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Product Description
With spring-loaded pot supports for easy set up, the SOTO Amicus stove is a great solution for year-round backpackers because it combines the reliable convenience of a canister stove with impressive wind-resistant performance. Its burner ledge acts as a windshield, while its concave burner head helps prevent the flame from extinguishing Read More
The Soto Amicus, and its older big brother the Soto Windmaster, (both made in Japan, think Lexus, Acura, Honda, and Infinity) are probably the two best canister stoves on the market today, with the MSR Pocket Rocket 2 (MSR) made by Kovea of Korea (think Kia and Hyundai) coming in at third place.
I currently own the Amicus, and highly recommend it due to the price point of around $35 to $40, as compared to $70 for the Windmaster.
It has more pot stability with four legs compared to three legged pot stand for the MSR, and it has other features not found on the MSR such as brass fittings versus aluminum, a Stealth (Piezo Electric) Igniter, a higher BTU output, and a much better built in wind screen.
Try to boil water with the MSR and the Amicus in a windy environment, and you will see what I mean.
So if you have the extra money purchase the Windmaster, but for the best value in the $30 to $40 price range, the Amicus is the way to go!
I sure hope you aren't using one of those wind screens that fully surrounds the canister stove (those are made for alcohol stoves). If you are, congratulations you've just made a fuel air bomb with an indeterminate countdown timer. In all seriousness it's very dangerous to use any canister stove with a windscreen that surrounds the fuel canister.
Massdrop FAQ says the warranty should be on the drop page. Since there is no warranty on the drop page, is it safe to assume we get none?
chugger
Jan 17, 2018
steine65I don't know about an official warranty but I had one fail and Soto was quick to replace it.
It was well over a year old and heavily used.
I told them that I didn't think the stove would still be under warranty, and was told this:
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On 12/2/17, SOTO <info@sotooutdoors.com> wrote:
> Dear Richard,
>
> Thank you for your prompt response.
> Regardless of the date of the purchase, we are committed to our customer
> satisfaction. We have no problem sending you a brand new replacement stove
> at no cost to you. I will forward this to our shipping department now.
> They should be able to ship you the replacement early next week.
>
> Have a wonderful rest of the weekend.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Tomo
>
> SOTO
> info@sotooutdoors.com
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I was pleased, and impressed.
I own both the windmaster and the amicus. The wind protection comes from 1) the design of the burner and 2) the shape of the ring below the burner. Both stoves far outperform any MSR or Snowpeak stove I have ever owned including the Litemax in boil times and fuel efficiency especially in the face of wind. You will still need to find or build or carry a aluminum foil windbreak especially to light the stove. There are some excellent performance tests published by Hikin Jim at https://adventuresinstoving.blogspot.com. Buy this stove. You will be happy.
The Windmaster is manufactured out of "titanium" and with its triplex pot holder is 2.3oz according to SOTO. The Amicus is manufactured out of aluminum and weighs 2.9oz. The Amicus packs up smaller and is easier to deploy the potholders since they are attached. With the Windmaster the pot holders are detached. The fourplex has four supports under the pot and is more stable with a heavier pot. I have used the Amicus with pots up to 1 liter and 1.3 liters with no problem. I think the Windmaster had slightly faster boil times than the Amicus when I did my backyard testing. But both the Windmaster and the Amicus beat the SnowPeak Giga and the SnowPeak LiteMax.
Cheers
I said it with the Windmaster, and I'll say it again here: Soto makes some truly kick-ass hardware. I have one of these, and it's a great, lightweight stove. The piezo is worth the $3, IMO. Soto uses an unusual design for their piezos, and the whole thing runs up the middle of the stove and is protected, so a lot less to worry about with regards to it breaking. If you didn't get in on the Windmaster, or want a backup, jump on this!
I have a Windmaster, not an Amicus. Does the Amicus support hold the pot slightly higher above the flame than the Windmaster support? In other words, does the Windmaster offer better protection from the wind, allowing less heat to blow away, making it slightly more efficient (in the wind) than the Amicus?
This deal is ok, but for $10 more you can get a set at REI with the Amicus w/ igniter and two nice anodized aluminum pots (1L and 0.5L). And you get about $5 back on the dividend, so it's only like $5 more to get two nice pots and reliable customer service...
" it isn't any more efficient really and the flame can still snuff out "
Well, not to take away from your experience, but that hasn't been my experience at all. I was able to turn down the flame on an Amicus to a barely there flicker, and it did not blow out even at Crystal Cove State Park which is down by the beach and is always windy.
With other stoves, not so. My PocketRocket 2 blows out if I turn it down that low and a good gust comes along.
Likewise, with respect to efficiency, I've found the Amicus to be far more fuel frugal in wind. Other stoves, not having much wind resistance, have their heat dispersed by the wind, so they have to use more fuel to compensate and are therefore less efficient.
HJ
hikin_jimWhen we discuss efficiency maybe we should make distinctions. Base efficiency which I was referring to above would be measured without wind - simple consumption of gas without factors that rob heat. Maybe "real world" efficiency is more important, which would include wind and a half dozen other things. Regardless of a burner's resistance to flame out, if you operate a stove without a screen and there is a gap between flame source and point of contact, you will be losing a lot of heat. Not smart user operation but that is just my two cents on the matter. Partly based on your review and those of others reviewing the Windmaster, I did not expect the Amicus to flame out, but it certainly did a few times in open air testing. I do not operate my stoves that way on the trail, however, so it was just curiosity testing. When used with a wind screen I didn't find it to be any more or less efficient than others.
Not UL but a good performer in the class of the msr windmaster and the snow peak lite maX. Buy why four over engineere pot rests and such a huge flanged base?
SloperYou've been answered, but I thought I'd add some clarity as well.
The base on this is not "huge" by any stretch. It's essentially the same diameter as the canister valve with an o-ring, so you get a good seal and can't tighten down too much. It's smaller and with less material in it than any other canister stove I've seen in person. I've never handled a BRS, but it's the only one I can think of with a potentially smaller connector.
The pot holders are well designed and provide solid support. They could remove one, but I think you'd save fewer than 5 grams, and I'd rather sacrifice 5g for the stability.
I have the Omnilite and its ok. One place where it falls down is its ability to hold heat which seems to mean it needs a lot of priming when using kerosene (IMHO). I could just about make a hot cup of tea for the same amount of alcohol in my Trangia. The Omnilites thirst for priming fuel and the Trangias filthy soot has me looking once again at a propane stove.
@chuggerYes, the Amicus' pot supports raise the pot up higher above the flame than the WindMaster. At first, I was pretty suspicious that the Amicus would not be as wind proof as the WindMaster. However, after running my tests, I found that the Amicus clearly did have wind resistant properties. The Amicus ran roughly equal to a control stove of the same BTU rating in no to low wind conditions, but as soon as the wind picked up, the Amicus would boil first every time.
Now, is the Amicus exactly just as wind resistant as the WindMaster. That's a little tougher to determine. The WindMaster is a bit more powerful stove, so, unless you have some kind of specialized test set up to regulate the flow of gas, any simul-testing is not going to be an apples-to-apples comparison. With what tests I am able to do, I couldn't establish that the WindMaster is more wind resistant than the Amicus. However, my suspicion is that the WindMaster is a bit more wind resistant than the Amicus; I just don't have an appropriate test that I can run to prove or disprove it.
However, as I say, the Amicus, is clearly more wind resistant than other stoves, and I think that's the important thing here.
Note that not all ideas that stove companies have to increase wind resistance actually work. With the Primus Eta Express stove system, the designers came up with a partial windscreen, but in my testing, the benefit of said windscreen was nil. There just wasn't any appreciable difference in wind resistance with or without the windscreen. See: https://adventuresinstoving.blogspot.com/2017/04/review-primus-eta-express-stove-system.html
HJ