How to fix a portable gas stove that is not working.

Let me share to you my journey with portable gas stove. And what made me write this article. The reason why im sharing this is because I hope to you will get some ideas and learn something since I did some researching in making my decisions which might be able to help you out too.

It was around 2007 that i saw these portable stove, was living in manila and i need to cook, the electric burner wasnt an option due to electric consumption and im pretty hesitant since the heating element has to cool down before you declare it safe. I need something like the usual stove but without the tank and bulk stove, hence the portable stove.

My hesitation was the canister, the butane canister, it's located near the burner itself and I assume it will get hot too! Plus the talks of the canisters exploding. This was put on hold until I visited a food expo in pasay and saw a booth showcasing Bounce Butance Gas. It was demostrating Bounce's CRV or Countersink Release Vnt or When excessive pressure increase in the can, CRV system releases gas through dot-shaped explosion-proof vents in the countersink at the top of the can (notice in my picture, the Bounce Butance Gas has the CRV marking, this is sort of became a thing with butane gas, i see some brand using this also, Ive noticed that there's a blue coating along the rim of the canister, those other canister that doesnt have the CRV dont have that blue coating). Now, that is a game changer. This has solved my concern.

Now i was ready to get a portable stove since i have a safe butane canister. Around this time, you dont have much low quality portable stove top in the market, unlike today i mean with its every where and so cheap, you will question quality. (Tuslob buwa in Cebu, every table has a burner, some Samgyeopsal uses this).I got an Iwatani ZA-3 and a Bounce Butane Canister to go with it. Been cooking since then.

Fast forward, 2015 2017 i could be wrong here, i hear about butane refilling. raids and stuff. They were refilling butane canisters with LPG gas, lets not be technical but im talking about those gas from the shellane tank, those you use in the gasul, are being refill to butane canisters. At first i was like Filipino ingenuity, like how you refill as lighter, they just found a way to reversed it. I thought the raids where meant to stop illegal activities not paying tax and no safety standards but actually not that recent that ive learned butane is lighter than propane (lets just call this lpg, although butane is lpg also). If you notice lpg is using a thick tank vs a thin butane canister, LPG is a denser gas and it needs a thick metal to hold it since the pressure is big, while butane is light you dont need to have a thick metal to hold it. Now if you refill the butance canister (which is by the way 1 time use one) with LPG you are prone to leaking and explosion since the thin canister cant hold a dense LPG. This caused a lot of fires. But still smuggling of refills is rampant, i mean new butane canister is around 70/80 while refill is 10/15/20. This could be a good deal for me, i mean keep buying new butance, and stocking on empty canister is not good. The LPG i can have it refilled and delivered swapping tanks.

Pandemic happened. People started cooking in their houses otherwise they have to order online. LPG canister came out. Canister meant to be refill with LPG, so this means these canister are thicker and designed to hold LPG density. Since I wasnt camping or going out due to the lock down, and cooking was more of LPG and the regular stove, my interest for this was more of for business and also to get the community out from the wrong refilling concept for safely.  

Recently, like few days ago. I wanted to test an iron pan griddle and cook some dried fish but since i was roasting coffee i didnt want the dried fish smell covering the dining and sala. So the portable stove was back in, i mean during the lock down we used the stove and the portable back to back. But the lock down we started using the induction cooker. So i have to cook using the portable stove ouside.

I still have a spare Bouce Butane that i can use but I wanted to try the LPG canister. So i went to market near my placed and asked them. They said they can do a swap with the canister that i have, i just have to show it to them and was asking me if my portable stove is an upgrade or not. I have no idea and i doubt if my stove is an upgrade I mean my portable stove existed before they discovered the LPG refill. Anyways came back to the store with my Bouce Butance and My iwatani portable stove so they can check, and right away the they saw the Bouce Butane Canister they saw they dont swap it, I didnt know until i visit another store a competitor, that I realized its about the canister and the brand and where to go back to refill. So i realized the business, remember i was thinking of it during the lockdown, anyways, so i asked for a brand new LPG canister which is P60 compared to a brand new Bouce Butane which is P80/90 so i can try. I told him about the other store saying abou the upgrade and stuff and they said it should work and gave some tips and stuff since the canister size might not be the same specially the nozzle.

I did my griddle test, pan seared pork and was able to fried dried fish outside the house using the Bounce Butane. So I tested the LPG canister and puff of flame came in and disappeared, i tried again and nothing after, i popped the LPG canister out and placed the Bounce Butane back and nothing happened, i can see the ignition kick in but no gas coming out. 

I went back tot the store and told them  about the situation and that they gave me a refund, they said there are customers complaining that their portable stoves stopped working after trying the lpg canister. Ive searched the internet on how to fixed portable stove not working, and saw some videos and i tried it. The issue in the vid was no gas going to the burner. So i dismantelled and cleaned the intake, i tried the pressure sensor and still nothing. I can hear the gas coming out when i manually push the canister but with all the system intact and the canister hold engaged, I can hear the the gas coming out.

While assembling the parts of intake i noticed on the canister cover, a print saying "RESET......RED" so what i did was to press RESET in the IWATANI ZA-3 and loaded the Bouce Butane and then I can  hear the gas coming out,the portable stove ignited and everyhting is working fine.

This is the reason that made me write this article, the vids a saw in troubleshooting their portable stove showed more of the dirty intakes, nothing to do with pressure and stuff. Iwatani has this safety  features for itself that when the canister pressure changes it shuts down for safety. and you address the problem and reset the portable stove and have it workfing again.

One thing that made me happy in purchasing an Iwatani, and Ive discovered years after.