Short answer: The Red Max (about $894 on Nortel’s US-dollar listing) and the Bethlehem STACKS (about $874 from Bethlehem) are both two-stage surface-mix bench burners aimed at the same mid-price gap, but they answer different questions. The Red Max is the wide-flame workhorse (Nortel labels its lower head 45-port and gives a flame up to 1.25 inches); the STACKS is a quiet, modular burner whose product page lists 10 LPM of oxygen at full flame for the STACKS I top mount and 30 LPM for the STACKS II bottom mount, and which Bethlehem says works well with oxygen concentrators. If your oxygen supply is a concentrator and your work is small to medium mixed glass, the STACKS is the easier system to feed. If you want maximum wide heat for soft glass at a near-identical price, the Red Max is the classic answer. One honest caveat runs through this whole comparison: Bethlehem publishes pressures and flows for the STACKS, and Nortel publishes neither for the Red Max, so a clean like-for-like spec table is not possible, and we say so below rather than papering over it.
Two mid-price two-stage torches, two different philosophies
On paper these torches look like siblings. Both are bench burners. Both run two stages: a small center fire for detail work and a bigger outer fire for bulk heat. Both are classified surface mix. Both burn propane or natural gas with oxygen. Both sit in the price zone between entry burners and the big flagship torches.
In practice they come from different design cultures. Nortel builds the Red Max as a wide-fire platform: one big round surface-mix face with an interchangeable top fire above it, and the option to bolt a second burner on top. Bethlehem builds the STACKS as a modular low-pressure system: two independent stainless burners you can buy in stages, tuned for soft, quiet, low-velocity flames and small oxygen supplies. Which philosophy fits you depends far more on your oxygen supply and the scale of your work than on any single spec line.
Nortel Red Max: the wide hot workhorse
The Red Max is a round-face surface-mix bench burner whose lower head Nortel labels 45-port (its own page describes rings of 16 and 27, which total 43, a discrepancy we report rather than resolve); with a Minor or Mega Minor top the whole torch is surface mix. Nortel gives the lower flame as up to about 1.25 inches wide, and the top fire handles fine detail, so one torch covers stringer work and broad heat on soft glass without changing hardware.
It is also a platform. The top mount accepts a second burner: a Nortel Minor, a Mega Minor, or a premix top with N11 (11 hole) and N3 tips. That lets a Minor owner carry their familiar top fire onto a bigger base, which is a genuinely nice upgrade path. If you are weighing the Red Max against the Minor itself, we cover that pairing in Nortel Red Max vs Minor.
On supply, Nortel’s Red Max page lists the fuels (propane or natural gas, with oxygen) and the hose size (3/8 inch or 5/16 inch) but no operating pressures and no oxygen flow figure in liters per minute, so our catalog carries neither. We will not invent one. Qualitatively, a 45-port lower head running wide open is a bigger flame than most single small concentrators are happy feeding, and community reports bear that out in both directions: a Lampwork Etc. thread from 2010 reviews running a Red Max on an EX-15/M-15 oxygen concentrator, which tells you people do run this torch on concentrator setups, framed as community experience rather than a measured spec.
Nortel’s own store lists the Red Max at about $894 in US dollars with a Minor top (read 2026-10-17), within about $20 of the STACKS. Nortel prices in Canadian dollars, so that US figure is a conversion that moves with the exchange rate.
Bethlehem STACKS: the oxygen-sipping modular option
Bethlehem released the STACKS in summer 2017 after about two years of development, positioning it as the company’s first mid-range bench burner, built to fill the gap between the entry Alpha and the flagship Bravo. If you are mapping the whole Bethlehem line, see Bethlehem Alpha vs Bravo vs Champion.
The modularity is the headline. The STACKS is sold as two independent stainless burners you can buy in stages: STACKS I, a top mount with 6 sharp-flame jets on a 0.375 inch face, and STACKS II, a bottom mount with 18 gas jets and 48 oxygen ports on a 1 inch face. Each mount has its own B-fitting gas and oxygen connections and modular stainless needle valves, and a swivel base is included. Our catalog records 24 gas jets for the pair, the two mounts as Bethlehem’s current product page lists them; older Bethlehem material gave 16 for STACKS II.
Oxygen is where the STACKS is easiest to plan. Bethlehem’s product page lists propane at 2 to 5 psi and 3 LPM for both mounts, and tanked oxygen at 8 to 20 psi, with 10 LPM for STACKS I and 30 LPM for STACKS II. Our catalog’s ~30 LPM is that STACKS II full-flame figure, not a total of the two mounts. Bethlehem’s technical-information page gives different numbers for the same pair: an oxygen line of 8 to 20 psi at 10 LPM, with 180 LPH (6.36 cubic feet per hour) for STACKS I and 900 LPH (31.78 cubic feet per hour) for STACKS II. The two pages do not reconcile, and Bethlehem is the one to ask which applies to your build before you size a supply.
Editor’s note: oxygen and fuel figures for the STACKS vary between Bethlehem’s own product page and technical-information page (both read 2026-09-28 through an owner-supplied web read), and by which mount is running. We use the product page’s per-mount full-flame figures (10 LPM STACKS I, 30 LPM STACKS II) as the planning ceiling; treat the LPH figures as the technical page’s own numbers, and the manufacturer’s current documentation as the final word.
Bethlehem states that both mounts work well with oxygen concentrators and excel on low-pressure systems. The company’s own framing of its house flame character is that surface-mixed low-velocity flames are soft, quiet, soaking flames; that low pressure aids complete combustion and saves fuel; and that the stainless bodies run cool without water cooling. Those are marketing claims, but the quiet low-velocity character is a consistent theme in how Bethlehem torches get described, and it matters if you share studio space; see quietest torches for shared studios.
Bethlehem lists the complete STACKS at about $874 and sells the top and bottom mounts separately at lower prices, so the staged purchase can spread the cost out.
Side by side: what the published specs actually let us compare
Here is the honest version of the comparison table. Where a maker does not publish a number, the cell says so.
| Spec | Nortel Red Max | Bethlehem STACKS |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Two-stage surface mix (interchangeable top fire) | Two-stage surface mix, two independent mounts |
| Jets | 45 (maker label; described rings total 43) | 6 gas jets (STACKS I) and 18 gas jets with 48 oxygen ports (STACKS II) |
| Fuel | Propane or natural gas | Propane or natural gas |
| Fuel pressure (maker) | Not on Nortel’s page | 2 to 5 psi propane (product page) |
| Oxygen pressure (maker) | Not on Nortel’s page | 8 to 20 psi tanked (product page) |
| Oxygen flow (maker) | Not published; no sourced LPM figure | 10 LPM (STACKS I) and 30 LPM (STACKS II) at full flame (product page); the technical page differs |
| Concentrator use | Community-reported, not maker-specified | Maker states it works with oxygen concentrators |
| Hardware | Top mount accepts Minor, Mega Minor, or premix top | Swivel base included, B-fittings per mount |
| Price (maker list) | About $894 (US conversion) | About $874 complete |
Read that oxygen row carefully, because it is the crux of this article. Bethlehem publishes flow figures in LPM and regulator pressures; Nortel’s Red Max page publishes neither. That is not a gap in our research, it is a difference in what the two companies choose to state, and it means the single number buyers most want to compare, oxygen appetite, cannot be compared like for like from published specs alone.
Oxygen supply: concentrators, tanks, and what each torch asks for
If you run tanks, either torch is straightforward to feed and the decision moves to flame character and price. If you run a concentrator, the asymmetry above becomes practical. The STACKS carries a maker-stated concentrator endorsement, and its top mount alone plans at 10 LPM, which puts a strong single concentrator in play for staged use; the bottom mount’s 30 LPM full flame wants several concentrators or tanks. The Red Max has no published flow figure, so sizing a concentrator for it means leaning on qualitative appetite (a wide two-stage face) and community experience like the Lampwork Etc. concentrator thread. Our sizing guide, how many LPM does my torch need, covers how to reason about torches without published flow figures, and oxygen concentrator vs tanks covers the supply decision itself.
One safety note while we are on supply: Bethlehem’s operating instructions say not to exceed 25 psi on any feed line. As always, the manufacturer’s current manual takes precedence over anything in this article; set pressures from the maker’s documentation for your specific torch and regulators.
Which one fits your work
Choose the Red Max if your work is soft glass and you want the widest mid-price flame from one torch. The 45-port lower head, its flame up to 1.25 inches, and the top-mount upgrade path make it a natural landing spot for Minor graduates. On price the two are now within about $20 of each other, so price no longer separates them.
Choose the STACKS if your oxygen supply is the constraint or your studio needs to stay quiet. The staged two-burner purchase (the 10 LPM top mount runs on a single strong concentrator), the maker’s concentrator endorsement, and the soft low-velocity Bethlehem flame character all point at small-to-medium mixed work on modest supply. You accept that Bethlehem’s own numbers vary by mount and document.
Either way, go in knowing the spec bases differ. Anyone who hands you a tidy table with an oxygen LPM figure for the Red Max sitting next to the STACKS number has invented at least one of those numbers. The published record supports the comparison above and no more.
Related guides
- Nortel Red Max vs Minor
- Bethlehem Alpha vs Bravo vs Champion
- How many LPM does my torch need?
- Oxygen concentrator vs tanks for lampworking
- Quietest torches for shared studios
Sources
- Nortel Manufacturing, “Red Max”: https://www.nortelglass.com/red-max/
- Bethlehem Burners, “STACKS” (per-mount jets, pressures and full-flame oxygen; price): https://www.bethlehemburners.com/torches/stacks/
- Bethlehem Burners, “Bethlehem Burners STACKS Bench Burner” (release announcement): https://www.bethlehemburners.com/news/bethlehem-burners-stacks-bench-burner/
- Bethlehem Burners, “Technical Information”: https://www.bethlehemburners.com/resources/technical-information/
- Bethlehem Burners, “Why Choose Bethlehem”: https://www.bethlehemburners.com/why-choose/
- Lampwork Etc., EX-15/M-15 oxygen concentrator on a Red Max (community thread): http://www.lampworketc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=163638