The information that I have is that Primus still makes it's stoves in Europe (Estonia).

MSR still makes it's stoves in the US and I believe Ireland except the MicroRocket and PocketRocket which are made in Korea, presumably by Kovea.

Soto makes their stoves in Japan.

My understanding is that after their fiasco of moving Nova production to mainland China that the Optimus Nova is now made in Taiwan. I believe the Optimus Svea 123R is also made in Taiwan.

The Trangia (obviously not a petroleum based stove) is still made in Sweden to the best of my knowledge.

That's not to say that an awful lot of companies don't have all or part of their stoves made in mainland China. Still, the Chinese stove companies don't seem, at least to me, to have the polish that their foreign counterparts have (Japan, Korea, US, Europe). I'll look forward to your forthcoming article.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving

Er, well, I hope that doesn't come across as being argumentative. Oops if so.

What I'm trying to say is that I'm still seeing a difference with stoves built by non Chinese companies (even if manufactured in China) vs. those designed and built in China. The Jetboil for example is made in China and seems quite well made but is not a Chinese company or a Chinese design.

It's the Fire Maple, Bulin, etc. stoves that seem a little less polished than their non-Chinese counterparts, at least from photos and my personal observation. For example, there's a photo of the 117's sister stove, the FMS-118 on a thread in the Gear forum:


I see a certain crudeness in the machining. Of course I may be a bit of a stove snob. :) Then again, the FMS-118 is having problems when used in inverted mode because the bore of the fuel line is too large, allowing unvaporized fuel to get to the burner. There was also a Chinese stove whose fuel line was made of a material that flaked off small bits, clogging the jet; it was reported here on BPL by Tony Beasley a year or two ago. There have been numerous Euro zone Chinese stove recalls due to safety hazards.

It's certainly true that much of manufacturing is going to Asia, and the Chinese are no dummies. They've clearly identified strong selling characteristics: ultralight upright canister stoves, ultralight remote canister stoves, and remote canister stoves with pre-heat loops all of which will appeal to slightly different market segments. My noting that Chinese stoves aren't quite yet up to their non-Chinese counterparts standards of design and manufacture doesn't mean that the Chinese aren't making great strides forward. Were I a non-Chinese stove company, I'd be quaking in my boots right now as I look to the future.

Finally, I hope that the introduction of some very lightweight remote canister stoves will force the non-Chinese stove companies to come out with designs of their own. There's no reason for a remote canister stove to weigh 2.5 times more than an upright canister stove.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving

Hi Jim

> Primus still makes it's stoves in Europe (Estonia).
I stand to be corrected here. I know some of their stoves did come from Asia, but the quality was not high. It may indeed be that they have returned to Europe via Estonia: I imagine the wages there are not as high as in, say, Germany. Eastern Europe does have some engineering skills. I buy very nice taps and dies from Poland.

> MSR still makes it's stoves in the US
Oh?
I am willing to believe, but I would need good proof. The rules about labeling allow all sorts of sneaky tricks there.

> My understanding is that after their fiasco of moving Nova production to mainland
> China that the Optimus Nova is now made in Taiwan.
Snicker.
There are many, many, small backyard stove manufacturers in China - MANY. Few of them know what they are doing. Few of them are known outside China. I do agree that most Chinese stove companies do not present a high degree of polish.

Yes, I address a lot of this in some forthcoming articles. Stay tuned.

Cheers

> MSR still makes it's stoves in the US
Oh?
I am willing to believe, but I would need good proof. The rules about labeling allow all sorts of sneaky tricks there.

> My understanding is that after their fiasco of moving
> Nova production to mainland
> China that the Optimus Nova is now made in Taiwan.
Snicker.
There are many, many, small backyard stove manufacturers in China - MANY. Few of them know what they are doing. Few of them are known outside China. I do agree that most Chinese stove companies do not present a high degree of polish.

Yes, I address a lot of this in some forthcoming articles. Stay tuned.