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39 of 39 found the following review helpful:
 Small, Light and Rugged Apr 19, 2008
By William J. Gothard
The Brunton Raptor Foldable Canister Stove with Piezo Ignition is an ingenious design incorporating folding pot supports and a piezo lighter. The entire stove, minus a fuel canister fits into an included small padded nylon case about 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" and weighing only a few ounces. It is easy to light with the incorporated piezo lighter. The Brunton Raptor competes head-to-head with the MSR Superfly, but wins for pack size and price. The Raptor is $20.00 less than the Superfly with a piezo lighter. I have used a variety of Hank Roberts, Coleman and MSR canister stoves over the years, but for size, weight, price and convenience, I'm recommending the Brunton Raptor.
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
RAPTOR ROCKS Apr 25, 2008
By Thomas Brown
Although rarely factored in, fuel always adds bulk or weight to a backpacker's stove, nevertheless, this little stove has a lot going for it. The built-in piezo-electric start is a really great feature and works on the first try on mine. The burner can be regulated from barely a flame to a roaring jet blast with easy adjustment. It folds up like a 'Transformer' into a tiny unit that fits into a fabric carry case and
weighs next to nothing. Well engineered and constucted, it will definitely serve its purpose well when needed. High marks for this little dynamo!
18 of 20 found the following review helpful:
Solid buy Feb 21, 2008
By J. Moon
Please note that I haven't field tested this yet... an essential component for a product like this. This, therefore, is only out-of-the-box initial impressions.
This thing is wonderfully small; it folds into a small pocket-sized wallet. I can anticipate some damage to the product if placed under significant weight (so don't).
The stability of the product, I presume, will largely depend on the gas canister (I plan on purchasing a cheaper, more readily available brand). It's worth repeating a previous reviewer's comment that the canister base does not come with the product.
Still, I'm very happy with this product largely because of the size. But I'm still bringing backup. I will certainly update if field tests show this product to be anything other than a five-star product. Otherwise, no news is good news.
Update 6/29: I didn't bring a backup. I bought three canisters, and though I used fire to cook the first couple of days, it worked well and used fuel efficiently. I ended up with maybe half a canister left. I didn't do any empirical tests, or time anything, but it produces intense flames and boils 2 liters of water in a little over five minutes.
Some drawbacks, though, is that the foldable arms do need to be cooled for awhile after use, and the ignition and flame adjustment require some dexterity to adjust when the stove is on the ground and a pot is already sitting on top. I burned myself a bit the first time. But again, a stove that fits into the palm of your hand is well worth small annoyances or a little extra wait.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Happy Camper Mar 16, 2008
By Bruce F. Henley
"Jedi Engineer"
I have owned my Brunton Raptor for two seasons. I have taken it backpacking in to the Colorado Rockies and prepared meals for up to seven. The Raptor performed the same at sealevel as it did at 12,000 feet. The ease of setting up the Raptor and getting right to cooking is a real plus. With the compressed gas canister there is no fussing with the gas generator or pumping of fuel bottles. The piezoelectric ignition has worked very reliably even though one must take care to keep it dry and out of strong winds during the ignition process. With the range in sizes of gas canisters, I have not had any problems with running out of fuel while on a trek. The photograph shows a tripod base which is sold seperately, and I recommend that you get it to provide added stability when cooking. I can not imagine trekking in the backcountry without my Raptor.
12 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Excellent product... once you get to know it May 16, 2010
By Kindler
I just bought a Raptor and I have given the product itself 5 stars. (1) It's well constructed, (2) It really is compact. (3) When folded out for use it's quite solid. (4) The piezo igniter works BUT ONLY IF YOU KNOW HOW (more on this later) (5) It really does the job FAST. In a test run I heated two cups of water to hot-enough-for-coffee in about 90 seconds. (6) The flame control is excellent --- you can jack it up to a roaring blast or taper it down to a tiny simmer.
BTW, in case you're wondering, you don't need to use the Brunton brand of fuel canister. Also, in hindsight I would get the fold-out base for the fuel canister, but that's no reflection on the Raptor itself.
The only improvement I would make is to the INSTRUCTIONS relative to attaching it to the fuel canister and using the piezo igniter. Both require some pointers and caused me a lot of time-consuming hassle (and a good deal of second guessing myself) until I learned "the way of the Raptor".
(1) Attaching the Raptor to the fuel canister is simple, but I did encounter some unexpected and disturbing resistance. In a nutshell, in order to get it to produce gas, I had to learn to tighten the stove onto the canister in a way that (to me) feels unnaturally tight.
In my first attempt, I screwed the stove onto the fuel canister and torqued it down to what I felt was tight enough. The instructions say to screw it onto the canister "until secure. Do not overtighten." I work on cars so I'm careful about over-torquing bolts and I think I have a pretty good feel for what feels "right". Anyway, the connection felt plenty secure and I didn't want to overtighten. I then turned the control handle and --- no gas. So I tightened it some more, really hard. Still no gas. Finally I tightened it down REALLY HARD, and I mean HARD, like it couldn't physically go any further, to what I felt was way overtightening (I was overcoming the resistance of the rubber o-ring / gasket /grommet). Finally got gas... but now had a quandary: Does this need to tighten so much indicate I have a problem? And if I do, do I have a defective stove or a defective canister? So I went out and bought another canister...different brand, cheaper. But same experience as before. So I emailed Brunton and they said it sounded normal. "We tell folks not to over tighten as they could break the igniter, but you do have to mount the stove pretty snug. The rubber grommet should be depressed a bit when attached to the canister." I don't have a problem with that, but it would be nice to know in advance.
BTW, this heavy tightening may be endemic to all stoves that use the little isobutane canister with the Lindal valve, not just the Raptor, I don't know. But frankly I'm not sure an old person or someone with arthritis could do it sufficiently.
(2) The piezo lighter initially gave me fits. Using it is not intuitive, nor does it behave the same way as the piezo lighter on my BBQ grill. The instructions say "1. Carefully open the valve by turning the control handle counter clickwise so you can hear a small amount of gas escaping. 2. Press the Piezo ignition button to light the stove. 3. If the stove does not immediately ignite, close the valve... wait a few seconds and repeat the first two steps."
Instead, the directions should read: "USING THE PIEZO IGNITER SUCCESSFULLY IS NOT INTUITIVE. READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. 1. Carefully open the valve by turning the control handle counter clickwise so you can BARELY hear A WHISPER of gas escaping. THIS ISN'T FOR SAFETY REASONS; BELIEVE IT OR NOT, TOO MUCH INITIAL GAS WILL CAUSE THE PIEZO SPARK TO BE INEFFECTIVE! 2. Press the Piezo ignition button to light the stove. 3. If the stove does not immediately ignite, DON'T THINK YOU'RE NOT GIVING IT ENOUGH GAS; ON THE CONTRARY, YOU'RE TRYING TO GIVE IT TOO MUCH. Close the valve and then IMMEDIATELY re-open it but JUST BARELY, TO WHERE NOW YOU CAN'T EVEN HEAR EVEN A WHISPER OF GAS ESCAPING. CONTRARY TO WHAT YOU MAY EXPECT, THE PIEZO SPARK DOES NOT IGNITE A LARGE VOLUME OF GAS UNLESS, FOR SOME REASON, THE STOVE IS ALREADY HOT."
Now that I know how to use the piezo igniter, I have found it to be 100% reliable. However, I haven't used it enough to be able to report how durable it is.
Bottom line, I would DEFINITELY recommend this product to a friend, but I would also give them the above heads-up on what to expect.
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