!! I would go with the Coleman based on this. Fast boil time, longest burn time, wildly available, can get at Target with 5% off using Target Red Card

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

Thanks!

[@fartpluswetone8077]

I've only seen it at a grocery store or convenience store on occasion, besides the 20 LB barbecue tanks in the rack and the 1 LB Coleman tanks.

[@lapicker1010]

Something that should probably be added is that I’d heard from a couple of sources that the Coleman brand canisters don’t work well with all stoves. I bought one myself to check that out, and one of my stoves was indeed finicky about working with the Coleman canister. So caveat emptor!

[@medleyshift1325]

I've heard this as well, fortunately it still worked on my superfly. IIRC I walked in with my stove and just put it on a can to check.

[@Colleenann61]

I had this issue with my Soto stove. I discovered I needed to tighten the stove substantially on the canister. I met others who, when they tightened their stoves, they were able to get the Coleman to work.

[@lapicker1010]

My DPower won’t work on a Coleman canister at all unless I completely remove the rubber gasket and really over tighten it. It works fine with any other brand of canister I’ve used it with.

[@grendle81]

Good video. I bought one of those Coleman canisters a couple years ago for a backpacking trip and when I unscrewed the stove the canister didn't seal. The fuel continued to leak out. I had to put the stove back on until I used it all. I vowed then never to buy the Coleman again but maybe I should give it another chance.

[@Tanko3691]

Good video, the ONLY thing which you could of added for the sake of technical variety would be the different mixes of gas each offered which would have indicated what mix (butane to propane blend) is optimal in cold climates, its something I always wondered about. Anyway, thank you from across the pond.

[@BanjaraHillbillies]

Very informative. I buy whatever is cheapest... usually in my local area tends to be GSI at $4.69... I've actually never seen a Coleman canister!

[@darrenboorman4365]

Coleman = 64.6 boils, MSR = 50.8 boils, Snowpeak = 48.4 boils, JetBoil = 50.4 boils, Olicamp = 62.6 boils, Perune = 61.7 boils, Optimus = 60.3 boils, GSI = 48.4 boils, Primus = 57.0 boils. You’ll need to look at cost per boil depending on your outlet. Looks like any difference will be a few pence or cents

[@timpearson3932]

One note on the Coleman, it contains no isobutane it is a propane & n-butane mixture. I have found that it does not do well at temps below freezing.

[@glavchev]

Also it's 220, not 230 grams. It's not that much of a difference, but still....

[@oxxnarrdflame8865]

Thanks for doing the math, it saved me the trouble. 😊

[@weka6533]

The Coleman while 10grams underweight and a low stove temp, still was able to boil 12 seconds slower than the fastest and achieved 2 extra boils than the olicamp. Watching this I was “nah the Coleman doesn’t look good” but once you compare and review the data, it has actually come out pretty good. (For my mild climate)

[@tellis9844]

Thats a great test, there is off course a slight variable where some of the gases are designed to work for a specific product but overall its a great test.

[@fatmanfaffing4116]

Excellent test and while I thought the Olikamp was best overall, the Coleman choice makes sense given how available it is. I refill mine from cheap butane aerosol canisters and during the colder months use an alcohol stove but this test certainly proved your point that the margins of performance are too slim to be bothered.

[@28memco45]

This deserves TWO THUMBS UP

[@DeimonLord127]

I recommend edelrid outdoor gas + coleman fyrestorm 3000w, 500ml ( 17 oz ) of water in just 2 minutes or less, tested on cold water of course :)

[@jackgreenwood2jg]

This has helped me pick one for my army kit, I have a jet boil and a Kombat stove. But to have a fuel that heats up fast is important for me

[@Mandragara]

Ever since I had an Optimus fail to maintain a flame, I now exclusively use premium fuels that perform better at lower temperatures\higher winds. You never know when you're going to be caught out. My conditions are quite different though, I'm Australian and not American. Still, conditions on our measly mountains can still be tough, 70 mph winds are nothing to sneeze at!

[@normanhicks1892]

The whole purpose with going to a mixed gas fuel was to avoid the extremely poor cold weather performance of straight propane. My suspicion is the fuels which showed poor performance in this test may fair much better is the test was repeated at a temperature significantly below freezing.

[@484magnum]

I took something very different away from this. The canisters( like MSR) that produced higher temps, Could be throttled back just a bit, there by producing the same temp for a longer period of time. I’ve always used MSR with no complaint. Thanks for your test. Kinda confirms what I always knew

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

Good point. Thanks for watching

[@JamesPliny]

fun to see the data. Good job and a reasonable conclusion. Thanks.

[@kellyjohnson3617]

Thanks for this. You have confirmed what I already surmised. Now there is empirical evidence to back it. Love my little pocket rocket style stove.

[@tiberiu_nicolae]

I don't go out in winter so I just refill my own canisters with straight butane. You can use the stove all day long with no guilt about the cost, but obviously only in warm weather. Plus if you don't overfill it's safer given that butane has a lower pressure than propane. You can use a simple kitchen scale to fill adequately.

[@markcummings6856]

Really interesting. Excellent content, editing! Thanks for sharing.

[@GQGeek81]

This is good stuff. Based on what I'm sure is now a rather old article on Adventures in Stoving, I'm under the impression people have issues using the Coleman canisters on non-Coleman stoves. Maybe they've worked that out. I was curious if your total burn time failed to account for the seconds of time used in the initial temperature and boil tests, but even if I re-run the numbers, the burn time per gram of fuel seems to vary pretty substantially from a low of 39.15 seconds on the Jetboil to the 54.55 for the Coleman. If we calculate the total burn time per the weighed fuel weight and divide by the boil time we can figure out the grams of fuel needed per 16oz pot of water and the total pots per canister we can expect all else being equal. This gives us a pretty significant disparity with GSI only boiling 48.6 pots of water per canister and the Coleman managing 64.9 pots. That 16.3 pot difference between the two canisters could easily amount to many days extra worth of fuel on a trip. Looking at it from that perspective shows us that even though Jetboil had the most fuel and almost the fastest boil time, since the whole canister emptied faster than some others, it's not the best choice if you want the canister that will let you cook the most meals. Of course, none of this is rigorous enough to be certain. We also do not know if the canisters with less fuel are from a stingy manufacturer, consistent canister to canister for the same brand, a valve that slightly leaks, or a canister that is older. Maybe some valves just allow more fuel through at a faster rate. It also doesn't tell us if the fill weight disparity would be similar if I'm using 100g canisters which is the more likely size for most backpackers. I'm curious about the total burn time disparity even when accounting for the fill weight differences. I assume some canisters are chilling themselves to the point of essentially self-regulating. It would have been interesting to have seen how cold each canister got during the burn. I assume It chilled to some equilibrium temperature and stayed there near the very end. Depending on how cold that was compared to the temperature a canister gets to during a routine boil, my calculations are completely trashed as no one generally uses their stove for more than a few minutes at a time. Running the test again using a moulder strip might even out the numbers some and prove that theory. I don't think the stove you're using is regulated which may completely account for this disparity. Using something like a Soto or Amicus or MSR Reactor might make more sense for this kind of test. The lack of correlation between boil time and the max temperature is interesting. To me that suggests the better way to improve performance is probably not with a better fuel or stove, but with a better pot. I see you're already using a pot with a heat exchanger and it's quite frankly disappointing it doesn't appear able to take advantage of the additional BTU's put out by some of these fuels. The Coleman and Olicamp both have very similar boil times and rank first and second on boils per canister by my calculations, but I'm curious if the hotter Olicamp would blow away the Coleman if used under something like the wide 1.5 or 5 liter Jet Boil pots. If it performs I expect, we would identify Olicamp as the better choice for large pots of water (group cooking) or perhaps for melting snow. Snow gets us into the limits of isobutane stoves anyway, so that may all be a moot point. For other pots, the Coleman appears to be the winner. Another perspective on this would be to use an adapter to mount the same stove on a propane canister. It should in theory burn even hotter than the Olicamp but may not produce a faster boil time. Likewise, if cool weather performance is not going to chill the canister to the point of impacting performance, using straight butane rather than a mix may be the most economical solution.

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

Interesting analysis. Some of it may take a bit to digest. Your propane control test would be a good way to compare stoves with a control of fuel and regulated pressure. You are correct. If you watch my AOTU test, during the flame controllability test, the olicamp stove shoots flame well beyond the pot. A wider pot would take advantage of that wasted heat, but certainly wouldn't fit on every stove, especially something small like the AOTU. That is probably why the jetboil stoves perform so well at boiling, the flame is optimized for the pot as they are sold as a system.

[@bigsean2473]

the coleman is a propane butane in think mix fill and not an iso so that may have a bit to do with it

[@MrJenssen]

The environmental temperature is also a very important factor, according to some of the brands themselves. The Primus supposedly had a blend that will perform better in lower temps.

[@Bornintheseat]

Thank you for putting in the time and money to do this test and share it!

[@McBlaster666]

Just the facts I was looking for presented very well, consice and easy to understand. Excellent job Sir and thank you very much.

[@MisfitsFiendClub138]

Every time you mentioned Primus kept thinking about Les Claypool jamming on bass 😎🎸👍 Good video! Thanks

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

Maybe that's why I have a special place in my heart for the Primus brand

[@gcvrsa]

It's interesting that this video was posted in early Feb 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic sent supply chains dwindling to nothing. Stores in my area were sold out of canisters for months, and clearly that's because they all come from a limited number of sources. I will buy and use whatever is available when I need a can. Usually, that's the Coleman 220 g can, because the nearest store to me with reasonable prices is Walmart. But, I also have a couple of small Oilcamp 100 g cans I bought at local shop when they were the only thing in stock, and I wanted a small size can to go with a small pot for day hikes. My main stove is a SOTO Amicus, and my backup is an MSR PocketRocket. I also own an MSR Rapidfire, which I sometimes use at home as an extra burner in my kitchen, or when car camping.

[@oldunion]

Olicamp FTW really. Great winter performance too.

[@kimekholm7178]

Looks like my own experience was in line with your testing, gonna keep getting Coleman since it's the cheapest. (Did find some off-brand cheaper once here in Finland but I got a hunch there burn time will be way shorter). As a hiker, I'm always looking to shave some weight so the extra burn time/gram is way more important than the temp.

[@darrenboorman4365]

The most useful graph, which you missed out, is the number of boils each canister can do. Ie total burn time divided by boil time. That’s the conclusion I was hoping for.

[@jamespants6591]

Darren Boorman exactly, boils per canister is the main parameter for anyone on a multi-day hike or trip, followed by price per boil. I would also be interested in seasons and temperatures that they can be reliably used in. Other than that a very comprehensive test and no click-bait so definitely a thumbs up. I have used the Coleman, Primus, Jetboil and MSR canisters along with a four season local variety I bought in Iceland. That burned way hot and I stopped out of fear it would destroy my Jetboil... I usually also buy whatever is cheapest.

[@darrenboorman4365]

James Pants I did work it out and post it if you fancy scrolling through the comments

[@EasyTigerSaurus]

great reviews. much details and variables, yet highly informative. greetings from Indonesia!

[@SS-wz8po]

You have a done a very thorough set of tests. That is good information Thank you very much.

[@vincentgomez319]

Great video brother!! Thanks for all your observation and feedback!

[@johnkumpel8974]

Excellent data collection. Much appreciated.

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

Thanks for watching!

[@phila3884]

I agree they are so similar in specs, price should be deciding factor. I think burn times ultimately depend on fuel flow rate- it would be very difficult to match stove settings from one test to the next with simple canister stoves....

[@wades623]

turning it all the way up seems like it would be a good match...

[@jeffreycarman2185]

This is about the result I was expecting, the compression bottles are built to a pretty standardized spec (in many cases probably by the same company) and the variability of the propane itself makes any differences nominal and transient.

[@JulietHotelFoxtrot]

The real difference between a "cold weather" and regular weather is less about the canister and more about the stove. If you want cold weather performance ("cold" meaning freezing or lower) you need a stove that can use a liquid feed from the can and then vaporise it in a generator pipe. That means the stove needs to be able to take an inverted canister without flaming up, and there's not many of them on the market. The butane mixes ice up when feeding a stove in the upright position at temps

[@Ralph5151]

Great test, now I know what the deal is with these canisters. Thank you!

[@chrisruff3392]

Excellent well thought out and organized video. Big kudos for the time it took to gather all this data and present it!

[@mohammadjuma4757]

Great work.... Best video I watched so far covering this subject.

[@NomadicKing]

Great test, I can't wait to see more content. I would love to see a below-freezing test

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

I did one, go check it out!

[@garrettvieira2382]

Great video, love all the info and the graphs helped.

[@LUVDOGS1954]

Outstanding. Somply no other comment. Thank you.

[@EvenStevenProz]

Great video! I usually go with perune because I like the way it looks, and the price isn't bad.

[@thesideburnhunter4481]

Where do you get it? How much $?

[@TheSleepLes]

Good,honest analysis. Much appreciated.

[@onanysundrymule3144]

Good empirical data Sir, and useful, however the main thing about isobutane is supposed to be it's cold weather performance. I thus thought this was going to be about testing the burn quality at or near freezing temperatures (zero degrees centigrade). You may of course have future plans to do this, whereby the canisters could be wacked into a fridge overnight, then sleeved with some form of foil insulation jacket for handling as you assess the flame quality/temp/etc under these conditions. Many gasses just splutter and flare at low temps, so a brand comparison might be revealing here. Kind regards.

[@elwinjude77]

Appreciate the effort put into this video! Sure was a long task. Great job.

[@JamesSmith-vt9ju]

There are variations between fuels. Jet boil is a isobutane/propane....the Coleman is a isobutsne/ butane mix...performance changes drastically in cold temps.