There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
Temperature, pressure, and wind, one can reasonably control for. One can even adjust for changes in canister pressure to a degree. Where one is in the life of the canister does matter. A full canister typically has higher pressure and boil times are typically faster at a given valve setting -- but more fuel is typically consumed. As the canister empties, pressure decreases, boil times at a given valve setting lengthen but typically consume a bit less fuel.
But just where to put the valve setting? Say you want to compare a Soto Windmaster (11,000 BTU/hr) with and MSR Pocket Rocket 2 (8,200 BTU/hr). Well, if you open both up max, an 11,000 BTU/hr stove is going to generally burn a lot more fuel than an 8,200 BTU/hr stove. Really, one has to set both stoves on the same BTU/hr rate. The stove that then boils with the least amount of fuel is clearly the more efficient. And it can be done. You just need a regulator set up that feeds gas at a set rate to each stove. But such test equipment I just don't have.
So, unless the person running efficiency tests has such test equipment, the numbers are somewhat subject to vagary. Just exactly what valve settings did he or she use? One half valve turn on one stove is not equal to one half valve turn on another by a different manufacturer.
That said, I can tell you that stoves with recessed burners like the Amicus and the WindMaster tend to use less fuel -- at a reasonable valve setting -- simply because they're protected from wind whereas open burner stoves are not. I can also say that the BRS-3000T is about the most affected by wind of any canister stove I've seen and is generally inefficient. All stoves are more efficient if you turn them down and run on a moderate flame; this is particularly true with higher output stoves (say 10,000 BTU/hr or more). With a high output stove, you really need to turn it down or you'll eat through fuel. Save that high output for when you really need it as in group cooking or snow melting. I actually prefer high output stoves simply because you are given more choices. You can't turn an 8,000 BTU/hr stove up to 10,000 BTU/hr to melt snow. But you can turn a 10,000 BTU/hr stove down to 5,000 BTU/hr to get good fuel economy.
HJ