Eureka SPRK+ Butane Review

The Eureka SPRK+ is a lightweight, single-burner butane stove that is easy to set up and easy to use. With a removable drip pan, it is also easy to maintain. It boasts a trim profile that takes up very little space in your kitchen kit and is a great single burner option if you're on a budget.

Performance Comparison

Boil Time

To test the power and efficiency of our stoves, we boil one liter of water in our garage "lab" at 5,000 feet in elevation in Fort Collins, CO. In our windy and windless water boiling tests, the SPRK+ took an average of 9 minutes 13 seconds to bring 1 liter of 58°F water to a rolling boil. This was the second-slowest average in our review. In the windy test, where we use a box fan on low to generate 2-4 mph of wind, it took 13 minutes and 10 seconds to boil 1 liter of water. In our wind test, it took 4 minutes 36 seconds to boil one liter of water. This stove had a more impressive performance than some of our high-octane stoves with more BTUs, ranking it in the middle of the pack for the wind-less test. Despite the lower performance in this metric, the SPRK+ produces enough power to boil water or prepare one-pot meals — especially if you aren't trying to win any speed cooking contests. At 11,500 BTUs, this stove doesn't have the highest power output, but it does get the job done and will do it without burning your pots and pans.

Part of the reason for the low performance in this category is that the SPRK+ has very little built-in wind protection. This doesn't have to be a deal-breaker, as you could make an inexpensive windscreen out of a disposable aluminum baking dish or even an aluminum to-go container — just make sure that your windscreen allows for airflow to prevent your canister from overheating. With a little more wind protection, this stove is sure to meet your car camping culinary needs.

Fuel Efficiency

To evaluate fuel efficiency, we use a fresh fuel canister for each stove. We weigh the canister before and after our wind test, then before and after the windless test. The SPRK+ used 8% of the fuel canister per boil test, or an average of 1.25 ounces. These results position it dead last in terms of average fuel efficiency. In the windy test, it burned through 1.61 ounces or 13.87% of the fuel in a butane fuel canister. In the test without wind, it used 0.6 ounces or 5.17% of the fuel. In the wind-less test, it had a fairly average performance, but in the windy test, it was at the bottom of the pack.

Simmering Ability

Given the low power output of the SPRK+ and its dedicated simmer function, this stove simmers like a champion. The only concern when simmering is that you have to get the heat low enough that the flame can be inconsistent or even flicker out in the presence of wind.

Ease of Use

This is one of the metrics where the SPRK+ truly shines. Like other butane stoves, it is incredibly easy to get this stove ready to start cooking. After you take the stove out of its plastic carrying case, open the fuel compartment, properly align and seat the butane, lock it in place, and you're ready to fire it up! If the stove is off-level, you can adjust it by rotating the feet on the bottom of the stove.

To clean it, just remove the drip pan that is integrated with the pot stabilizers. This makes scrubbing your cook surface super easy and means you can more easily clean the burner and clean underneath the drip pan.

Portability

With its low weight and slim profile, the SPRK+ is highly portable. It comes with a plastic carrying case with an easy-to-use handle. Over time, we have found that the plastic carrying case is not the most durable, so you will want to be careful with how you pack this in your rig or kitchen bin. With the carrying case, the SPRK+ weighs 4.94 pounds, while the stove alone weighs 3.49 pounds. Beyond the ease of carrying the stove, it is also very compact (15.3" x 13" x 3.6"), commanding little space in your camp kitchen kit.

Should You Buy the Eureka SPRK+ Butane?

Given the low price and quality construction of the SPRK+, we think this stove is an ok value. Even though it is an average performer in our boil and fuel efficiency tests, it packs enough power to deliver a tasty meal quickly enough to satisfy a couple of hungry campers. If you're looking for a two-burner stove or for a stove with a higher power output, you'll usually have to pay nearly double the price as you do for this one. It is easy to set up, easy to clean, lightweight, and very portable. Getting all of this at a reasonable price is hard to beat.

What Other Camping Stoves Should You Consider?

If you came here for a single-burner butane stove, but now you're second-guessing your choice, check out the Gas One GS-3000. It is half the price, has better boil times, and is slightly more fuel efficient. If you are looking for a comparably priced stove and aren't fixated on a butane model, you would do well to consider the Coleman Classic, it boasts two burners, and while it has slow boil times, it is much more fuel efficient.