PDQ Mobile wrote:Years ago I replaced a totally battered re-soldered Optimus with a new multi fuel burner.
Use gas for a quick brew up and paraffin for that 3 course meal (!) and winter camping.
It's been very good. Stable and reliable.
The thing also burns petrol and at a pinch diesel.
But I don't really like either as a camping fuel.
Multi-fuels that do gas don't do gas as well as a pure gas burner, or at least judging from my Primus MFS. The spreader on a multi-fuel is much simpler than a multi-hole gas head and it's consequently noisier, not as controllable and I'd imagine less efficient. Still quite usable though, but if you're not going to use the liquid fuel capabilities the multi-fuels are quite a bit heavier (and a lot more expensive).
My MFS doesn't do diesel as when it was made they hadn't got it burning hot enough to vaporise the fuel well enough. The replacement Omnifuel does diesel but it's not a Weapon Of Choice as it doesn't burn that cleanly, AIUI. Petrol works very well once it's going and it's easily available and doesn't need a separate priming fuel but you need to have practised very thoroughly before using it inside as the possibilities for flares when priming are rather high. I don't use petrol anything like often enough to trust myself to use it in a tent. I've known habitual petrol stove users who I'd consider completely safe to do so... and other habitual petrol stove users who I wouldn't want to be within 10 feet of outside, never mind inside the same tent!
Pete.