>>363513Hey n00b, let me see if I can help you out a little bit.
All canister stoves do, in fact, turn gas in to heat in the same basic way but the bells and whistles can change as you go up the price scale.
One of the first big differences is a simple needle valve versus a regulated valve. Since the fuel canisters are pressurized, as the fuel level gets lower or the canister gets colder the stove operates less efficiently. Needle valves are simple and easy to use, but do not address this loss of efficiency over time. Regulated valves are more complicated and can be trickier to use, but they are technically more efficient when the canister pressure is low. Now I say TECHNICALLY more efficient because there is some debate as to whether or not they are APPRECIABLY more efficient. Manufacturers provide a lot of numbers, but real world reviews have often shown more mixed results. Some testing has also shown that while some regulated stoves pull more fuel from the cylinder, they also have higher CO2 levels, which means they aren't actually burning that fuel as efficiently.
Next up, obviously, is the burner. Pictured is a pretty simple canister stove by Primus. It's got a fairly large burner, produces a good sized heating area and has few moving parts. However it's not very compact. Compare that to something like OPs Vango or the MSR pocket rocket, they have smaller burner areas and collapsing pot rests so they are very lightweight and compact, but they have more moving parts and the heating area is more concentrated.
Now, as I mentioned earlier fuel canisters don't work as well when they are cold, so more recently products like JetBoil and the MSR Reactor have been made to address this. They are regulated stoves with larger burners, but more importantly they come with special pots/cups that have radiator fins along the bottom. All of these things are designed to absolutely maximize the efficiency of the fuel canister, especially when in cold conditions.
