Camping stoves

[Mike J]

Oh - there's another variation you want to be aware of.  Campingaz stoves pierce the canister, so once it's fitted you don't remove till its finished.  Unless you're travelling abroad, you want a screw-threaded stove.

I wouldn't advise these either, as they can be dangerous.

If you don't want to invest in expensive kit, I used to use a tiny device with fuel blocks that looked like firelighters.  Not very effective, but lightweight, not at all bulky, and cheap enough for a chap in casual labour, as I was at the time.

Solid Fuel Burners

[clarion]

Thanks Mike - I can't go a-Googling when at work...

[mecwales]

To prevent a lightweight stove tipping over, peg around the cannister with tent pegs. 

Genius!

[Charlotte]

Noisy, fiddly, cheap to run but a fearsome ability to boil water...





..and my stove of choice for nearly 30 years.


H

You do know that there's a forum for people into stuff like that?

www.spiritburner.com

[David Martin]

You have just re-invented the Trangia with gas conversion kit ..... 

I have a Trangia which I've used for years, It's never let me down and I can cook proper meals on it.  It's also very safe, low centre of gravity and difficult to knock over or spill hot food.

Likewise. I use the gas conversion kit. I had to engineer my 10Kr from a loppedmarked trangia to take the hose for the gas, and then spent another 20+ quid on the duosal pans (but worth every penny).

So I have the best gas stove on the market (IMHO), with a spare meths burner for emergencies.

We cooked quite happily  on it at York (for three) and have cooked for 5.

For big groups the scariest thing I have cooked on is one of these (optimus 22B) Though you have to factor in the weight of ear plugs. It is loud (christened the 'whisperloud' in the climbing club).  By loud I mean loud. Shout at the cook if you want to be heard. One evening in cornwall we were using a disused mine building as a windbreak. It was tipping it down with rain. So the stove is behind a foot thinck stone wall. We are sat in a minibus in a layby about 20m away. It is pouring with rain. And we could still hear it. 

Mine has a fracture in the fuel tank I need to repair before it would be safe to use again.

..d

[juliet]

I acquired an MSR Whisperlite Internationale last month & have been v impressed.  Once you have the hang of the priming thing (helps if you follow the instructions rather than "improving" on them...) it lights fine every time.  So far tested out on the balcony for tea, on a trial overnight camping run the other week, & last weekend at the Glade Festival for morning cuppa.  Takes about 2 min to boil one person's worth of tea-water (more like 5-10 min for a 1.5l kettle for 5 people, although it was pretty windy which didn't help).  Comes with its own lightweight foldup foil windshield which seems v good. 

Its other major advantages are that it's very lightweight, it plugs into the fuel bottle (so you don't have to carry a separate fuel bottle), & it'll take petrol as well as Coleman gas at a push. 

I reckon that 500ml of fuel will do me for about a week (1 x afternoon tea, 1 x dinner (cook enough for lunch as well), 1 x tea & porridge in the morning, daily). 

[bobajobrob]

Truthfully, I have lost patience with the whole gas cartridge routine. Disposing of empty cartridges, running out of gas halfway through a meal, wondering if I can find a cartridge when the old one runs out, etc., etc.

Sure, but you have the same problem trying to find meths and disposing of the bottles. Also meths smells.

if I can't by denatured alcohol I'll just buy a bottle of the strongest booze I can find and kill two birds with one stone.

Does that work OK? What happens to the water in the booze? Does it all evaporate or does some of it stay in the stove?

[andrew_s]

it'll take petrol as well as Coleman gas at a push. 

I wouldn't advise using vehicle fuel unless there's no option. It's got a load of additives in that don't burn off at the relatively low temperatures in a stove, so you get can problems with the thing clogging up in only a few days use.
Cleaning is easy enough on some stoves (X-GK, old-style stoves like Dave's Optimus 22B), but there are some where it usually necessary to replace the generator tube (the bit that passes through the flame).
Investigate how your particular stove reacts to car fuel before setting off on tour.

If you want to use car fuel, I'd suggest looking at the Svea 123R (now Optimus)

[juliet]

The MSR Whisperlite I (not the regular Whisperlite) is designed to be multi-fuel & has a self-cleaning whosit.  I don't intend to use petrol unless I absolutely have to, though - I understand that white gas / Coleman fuel / whatever else you call it is available fine in Australia.

[bobajobrob]

I have this Twister 270 stove kit:



Pros -
 - cheap
 - packs away neatly with the gas cannister inside one pot and that pot in the other pot
 - use the smaller pot as a large mug to save weight
 - CV270 gas cannisters are sold in most camping shops
 - clean and easy to set up and use

Cons -
 - pots are aluminium, although they seem to have a coating
 - gas supply fades as the cannister becomes empty, although I don't tend to use it much on full (it's quite fierce)
 - not very stable, although three tent pegs can be used as mentioned
 - the stove is quite heavy

[Maladict]

Of the three original options, B is the most versatile.  I'd go with that.  I a Primus Omnifuel stove in fact.

The ability to burn everything from the little gas canisters to diesel fuel just rocks.   

[alexb]

Yeah.

Carnation condensed milk.  Inna tube.

Makes a cup of camp tea fit for the Gods 

Genius!! (why didn't I think of that etc etc... Will add that to my campset as soon as I can find a stockist. Tell me you picked that up in ASDA or Sainsburys and not Tesco...

[Charlotte]

Sainsbury's you'll be pleased to hear 

[mark]

I acquired an MSR Whisperlite Internationale last month & have been v impressed.  Once you have the hang of the priming thing (helps if you follow the instructions rather than "improving" on them...) it lights fine every time.  So far tested out on the balcony for tea, on a trial overnight camping run the other week, & last weekend at the Glade Festival for morning cuppa.  Takes about 2 min to boil one person's worth of tea-water (more like 5-10 min for a 1.5l kettle for 5 people, although it was pretty windy which didn't help).  Comes with its own lightweight foldup foil windshield which seems v good. 

Its other major advantages are that it's very lightweight, it plugs into the fuel bottle (so you don't have to carry a separate fuel bottle), & it'll take petrol as well as Coleman gas at a push. 

I reckon that 500ml of fuel will do me for about a week (1 x afternoon tea, 1 x dinner (cook enough for lunch as well), 1 x tea & porridge in the morning, daily). 

This is great for speeding up boiling and adding wind protection. I use it with the MSR Alpine cookset and the foldup foil windscreen, there's been at least one night when I think I would've eaten cold pasta without it!

You're Whisperlite seems to get more cooking than mine from a given amount of fuel, maybe that's just Weather conditions? I tend to use mine at higher altitudes where it gets a good bit colder at night than during the day.

Note to bobajobrob, I haven't tried booze in the Trangia yet, I was being a bit facetious.

[alexb]

I used this: http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/product42.asp
Combined with a set of nesting pots and a spork for the DunRun.

It worked pretty well as a lightweight set up. The downside is that I had a rushed week and didn't get time to chase up the last few things I need, so my planned fry up at dawn never happened, which was a shame as I was really hankering after bacon and beans all day Sunday!

[bobajobrob]

Note to bobajobrob, I haven't tried booze in the Trangia yet, I was being a bit facetious.

D'oh

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Genius!! (why didn't I think of that etc etc... Will add that to my campset as soon as I can find a stockist. Tell me you picked that up in ASDA or Sainsburys and not Tesco...

Lots of tubes of condensed milk in my local LIDL.

[Valiant]

^^^ Great!

[alexb]

Genius!! (why didn't I think of that etc etc... Will add that to my campset as soon as I can find a stockist. Tell me you picked that up in ASDA or Sainsburys and not Tesco...

Lots of tubes of condensed milk in my local LIDL.

Even better since it's closer than Sainsbury's and I need other Lidl goodies!

[alexb]

Oh bugger.

All this talk of stoves has got my tinterwebby shopping fingers twitching again:

I've been wanting one of these for ages. 

Gits 

I made something a bit like that and the pans were always falling "into" it, tipping up and dumping half the water into the stove. I prefer a ring or supports that the pan fits into (like the Trangia) or broader flat supports (like my gas stove).

The design you linked to would be great if you filed off the little spikes and then just cut away evenly all round (a series of drilled holes maybe?)

Ally plate is easily bought and cut and making cardboard models of everything beforehand is fun!

[juliet]

Mark - cheers for the tip (though my pans aren't MSR, they're something else which I forget).  I'm not expecting to be cooking in particularly bad conditions so it's probably not worth it for me.  Consumption testing so far based on UK jaunts at roughly sea level - very very windy but not cold.