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Almost lost my fingers to a $15 camp stove that flamed up on me at Lake Cascade
Two summers back I was 4 miles into a trip on the east shore of Lake Cascade up in Idaho, and my cheap little canister stove decided to turn into a torch during dinner. I had just pumped the fuel valve and lit it when a two foot flame shot sideways out of the burner head, right past my hand, and it would not shut off no matter how far I turned the knob. Turns out the o-ring in the valve had dried out and cracked from sitting in my garage all winter, and the whole thing was leaking fuel into the neck of the canister. I grabbed my welding glove from the pack, flipped the canister upside down so the flame starved out, and then just sat there shaking for a bit with my dinner half cooked. What really got me is that I had used that stove for like 3 seasons and never once checked that seal. Now I do a soapy water leak test in the driveway before any trip, and I keep a backup alcohol stove in the bottom of my pack. If you have an old canister stove sitting around from a garage sale, when was the last time you actually checked the o-rings on it?
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