This is a really great, and very well made item. It is also very convenient and easty to use. You just screw the top on and plump the cylinder into the base. It uses the short, fat cylinders--not the longer kind you usually see plumbers using with torches. I had one of these things but I cannot locate the thing anywhere so when Hurricane Irma headed towards Florida I hurried and ordered another one. Thankfully, the hurricane did not hit the part of Florida I live in, the panhandle. My old stove got me and my late father through the hell that was Hurrican Ivan which did hit here in September of 2004. We did not have power or drinking water for the better part of the week and half the trees were knocked down. Our roof lost every other row of shingles, the storm windows blew out with loud bangs, and the siding of our house, which my neighbor, John, returned to me as a joke, blew three blocks down the street. Dad and I did have hot coffee and hot meals, though, and we did have plenty of water since I am a home winemaker and had filled my six six gallong fermenter spigot buckets up to the brim. I also have a two burner, Coleman propane stove around someplace but I cannot find that either. I used this stove once or twice before deciding the single burner was more than sufficient for coffee, tea, or dinner. We ate chilit mostly, Hormel with no beans with two cans of Bush's chili beans thrown in. With this stove, you do not have to go through the routine of putting soapy water on the joints to check for gas leaks. There is only one connection. If it does hiss when you screw it on it means the valve is open so you just rotate it. To light it, just open the valve a bit until it hisses and light it with a match or butane lighter. You turn it down or up or off with the valve. In case you are not familiar with propane torches, the gas coming out makes the connection near the tank icy cold to the point that frost starts to form. No kidding. Frost will form because it is the same principle that makes your refrigerator work. I said torch mind you. I did not let the burner run full blast. The flame might eventually hurt the cooking grid part though it seems very sturdy. I think they have improved this burner a bit since my old one and, if I ever find the old one, I will compare the two. A word about liquid fuel stoves. A Wal Mart add for a dual fuel stove said the Coleman dual fuel will burn over four times what's in a cylinder per gallon. This is a no brainer though since the cylinders only contain a bit over sixteen ounces of liquid and the gallon has 128 ounces. The also used to make endless jokes about liquid fuel gasoline stoves blowing up and sending people to heaven when I was little. \ The straight line gases in order from lighest to heaviest are: methane, ethane, propane, and butane. After this you get gasolines followed by mineral spirits, kerosenes, fuel oils, and paraffins like Vaseline and tars. Methane and ethane, often called natural gas, are not liquids at safe pressure. Propane is a liquid at about 15 atmospheres of pressure. The stuff in your little bottles is a liquid and not a gas. Butane is liquid at about the pressures you find in soda or beer bottles. This makes butane ideal for plastic lighters though it is more expensive normally than propane per ounce. Natural gass, of course, is cheap but an actually cylinder of gas, as opposed to liquid, would give you very little cooking time. They do use gas gas in city vehicles but the things do not have a great range per charge. So: if you live in hurricane country or like to camp, this and other Coleman products are very nice. I do give it five stars.
