Reviews > Cook Gear > Stoves > Primus Micron Stove > Owner Review by Keith Thomas

Primus Micron Stove Owner Review

Biography

Name: Keith Thomas
Gender: Male

Age: 27
Height: 6'0" (1.83 m)
Weight: 185 lb (84 kg)
Location: Greensboro, NC US
Email: pulse_0ptional at yahoo dot com
Date: July 19, 2006

Backpacking Experience:  I've been hiking since I was seven and backpacking since I was ten.  I was a member of a very active Boy Scout Troop, and continued backpacking after Scouts until 1999.  After a short hiatus, I hit the trail again in 2003.  Since then, I've taken at least seven weekend trips a year.  I'm lightening my load, but I'm far from ultralight.  I'm also switching from tents/tarps to hammocks.  Most of my trail experience has been limited to North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Field Information

Since purchasing the stove I’ve used it in a wide range of elevations and temperatures -  0-6500 ft (0-1981 m) elevation and 30-100 F (-1 - 38 C).  Locations include Hammocks Beach State Park, Linville Gorge Wilderness Area, Wilson Creek Wilderness Area, Uwharrie National Forest, and Great Smokey Mountains National Forest (all in NC and TN).

I use a "middle-of-the-road" cooking style.  I generally boil water in the morning for coffee and oatmeal, then sometimes boil again for soup at lunch.  For dinner, my staple is a flavored rice side dish with some sort of meat mixed in.  This requires boiling as well as additional simmering time.

Primus recommends only their fuel in the stove.  Their website lists average boil time of 3:40 and average burnout time of 66:24 with 225 g (7.94 oz) of fuel.  I haven't recorded burn times myself, but I can say for certain that this stove boils much quicker than any of the pump-and-prime stoves I've owned.  One 225 g (7.94 oz) canister of Primus Power Gas (three-season mix) generally lasts a minimum of nine trail days with my cooking style.

Most often I've used the Primus gas, a propane-isobutane-butane mixture with the gas percentages listed on the canister.  I've also tried a Wal-Mart brand canister a few times because they're less expensive.  Unless otherwise indicated, test results refer to the Primus cartridge.

The stove boils quickly, typical of canister-type stoves.  It also simmers well, certainly much better than the pump-and-prime stoves I've owned.  Rice is generally an easy thing to burn, but I've had no problems with "hot spots".  However, this may be due to the design of my pot - a 1 L (1.06 qt.) aluminum Primus pot with a ribbed bottom, designed for better heat distribution.

On my first cold-weather trip with the stove (dinnertime temperature around 35 F or 2 C), I ran into the "big problem" with canister stoves.  When the outside temperature is low enough, the fuel in the canister liquefies and the pressure drops.  This produces an inconsistent, yellowish flame that indicates poor burning.  On the same trip, I encountered some healthy wind.  While the stove never went out, the combination of wind and poor pressure kept the flame low and away from the center of the pot, greatly decreasing efficiency. 

On the next trip, I borrowed a windscreen from an old stove and modified it to fit the Micron. 

A word of caution:  this setup can be VERY DANGEROUS if not used CAREFULLY.  Just because I’ve never had a canister explode doesn’t mean that someone else won’t, even with the same setup.

I made the screen just tall enough to overlap about an inch (2.5 cm) of my pot, and wide enough to leave about an inch (2.5 cm) of space all the way around the pot.  The short height and extra width ensure that enough heat escapes so that the canister doesn’t overheat. 

I should note here that I only use the windscreen in very cold temperatures.  Warmer weather might cause the canister to overheat with this setup.  I’ve also never needed the windscreen unless it was very cold.  In my experience, the stove works well as long as the canister is warm enough to sustain the proper pressure, regardless of wind.  I’ve never used the stove in a hurricane, but I’ve been blown around quite a bit and didn’t have any problems. 

In cold weather, the windscreen was very effective at keeping the canister warm and properly pressurized.  I used this setup on several subsequent cold-weather trips and it worked quite well.

I've also heard of hikers wrapping a modified pot cozy around the canister itself. This seems like a safer solution to the cold-weather problem, but I haven't tried it yet.

Elevation (in the range above) doesn't seem to significantly change the stove's performance.

Overall, the stove performed well at temperatures above 40-45 F (4-7 C). The Wal-Mart gas was more limited, performing well down to about 60 F (16 C).  I've never tested the Wal-Mart gas above about 1500 ft (457 m) elevation.

Poor pot stability is the only other problem I've had with the stove.  Over time, I’ve developed a couple of simple techniques to compensate for this.  The most effective and easiest is to “grind” the bottom rim of the canister into the ground.  This allows the rim to sit lower and flatter.  It also allows the concave bottom of the canister to rest on the ground, providing extra support.  If the ground is too rocky or if I’m using an extra-full pot, I just go with the old standby:  hold onto the pot handle while cooking.  Neither solution is terribly inconvenient, but stability is definitely something Primus could improve on.  I’ve seen stabilizers for sale that fit onto the bottom of the fuel canister, but IMHO, stability is something that should be standard in the stove design, not an add-on.

I've read about problems with pots slipping off of the pot supports.  This has never happened to me, but my pot's ribbed bottom may help prevent slippage.

A note on durability:  About a week after I bought the stove, I took it on a short shakedown trip and my hiking partner stepped on it while it was open.  Surprisingly, the only damage was one bent pot support, even though my partner weighs 210+ lb (95+ kg)! I exchanged the stove anyway, but was impressed by the small amount of damage.

I should also mention that Primus has changed the Micron design since I bought my stove.  I haven't seen the new stove in person, but from the pictures on their website the only change seems to be a new pot support design.  The new supports appear to be flat and toothed rather than round and smooth.

Reviews > Cook Gear > Stoves > Primus Micron Stove > Owner Review by Keith Thomas