Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove with Piezo Ignition

Comments about Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove with Piezo Ignition:

Electric ignition lights right burner only. You have to put a match to the left burner. Get ready for the POOF! Impossible to set for a low simmer, All or nothing. Don't even think about setting both burners for a low simmer, won't happen. Tried using it at Great Basin NP. Campground at 10,000' made it even more difficult to use. Will probably buy another Coleman stove and put this one in my next yard sale.

Comments about Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove with Piezo Ignition:

Lights easy, except the built-in sparker is not reliable. I always bring my own sparker anyway, so no problems.

Comments about Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove with Piezo Ignition:

I used this stove on a Jeep 4x4 trip. Just finished a multi-day trip at 9,000+ elevation and the stove worked great! I was concerned that at elevation it might sputter and not perform well, but I was very pleasantly surprised at the excellent performance- FLAME ON!! Piezo lighter may or may not last (none of them ever have IMO,) but I always carry a lighter just in case.. I don't consider that an issue.
Excellent flame control; low flame holds well without continuously adjusting like my backpack stove and other family style propane stoves I have used before. The high flame is almost overkill- boils water faster than my stove at home!

Cleans up easily, good looking unit all the way around. The propane hose is well made and hooks up securely.

Bought this during the Labor Day weekend sale, a great buy.
I recommend ti stove!

Comments about Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove with Piezo Ignition:

Really conflicted about this stove. On the one hand, it is well made, has powerful output, good temperature control, and is very easy to clean. It's big, which means it can hold two reasonably sized pots, but also means it takes up a fair amount of space (19+" wide). It works well for our purpose (car camping stove). On the other hand, the piezoelectric starter has a somewhat cheap feel to it and it stopped working completely the third time I used it (seems permanently non-functional now). The Japanese butane tabletop stove I've had for 10+ years has a totally reliable starter so I have no idea why they can't get this right. It's easy enough to light with a match or lighter so it's not much of a problem, but it's a selling point of the stove and it doesn't work. I like it well enough I will probably return it and try one more. If it doesn't work I will probably just live with it. Charge a little bit more and put a decent starter in it. By the way, I went in to buy the FireHole 200 but the only differences seemed to be a much higher price, a fancier steel area that the pots sit on, and the fancy hose setup on the bottom. I'm not willing to pay almost double for these features so bought the Profile. It's well worth the price but it would have been a stellar value if the starter worked reliably. P.S. Sits well on the GSI MicroTable, despite being wider than that great little table.

Comments about Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove with Piezo Ignition:

Like other reviewers, I experienced the same inconsistency with the piezo ignition...particularly with the right burner. The right burner almost never lit. If you can't put in an accurate feature, I say leave it out. Plus who doesn't have a lighter camping with them anyway?

Also the right burner had temperature control issues. I couldn't turn it down very low and it almost felt spring loaded. When I tried to turn it down it would rotate back up to about a medium flame temp.

This could have been the best stove ever meriting full stars but those two things held me back.

Comments about Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove with Piezo Ignition:

I will assess the this stove along two lines--(1) how it cooks and (2) structurally.

This stove cooks very well. The burners have a great spacing, being wider than others on the market, so two larger pans can fit side-by-side. The burners are powerful but will hold a low flame when desired for a simmer or slow cooking. If I could separate the cooking capabilities from the stove, it would be a five-star camp stove.

Simply put, structurally, this stove is a flimsy piece of junk. Just carrying it the first time by the handle caused the frame to bend and buckle and caused the paint to crack and flake. The wind screens were both warped such that I had to bend them to make the slot line up with the pin that holds them upright (and they bent way too easily.) And the grate that holds the pots arrives so warped that the pots rocked back and forth--not just a little either.

After the first weekend of use, I returned this stove for the Primus FireHole 200, which both Primus and REI assured me was a much sturdier stove. It wasn't, but you can read my review of that stove separately.

My last camping stove--a mid 70's vintage coleman lasted 35 years of regular use. Why can't anyone make them like they used too!

In the end, I cannot give this stove better than 1 star. Yes, it cooks well, but it shouldn't need to be carried in a padded box with gloved hands to survive it's first outing! Sorry Primus, but this stove is not up to the task.

Comments about Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove with Piezo Ignition:

We bought this to replace a Primus stove we bought in 1973. It was still working beautifully when it was stolen from our camp site. This one is made in China and does not have the fit and quality of the old one. The red paint has thin spots, for example. The performance has been fine so far, but overall a bit of a disappointment.

Comments about Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove with Piezo Ignition:

I was drawn to this stove by the hose fitting (rather than the rigid attachment of some other-brand stoves), and how it seemed easy to clean (it is), and maybe even by the bright color.

On using the stove though, I immediately discovered how unreliable the piezo ignition is. After just two uses, one of them does not spark, and the other one does - but it doesn't work in any sort of wind at all. I don't understand how this is not a solved problem as I never had any trouble with other-brand stoves.

Also I was disappointed by the construction quality, particularly by the flimsy crude tabs that hold the wind panels up. The finish is very poor on the stove - mine had paint drips right out of the box, and almost immediately scratched.

For the price and reputation I expected a lot better.

Comments about Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove with Piezo Ignition:

First, my complaint. From day one the left burner lit with ignition, the other did not. Otherwise: the grate for pans substantial and stable, flame is close to pan, so faster heating and less loss of heat, liked having a hose connector for propane tank, cut out handle for carrying, completely lined under burners so easy to clean. Heavy yes, but I saw that as plus since it is so stable. if lighter had worked would have given it 5 stars.

Comments about Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove with Piezo Ignition:

I've used many 2 burner stoves throughout the past few years and it was time for me to get my own. I've been living and traveling out of my car so it was time to ditch the backpacking stove for my main cooking. The Colemans are just fine but I do not like the shape and styling of the newer ones. I had purchased the Camp Chef Teton (the equivalent of the Primus Profile 2-burner) and sent it back because of horrible build quality and bad performance with one of the burners. This review will be somewhat of a comparison between the Primus and the Camp Chef.

I saw the Primus Profile at REI and loved the fit/finish/quality of it. The colors are nice and the stove has a really nice texture on it. The knobs have a rubber coating and the twisting starter button is a very nice touch. The Camp Chef I had previously had dents, scratches, nothing lined up, really bad hinges on the windscreens, a screw free floating around the inside of the stove, etc. The Primus Profile is the exact opposite of this and although they look similar online– in person there is a night and day difference between the quality. The Camp Chef is simply a cheap knockoff.

Onto the performance of the stove. I really don't care about max btu's, rather I want a stove that has good temp. modulation and the ability to give a really consistent low flame output. The Camp Chef would burp and make loud sucking noise when I had the flame really low. On top of that I would have to hold the knob because if I let it go it would creep up to medium heat automatically. The Primus Profile can go lower in flame output and it will stay consistent and quiet.

The other bonuses... I really like the grill design as most 2-burners have too much of an open gap over the burner which means that smaller pots/pans will actually "fall-in" and slide off balance causing some of the contents to dump out onto the stove. I'm pretty sure primus updated the grill on this one to include the circular rings in the middle now. I don't think it will buckle as another early reviewer mentioned. Just to be sure I even took the grill out of the display model and stood on it in the store and nothing happened. It's strong.

The flexible attachment cord for the propane is a very nice touch as well. I find that usually I have to adjust the stove around a few inches while cooking and it's much easier with this type of attachment and less annoying to have to move compared to the straight brass attachments. Connecting is easier as well, and it's easier to find a spot for the stove because you can place the propane bottle behind the stove. With other stoves the straight brass attachment forces you to make space for about another foot off to the side.

It seems like many reviewer's docked a lot of stars for the piezo starter. I haven't had any problems with it but honestly I've never been able to rely on the starter of any stove, backpacking or not, cheap or expensive (jetboil, msr, coleman, etc). Always have a lighter handy.

For the money this is the best 2-burner out there. I'd say it's personal preference between this and the Coleman and anything else is not up to par. I'm using the Profile daily and will continue to do so for a very long time.