Camp Stove suggestion?

[Catrin]

Backwoods.com is having a sale right now on pretty much everything, and all I really need to add to my camping supplies this year is a camp stove. I am looking at this one (http://www.backcountry.com/camp-chef-denali-3-burner-grill-stove-combo) right now.

I know nothing about this sort of thing, is this a decent stove for occasional use, say one weekend a month? A comment states that it comes with a 1-lb propane cylinder.

Is this a good deal? I've noted that even at Meijers they have little 1-burner "stoves" for $50, and from what I can tell all I could do with that is to heat water. I like the idea of actually being able to cook something...

I've been warned against finding something from Goodwill for safety reasons, though I don't know how real a concern that is.

[Trek-chick]

DH and I absolutely LOVE this one. It is super small, you just screw on to a cannister and you are good to go. It is a great backpacking stove and a decent price too. If you ever venture into bicycle touring or backpacking, I think this would be a great one to have, since it is so compact.



http://www.rei.com/product/660163/msr-pocket-rocket-backpacking-stove

[Catrin]

hmmm, so these small stoves are perhaps more useful than I thought. I want to be able to do real cooking, like cook chicken, and heat up water and soup.

I am also looking at a propane grill, I really like the idea of a grill as I can grill both chicken and veggies on them. The stove I originally posted is attractive as it has a grill, but it may not be large enough for what I've in mind. Decisions decisions... Perhaps eventually have both the propane grill and a small stove?

I doubt I will ever go backpacking far enough to require camping, though would like to do at least a light tour at some point. I am focusing more, however, on the kind of camping I am most likely to do and that is car camping. I camp so I can mountain bike, so for me that means camping in a state park, though that could change at some point in time :cool:

[Irulan]

hmmm, so these small stoves are perhaps more useful than I thought. I want to be able to do real cooking, like cook chicken, and heat up water and soup.

I am also looking at a propane grill, I really like the idea of a grill as I can grill both chicken and veggies on them. The stove I originally posted is attractive as it has a grill, but it may not be large enough for what I've in mind. Decisions decisions... Perhaps eventually have both the propane grill and a small stove?

I doubt I will ever go backpacking far enough to require camping, though would like to do at least a light tour at some point. I am focusing more, however, on the kind of camping I am most likely to do and that is car camping. I camp so I can mountain bike, so for me that means camping in a state park, though that could change at some point in time :cool:

for car camping and as close to "real" cooking as you are going to get, there's nothing like a Coleman (or similar) two burner propane stove.

[NbyNW]

The Pocket Rocket is a great backpacking stove, and when it's just DH and I we will cook our dinner over the fire and just use the PR to heat water for coffee/tea. Usually we don't do much in the way of a hot breakfast if it's just the two of us, and just make coffee in the morning. But yes, you could actually cook a full meal on one of those, you would probably just prefer to do a one-pot type of meal, otherwise things get cold while you're fixing a side dish, etc.

You get plenty of BTUs, the real challenge is finding a nice flat stable surface to put it on.

But we love car camping with our friends who have one of those old indestructible 2-burner Colemans! Then we can really get a serious feast going, like pancakes on one side and breakfast meat on the other ...

The stove you linked looks really cool ... I wonder how it compares size-wise to the Coleman.

[soprano]

Every campground I've ever been to has had either charcoal grills or firepits with grates for grilling. All you need to pack is charcoal, lighter fluid and a match. Incidentally, you can put a regular kitchen griddle or cast iron skillet over any campfire; the fuel source is irrelevant.

Pepsi can stoves work really well and are easy to make (do a Google search for plans). Fuel is cheap, available everywhere and the amount of fuel in your bottle is never a mystery like it is with propane. If you decide to try backpacking, you'll be all set. It's also important to note that if you ever fly to your camping destination, you'll need a brand new, in the box stove. A Pepsi can stove is great for this because you just make a new one for the trip and toss it in the recycle bin when you're ready to go home. Just make sure to use a wind screen, otherwise you'll run through a ton of fuel.

We have a 1-burner Coleman left over from our car camping days and I haven't touched it in years. Even on the lowest setting it burns way too hot (so food gets scorched on the bottom and stays raw on the top) and there's no way to adjust the height of the pan over the stove.

[laura*]

DH and I absolutely LOVE this one. It is super small, you just screw on to a cannister and you are good to go. ...

http://www.rei.com/product/660163/msr-pocket-rocket-backpacking-stove

I have an older version of this stove:

http://www.rei.com/product/722001/msr-xgk-ex-stove

It was permanently loaned to me more than 20 years ago. It is primarily meant to burn white gas, which is gasoline without all the additives in automotive fuel. This means it puts out a lot more heat than the propane canister stoves - even more than a gas stove at home. Even then, a strong wind can take all the heat away.

The flip side is that the fuel bottle stoves need more setup and are harder to use. The bottles are refillable (with liquid fuel from a can from a camping store), although one bottle could last for a week of camping.

I have some thin stainless camping pots to use on the stove. After cooking, the pots double as bowls. I've cooked pasta, rice, and stuff from cans. You do have to plan on making everything in the one pot - or cook each item sequentially. Don't expect to work like you would in a kitchen.

I've also used my stove to heat up some bath water: I heated one gallon to boil (maybe in five minutes?), mixed it with another gallon, and had a nice two gallon shower.

[indysteel]

We have a two burner Coleman "Perfectflow" stove that cost roughly $60 from Gander Mountain. It serves its purpose just fine. I don't get overly ambitious when camping, but it's fine for reheating things and boiling water. For the money, it would be my choice. I'm not much into grilling when camping because I really don't want to deal with raw meat at a campsite, but that's me. We did brats one time and just used charcoal and one of the grills that you can find in BCSP at some of the campsites.

[indysteel]

DH and I have the first of the stoves Muirenn suggested. Like I said, for the money, it's a good choice.

[withm]

Following a scary incident with a small butane cannister stove back in 1977, I bought a 2-burner white gas "Coleman" camp stove from Sears. It was marked $20.00, had the Sears name instead of Coleman, but was missing the cap from the fuel tank, so I was able to get it for ~$15. Then I went around the corner to an appliance repair shop and bought the cap I needed for maybe $1.95 or something along those lines.

Fast forward some 35 years - that stove still works perfectly. And has come in handy during a power failure - just set it up on the deck so I could make coffee or heat up some soup.

I've replaced the generator at least once along with the fuel pump rod/leather assembly but that's all the maintenance it's ever needed. Probably still haven't spent on parts what I paid for the original stove.

I only do car-camping so have no issues with the size or weight of the unit. When camping I will use the stove, and the campfire as needed but I plan my camp cooking very carefully to minimize clean up.

[NbyNW]

Every campground I've ever been to has had either charcoal grills or firepits with grates for grilling. All you need to pack is charcoal, lighter fluid and a match. Incidentally, you can put a regular kitchen griddle or cast iron skillet over any campfire; the fuel source is irrelevant.


We routinely cook our dinner over our wood campfire this way. Downside is that the cast iron skillet gets coated with a fine layer of ash that is PITA to clean -- it just gets everywhere, but hey, we're camping, so it's not that much of a worry. Also if you heat water for tea/coffee this way it tends to get infused with a lovely smoky flavor.

Another nice thing about the camp stoves is that we can get breakfast going a lot cleaner and faster in the morning without getting the campfire going again. It means less wood to haul to the campsite, and a morning campfire feels a bit extravagant since we usually don't linger around our campsite once we've finished breakfast.

[Catrin]

We routinely cook our dinner over our wood campfire this way. Downside is that the cast iron skillet gets coated with a fine layer of ash that is PITA to clean -- it just gets everywhere, but hey, we're camping, so it's not that much of a worry. Also if you heat water for tea/coffee this way it tends to get infused with a lovely smoky flavor.

Another nice thing about the camp stoves is that we can get breakfast going a lot cleaner and faster in the morning without getting the campfire going again. It means less wood to haul to the campsite, and a morning campfire feels a bit extravagant since we usually don't linger around our campsite once we've finished breakfast.

Exactly, I want to be able to cook a good breakfast without a fire if I want, and also there are some events at which I camp where there aren't any fire pits.

I appreciate all of the tips, different perspectives, and also suggestions for different types of stoves. I expect to wind up with a version of the one I linked to, but we will see. I am going to visit my local camping friends and check out what they use. If I can get my hands on examples it will go far in helping me decide what I will do.

[spokewench]

For ease of use, I would buy a small coleman camp stove - couple burners would do. You can cook pasta and sauce, chicken sauted, veges, etc. If you like grilling, like I do whe I'm camping a small gas grill that has legs is great. Put it on the picnic table and off it goes. It is soooo much easier than charcoal. I hate charcoal!

I don't know about these products per se - since I have very old camping equipment. But go to Campmor.com or some similar type camping supply site, they have small weber go anywhere gas grills for $54.90 and camp stoves (coleman 2 burner stoves for $69.99. Those are the types of things I would use for car camping. You can just about cook anything you want then.

[NbyNW]

Catrin, if you do end up getting the one you originally linked, I would love to see you post a review once you've had a chance to test it out!

[indysteel]

Catrin, Brian just confirmed that we briefly had the exact stove that you're thinking about buying. We took it on one trip before promptly returning it. It was impossible to adjust the flame on the burners. It was either on full force or complety off, so it was hard not to burn the food. Plus, it felt kind of flimsy. We're happier with the Coleman. HTH!

[Becky]

DH bought one of those 2-burner Coleman stoves ~20 years ago, and it's still going strong. IMO, you can't go wrong with one if weight isn't an issue...

[eofelis]

For car camping we use a 2 burner coleman stove that uses the little propane canisters. We bought ours at a big blue box store for about $30. Works great for cooking a full meal. Easy to use and clean.

[Catrin]

Indy - thanks for checking with Brian and letting me know how it worked for you. It sounds like I need to find a Coleman stove, thanks everyone! It isn't like there isn't time to find one :) Spokewrench I will look into the Weber grill as well.

[ridebikeme]

I have a Jetboil stove, and have used it quite often. I've used it backpacking, touring and have had very good luck with it. The nice thing is that if you are cooking pasta, soups, etc.. then you truly don't need to carry a bowl. Now if you're trying to cook pancakes, meat, perhaps this might not be an ideal stove. However, if you're camping at a camp site then you could cook larger meals over the wood fire... can't beat that. :cool: I've had great luck with this stove, and would definitely recommend it.


http://chasecyclery.blogspot.com

[smilingcat]

Good thing I clicked on Catrin's link. It's for tailgate camping not backpacking. Two burner stoves are really great. We have a Colman stove with small propane tank and its great. It's also comes in handy when we lose power. Just make sure you use it outside. Not sure about the price but check out REI, and few sporting good stores. They would have similar items.

As for backpacking stove, I used to have one of the original Primus stove using white gas. Once it got going it was great. Priming was PITA. Backpacking in the back country while beautiful was PITA. All that climbing, getting across alpine streams. If my back wasn't in such bad shape, I might consider it again. I LOVE the Alpine country.

MREs are not that great. I don't care what the guys tell me. Besides, many of the MREs are designed to have nearly 3,000 calories per meal. :eek:

[Catrin]

It does seem like Coleman stoves get the best reviews, both here and on other sites. I think that, this year, I will go with the 2-burner Coleman stove and just get a camp skillet for when I want to grill something but don't want/have a fire. Next year I will consider a dedicated grill depending on how it works out. Interestingly enough, the 2-burner stoves with no grill seems to get better reviews across all brands than the stoves with both burner and small grill.

Thanks everyone, your tips, advice and suggestions were appreciated. Seems this is the time of my life when I do new things :)

Learn to ride a bike at 50, learn how to camp and mountain bike at 51. What will happen this year? Hopefully get better at all of the above :D

[eofelis]

As for backpacking stove, I used to have one of the original Primus stove using white gas. Once it got going it was great. Priming was PITA. Backpacking in the back country while beautiful was PITA. All that climbing, getting across alpine streams. If my back wasn't in such bad shape, I might consider it again. I LOVE the Alpine country.


I do some occasional backpacking. Not enough, need to do more. We have a couple MSR white gas stoves that are pretty nifty, but I only want to heat a bit of water for freeze dried meals and tea. That's all the cooking I want to do in camp :D

A couple of years ago I picked up an Esbit tablet stove, $10 at REI. The fuel tablets are just a few dollars. It all packs into my metal cup that I use to heat the water in, about the size of a quart nalgene bottle. Worked great on a 5 day trip into the Grand Canyon a couple of years ago.

[Brandi]

Coleman! Have had ours for 25 years. Every once in a while we have to clean out a line with a safety pin due to a piece of lint or dirt. But it is wonderful. Things never cook quite the same when you are camping. But that's ok always taste better when you are camping though. I Use the camp fire a lot too.