Thoughts on the BRS-3000T Ultra-Light Titanium Camp Stove

I bought the BRS-3000T over a year ago mainly for adventure picnicking, but since then it’s been along on quite a few backpacking and kayak camping trips. So far it has never failed me or caused any issues, and every time I pull it out of its pouch, I’m still amazed at how small and light it is – especially for what it cost. (Check the current price on Amazon)

If I had to make a blanket statement about this stove, I would say this: 

The BRS 3000T is a fantastic stove for someone just getting started in backpacking and adventure picnicking, but is also, surprisingly, a great peace of gear for an avid outdoors person looking to lighten his or her pack weight.

This stove is tiny! It has three fold out arms and a folding burner control valve. When it is all folded up, the stove is super compact and would be easy to lose if it wasn’t for the bright green stuff sack it comes in. The folded dimensions are 37 x 52mm (1.45” x 2.04”).

The stuff sack by the way is not the greatest quality, but it is made with a thick nylon material and the draw strings are simply two opposing loops of string tied in a knot. Often with gear I will replace the factory stuff sack with one I like better, but I never bothered with the BRS-3000T. It fits the stove perfectly and has held up well.

I almost always get a question or two when I fish it out of my pack and fire it up in front of friends or passersby (I do a lot of adventure picnicking in the parks near me), and I’m sure you have some of the same questions. So let’s do this!

Is the BRS 3000T the World’s Lightest Camp Stove?

Well, that depends on what you’re comparing it to. Among this style of canister stove, I believe the BRS is far and away the winner. Here’s how it compares to some popular models:

So yes, the BRS is an ultralight canister stove with the nearest competitor, the OLICAMP Ion Micro Titanium Stove, being nearly double the weight!

But if you simply want to have the lightest stove possible or are just looking for the lightest possible way to heat water, you have to take into account the fuel canister.

Let’s say you add in the weight of a 4 oz canister (canisters are available in 4oz, 8oz, and 16oz sizes). The full canister with fuel will probably weigh in around 232g (8.2 oz). Adding this to the weight of the BRS-3000T you get a total of around 257g or just over 2 oz.

When I want to go ultralight and I’m in an area where I can use it, I usually bring my Bushcraft Essentials Bushbox Ultralight Pocket Stove (Read my review here) which takes up practically no room in my pack, since it is flat, and weighs only 61g (2.15 oz). Using the Bushbox Ultralight as a firebox stove, I don’t have to carry the weight of fuel and generally look for sticks on the ground where I am cooking. Obviously, using this stove is much more labor intensive, and there are a lot of areas where using it is prohibited, but most of the time I really enjoy the process of creating a tiny contained cookfire and love that I can go super minimalist.

Another ultralight stove option is a beer can alcohol stove. This is something you can actually make yourself and, while being extremely light, offers no flame control. 

My point here is that it is easy to get hung up about the weight of backpacking gear, but if you’re willing to make concessions, there is always a way to go lighter. In the end you can rub two sticks together to start a campfire if you really want to go ultralight. 

So, yes, the BRS-3000T is super light for a canister stove and if you don’t want the hassle of a bushbox style stove and want the ability to control the flame for more variety and flexibility in your camp cooking, the BRS-3000T is hands down the winner.

Is the BRS-3000T durable?

From my personal experience so far, I think it is plenty durable. I’ve had it along on many sea kayaking trips and beach campouts and it’s held up very well with no signs of rust or corrosion, and no problems with clogging up.

The construction appears to be very good quality and it looks like it would cost much, much more than it does. I am tempted to say that the cooking arms are a bit flimsy, but I have to remind myself that this is a piece of ultralight backpacking gear designed primarily for boiling a cup or two of water. And for a camp stove to be this light, that weight has to come from somewhere.

Is the BRS 3000T really titanium?

The stove is advertised as being made from “Titanium Alloy”. I’m no metallurgist, but I’ve had a lot of titanium gear. The cooking arms and the centerpiece they are attached to look like solid titanium. these parts have that titanium feel and show the expected heat discoloration from use (which I think adds to titanium’s cool look).

The rest of the stove seems to be made out of numerous other metals including stainless steel and brass. The body might be a mix of titanium and other metals. It doesn’t look like solid titanium, but it doesn’t look like the typical aluminum alloy that you usually see either.

As mentioned above, mine has been in some salty conditions and shows no signs whatsoever of any rust or corrosion. Whatever it is made from, I’ve been extremely happy with its construction and it looks like it belongs with some of my higher-priced gear.

Does the BRS-3000T have an igniter?

The BRS-3000T does not have an igniter, and I think that is a good thing. A fire steel is far more reliable than the piezo electric igniters used in camp stoves – especially in the rain. If you are getting into backpacking or adventure picnicking, get a fire steel. They are worth their weight in gold.

If you still want the convenience of push button start, I promise you are going to want a much different, and larger, stove. My intuition leads me to think you would also be very frustrated with some of the points below when using the BRS-3000T. 

Does the BRS-3000T have a pressure regulator?

The BRS-3000T does not have a pressure regulator. In case you’re unfamiliar with what a pressure regulator does, it keeps the flame consistent despite the pressure in the canister. Stoves that don’t have regulators need to be constantly monitored and adjusted to keep the cook flame consistent.

But this is no big deal and not many ultralight backpacking stoves have pressure regulators. This would not only add a bit of weight, but also create more complexity that could lead to failure in the field. 

One thing you will need to pay attention to with this stove design is that if the burner control valve is not closed when you screw on the gas canister, gas will escape. This isn’t a specific issue with the BRS-3000T or a problem with the design, just the nature of ultralight stoves in general, which are basically just a valve with arms to hold a pot.

Backpacking is about simplicity and this stove is very simple. That’s a beautiful thing when you may be relying on it for a hot meal on cold, rainy night in your tent.

Can you simmer on the BRS 3000T?

Yes, you have great flame control with the BRS-3000T, and you can adjust the flame very low for simmering foods. However, as mentioned above, the BRS-3000T does not have a pressure regulator which can make keeping a low flame consistent a bit of a challenge. Especially if the canister is low on fuel.

You are generally paying keen attention anyway when cooking in a tiny backpacking kitchen setup, so having to closely monitor the flame size has never been a big frustration for me with the BRS-3000T or any other ultralight stove I’ve owned.

How big of a pot can the BRS Handle?

Okay, here is where I go on a rant about expectations. Please bear with me on this…

One of the things I really hate about isobutane canister stoves is that the stove sits on top of the fuel canister, which puts your pot of boiling water or pan of sizzling bacon grease high up in a very precarious position. Most liquid fuel stoves (like my 30-year-old MSR Whisperlite) have the fuel out to the side. This allows for an extremely wide and stable burner to put a pot on. On many occasions I have cooked with full size pots from my kitchen on my Whisperlite.

With the BRS-3000T, not only is the pot far up off the ground, but the narrow span of the delicate cooking arms makes using anything other than backpacking cookware impossible – or at least a bit dangerous. Here is where expectation can get you into trouble. I don’t expect the BRS-3000T to handle slow cooking a giant pot of homemade chili for a large group. And you shouldn’t either.

I think the limit for pot size I would ever try to cook with on this stove is my TOAKS Titanium 1600ml Pot and Pan (read my review here). This set up has a diameter of around 146 mm (5 3/4 inches). I’ve boiled pasta and reheated small portions of stews and chili with this pot on the BRS-3000T and it was pretty precarious.

I’ve also tried cooking while sitting at a picnic table and realized right away that the stove needed to be either on the bench or on the ground while cooking. You can imagine the danger of having a boiling pot of water dump over in your lap.

This same logic applies to frying pans and you may be able to get by with a pan slightly larger than the 5 3/4 inch TOAKS frying pan mentioned above, but don’t push this too much.

A good practice to get into when getting a new campstove is to set it up in your kitchen and cook on it for a few days using different pots and pans until you get a feel for what works best. This way you can be certain that your expectation will match reality when you are out there in the wild for the first time with the new stove.

Do you need a windscreen for the BRS 3000T stove?

Wind is another issue for any camp stove where the stove sits atop the fuel canister. Basically the stove is higher up in the breeze and it is harder to block the wind since the windscreen needs to be higher as well. If you camp in windy areas, you will need some sort of wind block or windscreen with the BRS-3000T or any other isobutane canister camp stove.

Cooking on the ground is the first step to getting out of the wind. If you are camping at the beach or any other place where there is soft ground and it is okay for you to dig, just make a hole big enough for your stove and use the the removed dirt or sand to create even more of a wind block.

Simply setting up the stove behind a tree, rock, picnic table, or other structure can also help a ton. And you should always sit in such a way that your body blocks some of the wind while cooking.

If you still need a windscreen and don’t want to buy a store-bought model, a little creativity can go a long way. Heavy duty aluminum foil makes a great windscreen. It doesn’t take up much space in your pack and you can use it later for cooking in a campfire if that is a possibility.

I’ve gotten in the habit of carrying my ultralight bushbox with me as a backup to my BRS-3000T on overnight trips. It’s not that I think the BRS will fail, but rather I can use it to extend my fuel supply by occasionally cooking on a wood fire in the bushbox. On one particularly windy island camping trip I discovered that the bushbox could be set upside on top of the BRS-3000T making a very effective windscreen. 

Final thoughts

Unless you are looking at a more top-of-the-line option and cost is no issue, the BRS 3000T is really impossible to beat for the money. And if you specifically want an ultralight isobutane canister stove, the BRS-3000T is impossible to beat at any price.

If you are trying to put together your first adventure picnicking kit, this stove is a great choice and has become my go to stove. For adventure picnicking, weight isn’t super critical, but space is.

In my 750ml pot I can easily fit the BRS-3000T, a 4 oz fuel canister, a folding titanium spork, a fire steel, a Snow Peak Lip Guard , a GSI Outdoors Microgripper Pot Gripper, a Sea to Summit X Cup, and still have room left over for a few tea bags. It is mind blowing that all of this fits in there, and the main reason it does is the small size of the BRS-3000T.

In the end, I highly recommend this stove. It checks all the boxes for quality, size, weight, and price. Just remember that this is a specialized piece of ultralight gear. As long as you use it for what it is intended for, it should give you years of happy service. And I’m not the only one. Check out the reviews of others on Amazon.