Reviews > Cook Gear > Stoves > Brasslite Turbo II-D Alcohol Stove > David Anderson > Field Report

Name: David Anderson
E-mail: danderson@backpackgeartest.org
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Height: 6'2" (1.87 m)
Weight: 280 (130 kg)
City: Olympia, WA

I grew up car camping with my family in California, and started backpacking sometime around 5th grade. As an adult I've lived, worked and backpacked in New England, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. I've also gotten involved in sea kayaking in the last few years.My backpacking style could be described as light-heavyweight. I carry the lightest version of the gear that I believe is up to the task. I will sleep under a tarp, but I will be sleeping on a CampRest mattress so that I will be able to sleep.

Over the years I have used many types of backpacking stoves. I started in the '70s with a couple of white gas stoves, then in the early '80s I switched to canister stoves, just to avoid the flare-up issues while priming. After a bad experience with the stoves that sit on top of the canisters, I switched to the more stable stoves that sit on the ground and attach to the canister remotely.

In the mid '90s I discovered alcohol stoves and have been using them ever since on trips where they are more appropriate for the style of cooking. They serve me well if I am mostly boiling water or cooking over medium to high heat. If I plan on doing any extended simmering, my stove of choice is still a canister stove. I have used both commercial alcohol stoves and home made soda can stoves.

Product Info

Manufacturer: Brasslite

Year: 2003

Turbo II-D Stove

MSRP: $50.00

The Brasslite Turbo II-D Stove is a lightweight, hand-made, alcohol fuel stove. As the name implies, the body of the stove is made from sheet brass, with the exception of the pot stand which is made from stainless steel hardware cloth.

There is a single, central flame hole, approximately 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter in the top of the stove body. Around the base of the stove, there are 6 small vent holes to provide oxygen to the flame inside the stove. There is a rotating sleeve that has cutouts that enable backcountry chef to regulate the amount of air being fed into the combustion chamber. Reducing the amount of air will reduce the size of the flame, allowing for some ability to simmer.

8 Ounce (0.24 L) Capacity Dispenser bottle

MSRP: $5.00

The 8 ounce (0.24 L) fuel storage and dispenser bottle that came with the test stove is an ingenious two chamber design that allows for metered dispensing of small quantities of the alcohol fuel.

The larger main storage chamber has graduated marking up its side starting at 1ounce (30 ml equivalent, but there are no metric markings on the bottle), and going up in 0.5 ounce (15 ml) increments. This chamber has a screw top fill port at the top of a short neck.

At the bottom of the storage chamber, there is a tube that leads up the side of the bottle to the top edge of the small dispensing chamber. To fill the dispensing chamber, the storage chamber is squeezed lightly forcing alcohol up the tube till the desired amount is in the dispensing chamber. There are two markings on the small chamber, "1/4 oz" and "1/2 oz" (~7 and 15 ml respectively, but again there are no metric markings).

The small chamber has the same size screw top as the main chamber. But in addition to the regular cap, there is a nozzle that can be screwed on to allow for a controlled stream into the fuel chamber of the stove.

Field Report

Due to badly scheduled illness and misplacing the Brasslite Turbo II-D stove during my move, I was unable to get as much field times as I intended. So far it has seen two nights of field use in the foothills of the Cascades in western Washington. I have also done a fair amount of testing in the back yard and on some dayhikes. In particular, all the storm and cold weather testing was done in my backyard when the conditions warranted.

Conditions: Most of my testing so far has been in the conditions that western Washington is famous for, cool and rainy. I have only used the Turbo II-D on one sunny and relatively warm day where the temperatures reached about 50 F (10 C). I also tested the Turbo II-D in the snow in the back yard when it was about 25 F (-4 C). The rest of the tests were in wet weather between 30 F and 40 F (-1 to 5 C), with everything from dead calm to high gusty winds.

Lighting: While the instructions that come with the Brasslite stoves recommend that after adding the appropriate amount of fuel to the stove, putting a few drops on the top to prime it, and lighting those drops. I have only gotten this method to work for me under ideal conditions. If there is any amount of wind, or if there is a lot of moisture in the air, and I have to use the winter lighting method that involves putting some drops in the priming pan at the base instead of on the top. This method works so much better, that I never even bother trying to try the warm weather lighting method anymore.

I also find that by adding a little extra alcohol into the priming pan that it is even possible to light the stove with the vents almost completely closed in the simmering position. As I rarely have the stove burning at full blast, this allows me to start cooking sooner and with less fiddling than if I light it normally and close the vents after it warms up.

Pot selection: I have tried the Turbo II-D with several of my pots, and have found the recommendation in the instructions to be correct, it is better to use a wider pot. The problem is that most of the heat transfer happens while the flame is under the pot, and once it starts coming up around the side, it is pretty much wasted heat.

In fact, after some experimenting, I found that even with my widest pot, it boils almost as fast with the ports partially closed. I even get reasonably good performance with my narrow titanium kettle with the ports almost completely closed.

Windscreen: I have yet to make the windscreen as recommended in the instructions. I have several MSR windscreens and reflectors that are made out of heavy foil and are very close to Brasslite's recommended design. With the type of flexible foil that they use in this windscreen, it is easy to resize it for different pots.

I will get around to making and testing the windscreen in the instructions, but if I was not testing this stove, I would just stick with the MSR windscreen.

Boiling: I really don't care exactly how fast a stove boils water. As long as it boils a few cups in a reasonable amount of time, I'm happy enough. The Turbo II-D meets this need perfectly.

Cooking: What I am more interested in is whether it boils long enough to actually cook something? This has been my complaint with most of the home made alcohol stoves out there, the seven to 10 minute burn times just aren't long enough to get water boiling and keep it going long enough to cook grains or pasta. With the adjustable vents, I am able to cook grains like millet and quinoa without having to refuel. With the vents all the way closed, I found that I could even keep a meal simmering for over 30 minutes!

This also is really nice when cooking up food on a skillet. 30 minutes is more than enough time to make up a nice batch of multi-grain pancakes for breakfast, or grill up some fajita fixin's for supper.

Cold weather: I tried using the stove two different times in the back yard in the snow. The first time the stove and the fuel were brought out fresh from inside the garage, where it was still above freezing, and placed on the reflector, which was on top of some fiberglass insulation as suggested in the instructions. The stove lit and burned through its full load of fuel with no problem.

After that, I left both the stove and the fuel outside for several hours before trying again to see how it would perform if I did not properly prepare it for the cold weather. I also removed the insulation from under the stove. This time it took two attempts to prime the stove before it stayed lit, the stove did not burn with as large of a flame, and the stove went out while there was still some fuel left in it.

While this was not a true test of the stove in real field conditions in the cold, it did convince me that I would be able to take it out in weather that will dip below freezing, and with some precautions, be able to use the stove in a satisfactory manner.

Flame adjustment: The flame adjustment on the Turbo stoves is a major improvement over any of the other alcohol stoves that I have used, but it still falls short of the adjustability of white gas or canister stoves. The delay in the flame responding to the adjustment required me to learn about where it needs to be set for the different requirements. In general, I would just set the openings about where I wanted it before I lit it, or as soon as it was up to operating temperature. It just wasn't worth trying to get the flame perfect, like I would with a canister stove.

Fuel bottle: While the fuel bottle seemed pretty cool to start with, I have become less enamored with it over time. I just prefer to use my small plastic squeeze bottle to measure the fuel that I have been using for years. It just works out to be more accurate for me.

Future Testing

Over the next couple of months the Brasslite Turbo II-D will be going on at least three backpacks. The first one in February will be out to the coast which rarely fails to provide lots of wind and rain, with the probability of temperatures dropping below freezing at night.

David Anderson
squtch.quiet-like-a-panther.org

Reviews > Cook Gear > Stoves > Brasslite Turbo II-D Alcohol Stove > David Anderson > Field Report