gas stoves

I agree with GOFF. No gas under pressure and they use minimal fuel. Also something not specifically noted these things run on unleaded petrol and are safer than gas. You can get unleaded petrol in most places, you wont find gas everywhere on your three months.

Worried about petrol and a stove, dont be, you can pull the tank off the cooker when lit and bugger all happens. If you go to a good camoping store they will do this demo for you. I love doing it for non believers, they jump six feet when they see me go "and look you can pull the tank out when its lit"

3 burner is about $250 i am not sure what two burners are worth. The large burner in either option is 14000 btu, same as gas.

Cheers Pete

side note
I have found mine runs best on the coleman fuel, and I carry a spare SIG fuel bottle in the stove, like the tank, which gives me about 4 weeks cooking, if I dont cook on the fire, unleaded isnt as controllable or as hot when turned down i find.

One Coleman 5lt can lasts me the yr.

Mitre 10 have had the 2 burner colemans for $179 lately.

I'm with you guys. I also have an MSR "Dragonfly" - the variable control version of the Whisperlite - and they have been invaluable while hiking long-distance for a day or five. I still always carry it in the fourby - just as backup - it's so small that it doesn't take and real room.

For day to day camping duties though, Ive gone Coleman DualFuel for everything - from the 1-burner and 2-burner stoves to the Northstar lantern. If kept clean and serviced, they are no trouble to start, give great heat and last on a tank for ages. If I take the Patrol (petrol) then I have 185 litres of stove fuel sitting in the safest place there is - the petrol tank. Agree it's not as clean or as hot-burning (just) as Coleman fuel by brand, but it's great not to have to rely on having to bring along either fuel jerry's or gas bottles. I ususally carry spare generators, and have only needed to replace one over the past couple of years of constant weekend use. On another point, the Northstar lantern has only gone through a couple of mantles too - and only because I have accidently touched them while cleaning. They rarely, if ever, break of their own accord offroad.

Oh - a tip - carry and spray hair spray on the mantles after they have cooled, and they will hang together better on the rough road home. :)

Agree with Glenn. We take two with us, you can pick them up for $20
Two will fit into them stacking crates with replacement cans. We go away for 2 weeks,use the wok on them. Like Glenn says i will never go back to lpg bottles.
cheers Brian

Bit expensive to run isn't it?? 90 mins from a can would do my family for about 1/1.5 days. 4 cans for $9 means about 5/6 days cooking for $9. 4.5kg of LPG lasts about 3 weeks for ~$12/14, and it runs my light as well.
I have a camper trailer so never have to worry about carrying LPG in the car. If I went away without the trailer it might be worth considering.

Cheers John

Butane DO NOT work in cold weather and also have a very bad habbit of going BANG.
Check the archives for stories of this
Vince

mrbishi, if you havent bought anything yet, then the cheap stove leaves alot of $ left for canisters, compared to buying a stove, bottle, hose and reg.

They dont get as hot as the dual fuel colemans though, and altitude they suck.

All Gas stoves have jets.
My Primus 3 burner has 2x10,000btu burners and 1x8,000btu burner.

Cheers John

I'd like to read comments from dual stove owners on David's post. I started with gas, got sick of lugging round gas bottles and sand that got into connections and connections that leaked and set up that need two people to move it safely when it started to rain and needed spanners to do up and undo and plumbers tape etc etc.

Moved to butane stoves. Great but with growing little ones i want something that is safer cause i can trust myself to ensure proper the proper connection each time but am not so trustworthy of kids.

I had a dual fuel Coleman lantern for 4 years, the generator never gave up, the seals never gave up, it has been left out in the rain it has been swamped and knocked over by rogue waves on the beach - it never gave up.

Maybe it would be prudent to carry a spare generator but i reckon you'd run out of gas a thousand more times than the one time in a decade that you'd need to replace the generator - but hey i am not speaking from experience of the dual stove here just presuming.

As for the issue of carrying extra petrol, i think carrying a 1L plastic fuel bottle of shellite is a lot safer than a proportionally heavy metal gas bottle prone to leakage with age and the annoying "is it empty, i think it is, maybe not, will it last another weekend ?"

So am thinking seriously of investing in another coleman product, have their North Star dual fuel lantern, as bright as a similar sized gas bottle light, so one of their stoves would fit well, and as with all their products, totally rebuildable.

As a true believer of the dual fuel stoves and lanterns after using gas here are my reasons;

1) They both run on shelllite or unleaded petrol.
2) In the 4.5 months of use all i did was chnage the mantles in the lanterns (about 3 times as opposed to the 103 i would have had to do with gas). No maintenance required for the stove.
3) One fuel source (jerry can) for lanterns, stove, and outboard motor.
4) No pressurised vessels (bombs) to explode when punctured or heated in desert sun. Unlike gas cylinders that go Kaboom!!!
5) Ease of use, miserley on fuel consumption (we got about 7 days out of 500 mls of unleaded cooking for three and sometime other travellers) for breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, the occasional cook up of coral trout or cray for a snack.....siggghhhhhhhhhh......

You just cant beat the dual fuel lanterns and cookers for a long range trip. Remember though that in some remote communities they kinda like petrol as a party drug so you will need to make sure you dont label any cans "Petrol". The other option is of course to carry a litre container as well as filling the tank before you head away from all civilisation.

Cheers Pete

MrBitchi Coleman gas stoves have NO jets in the BandaBlu stainless steel burners - NO jets in the Coleman gas two or three burners stoves whatsoever.

Substantially more fires and explosions from petrol containers of all types. Gas is considered to be the safest fuel for camping.

Quote : All Gas stoves have jets

You 100% positive of that ?

Quote from our Old mate Ozi re coleman stoves

Coleman gas cooker two burner is $160 with Piezo ignition built in and WORKS
No jets to block as they have BandaBlu stainless steel burners, you have infinite regulation, no stuffing around
Main thing about the Coleman they have 2 x 10,000 BTU burners and anything less is useless to hopeless. The stoves with less than 10,000 BTU and you wait all day if there is any light breeze around. The Coleman folds up small and neat.
I like cooking and there is nothing worse than a stove that cannot be turned down to simmer, or if making a good stir fry has plenty of heat.
No other stove performs like the Coleman gas stove. Just make sure you get the model with the Piezo ignition.
I have used every type of stove and you can shove all the others down at the bottom of the creek.

Ozi might be many things , but no often is he completely wrong.

David

Do you have shares in the gas company? Gas safer than petrol for long range outback trip, they are both bad and need to be handled with care. If you can remove any of the dangers with handling a fuel rick reduction must be taken onboard. Gas - 2 to 9 kg containers under pressure hooked up to heat source, flexible hoses that wear through, and connections that can work loose. Petrol - 500 ml hooked up to heat source, no pressure in larger storage container held away from heat source, direct connection form fuel tank to heat source, fuel source will not ignite unless it has been through generator, no chance of leaks going undetected until flame appears

We are'nt talking about Jimmy the once a year camper, I am talking about serious long term trekkers. Gas and its containment is dangerous for serious offroading in my opinion, petrol is dangerous for the camping area / caravan park.

Cheers Pete

David or Flappan, please enlighten me. Googled Blandablu and came up empty. Searched Coleman website, same. Does anyone have some real info about them? Website I can look at?

Mr B. I dont know . . . I'm asking the question ?

Are YOU 100% positive that ALL gas stoves have jets ?

An earlier post on Overlander when I was buying my Coleman Regulated Stove by Ozi (which is what I quoted) told me about no Jets. This was more or less confirmed when I bought it (no, they dont have jets). As I haven't known Ozi , to go too far wrong in his info , I had no reason to doubt the info. It works beautifully for me.

David here , is now saying the same sort of thing ?

Whether its correct or not . . . I DONT know , but you haven't provided proof to contradict it.

Flappan, I could stand corrected here. All gas stoves I have ever used have jets, and I've used lots. I've not used a current Coleman stove so I'm after some confirmation about the lack of jets and can't find any info on the Web.

Don't know Ozi. Maybe I should have a look at Overlander (sigh, I waste too much time on these forums allready)

Cheers
John

I was hoping we'd get to some discussion of if the gas stove do not have jets then how does the gas get from the regulator to the burning part. I am no plumber but all my gas stoves, and lights, had the so called "jets" because they need something to thin out the gas flow after it was set by the knob that permits the regulated pressure to increase or decrease flow. So "jet" or not I expect the coleman has very fine tubes and which i reckon on uneducated speculation, wouldn't be much different from "jets" and i expect would be equally as cloggable (or you would think it would be a "feature" on the coleman product site).

Mr B.

I cant give you an outright answer , cause mine works beautifully . . never pulled it apart ;)

I'm assuming , that because this stove is regulated , then it doesn't actually need jets as such. The shape of the burners does the trick.

AFAIK , the jets are used to reduce the pressure in the unregulated stoves (and lamps I think). I have one of those as well.

Again, AFAIK , BBQ's dont have Jets. Their burners , along with the regulator , do the restricting. The round portable ones have jets dont they.

Thats the end of my knowledge on the subject

Porl, I have to agree with you, allthough I am not a gas fitter either.
Flappan, BBQ's DO have jets (at least mine does :--)
I hope someone can come up with some definitive answer on how the mysterious Coleman Bandablu burner works. Or is it just sales speak?

The Band-A-Blue burnerbecame a mainstay for all future non military Coleman stoves, including kitchen and camper ranges.
And still used today
Product 5435D700 : 2 Burner Electronic Ignition Propane Stoveparts list
Coleman Parts List Picture
No jets in the gas or dual fuel stoves because of the burner design. The Coleman Australian sales manager at the caravan and camping show in Melbourne told me that. Looking at the spare parts list and pictures, and the article, appears to be correct.

I'm eating my humble pie. Looks interesting. I'll have to check it out next time I'm in the market. Unfortunately my Primus is only 12 months old so wont be for a while yet. My last Primus was 18 yrs old when I replaced it :--)

As David said: Coleman two burner low pressure gas with electronic ignition.

A few reasons; low pressure gas stoves work much better at low temperatures than their cheaper high pressure cousins. This stove can _SIMMER_! and I mean _really_ low - most stoves cannot do that. Manufacturers get all proud of how many zillion BTUs their stoves can produce but for most of my cooking I don't want lots of heat, I just want a little bit to cook the food slowly. Boiling water is an exception of course and the Coleman produces 10k BTU which does that job nicely too thank you. The electronic ignition is great - well worth the extra $20 over it's non elec. ignition brother. The stove folds up into a compact unit and is generally robust. Had mine for about two years and am very pleased with it.

Downsides:
Hard to clean if pots overflow and liquid runs below the top cover. The control knobs protrude from the stove and you have to be careful how you pack it.

Tip:
After having taken mine completely apart to clean it there seemed to be a bit of a problem with the electronic ignition taking a number of go's to fire up the left hand burner, the right one was OK. Loosening the screw and rotating the LH burner (jet) a bit cured the problem. It seems the ignition is a bit sensitive to burner location. Works first time, every time, now.

I looked at the dual fuel stoves but doubted they could reach the low levels I require to simmer. Also reports from others say they don’t run too well on prolonged use with unleaded - tend to clog up a bit - they prefer Shellite apparently and I didn't want to carry another item. Any owners care to comment on their _long term_ performance on unleaded?

Mike Harding

4.5 Months straight with new stove no probs on unleaded. I conditioned the generator with the 1 liter of shellite i giot thrown in with the lanterns and stove and then only used ULP.

4.5 months (135 days) straight is probably the equivelent of years use by most of us given weekends and Xmas hols.

Cheers Pete

I've just bought one of these 2 burner gas units that David talks about.
Very compact. Very user friendly.
The dual fuel stoves are just tooooooo biiiiiiig. They're about the size of a small suitcase!!!!!!!!!!
I drive a diesel, so both lpg and unleaded are something extra to carry.
I choose to carry lpg as I have lpg lights (as well as some 12v).
Coleman lpg stuff is availabe with peizo ignition. Too easy.
No smelly fuel, no pumping, no fiddly lighting.
Just my opinion, for what it's worth.........

Cheers
Geoff

>4.5 Months straight with new stove no probs on unleaded

Thanks for that info Pete. 4.5 months of daily use sure is long term for these types of product. How do you find the stove's ability to simmer at _really_ low levels?

Actually my memory was playing tricks with me: it was in regard to the Coleman dual fuel lanterns I heard they tended to block if used constantly on unleaded. It seems you have one of those too - do you run it on unleaded also and have you had any problems? Which model lantern?

Mike Harding

Mike

The stove simmer well on teh two outer burners. I used ULP for 99% of the time so expect that you would do better on Shellite. I have been thinking though, is my simmer the same as everyone elses simmer? We dont bake on the cooker, we have a campoven for that. So this may be where the contention comes in.

I can't think of the lantern model type (yes i am being lazy and dont want to go to the back of the jam packed shed at the rental place we are in to pull them out) They are both the standard colman types that I see at the usual camping stores. I have a single and double mantle type. I would save the extra $20 and stay with the single mantle as the double version doesnt offer any advantage that I could tell. The lanterns were also used 99% on ULP without probs. Everyone talks about fluros and the like, they are good to have, we could read by our lanterns so brightness wasnt a factor but for ease a flouro would have been good now and then. You can stick a fluoro in some small area and they have a srong cover over them so transport is easy.

Cheers Pete

Anthony I have had both duel fuel and gas, and dual fuel is a pain and cannot be controlled or simmered. It is either full on or off. You need to pump hell out of the system to start it, pump it while it is going, and yes, you have to carry spares for the dual fuel stoves.
The Coleman two burner gas stoves are great because you can go from a low flame to high and have heaps of adjustment. From memory the controls have two turns from low to high. We need to simmer a lot as we use the pressure cooker and bake on the Coleman gas stove, and you could not do that if you did not have plenty of control over the heat.

David,

Maybe i have a "new type" or something different to that used by you. We have total control over flame? Simmer, boil, and everything inbetween.

Maybe I was just lucky with my choice!!

Pete

David Au

thanks for the advice on lack of flame adjust on duel fuel. The flame adjust on my Gasmate stove is about a quarter turn from full on to off and yes I use heaps of matches relighting the stove when attempting to get it to simmer.

I guess its worth as much as I payed ... $99.

David AU,
I have a 3 burner dual fuel, and although it wont simmer as well on unleaded, it certainly simmers extremely well on the Coleman fuel.

When ever we go away, everyone always ends up cooking on my dual fuel stove for some reason,....maybe because they all have lpg burners ;-)

Porl the dual fuel stoves rely on heat to vaporise the fuel in the generator. If you attempt to simmer the stove the fuel generator does not get sufficient heat to maintain the vapourisation or pressure in the fuel container, and soon the stove starts to burn black smoke due to insufficient combustion.
The second thing with dual fuel stoves, the second burner (should be called 'auxiliary' burner) is pathetic, as it substantially reduces the heat on the main burner. The auxiliary burner does have better simmer control than the main burner, but is still a pain as adjusting the auxiliary burner affects the main burner so much. You attempt to turn down the main burner and then you have little heat in the auxiliary. I still have the current model dual fuel stove in my possession. Anybody want to buy it, I will gladly sell it. Comes with brand new spare generator.

David Au, I would be keen to purchase your dual fuel stove if you wish to sell it. Got an address I can contact you offline on?

David AU,
if it makes black smoke, either your generator is damaged on the injector, which also shows an orange flame, or your not pumping the pressure high enough, which would explain why your not happy with your stove.... operator error.. ;-)

BTW I chnage my generator every year [$22 odd] and keep the last years as a spare in the car.

Sorry David....I'm not stalking you honest....You need more pressure in the fuel cell my friend. I called the camping store to complain about my stove when i first got it for many of the reasons you describe. Guess what more pressure, no problems.

Cheers,

Pete

I ussually pump mine 100 times to start, and another 50 about half way through cooking tea,though breaky normally the 100 is enough.

Rockfish contact me at granyaorg at the hotmail company

Peter, the black smoke is when you try to turn down the heat/simmer things or use both burners not on high. The stove then does not generate sufficient heat and even pumping it more does not help.
This was not my first Coleman dual fuel stove, I used one previously for two years when working across Northern Australia in the early 70's and gas was not easily available. Give me gas every time over a fuel stove. I like to cook and bake and need a stove that can simmer and give me the desired amount of heat regulation. The only stove that can do that properly is the Coleman gas stove. I have two 4.5kg gas bottles on my 4WD campervan, and besides the stove, there is a 14 litre gas hot water system and a Coleman Catalytic heater.

over 1200m, especially in the snow, the cans ice up in the nozzle and burn very slow [30 min to boil a billy sometimes] holding your hand on the can, or positioning what your heating so some heat is reflected back tot he can helps.

Topcat
Butane wont burn when the temperature is below zero! I use a compact butane stove often even on trips.. very convenient to set up. But when ever its really cold they dont work well or at all (If ya can keep the cans warm they may) so I take my coleman 2 burner gas stove. When travelling I leave my cylinder attached to save setup and packup time.
Adrian

Topcat,

Love the Trangia actually which I have had for about 25 years but have a butane too. The butane freezes at 0 degrees and as you evaporate the gas fom the liquid it can reach that and the cans need to be warmed, even though surround temperatures are higher. Truckster talked about it on here last month.

In the truck we have a two burner propane stove and two 2kg bottles which give plenty of time to top up as long as you continue to use one until empty then swap. Think we did a two week trip on one bottle but also had campfires some times.

dream pot, the selminala breeding ground.....

the resta re just expensive camp ovens...

And if you have the coleman work station, cooking gets even easier.

A href=http://www.lcool.org/trips/barson_adventure/julie_cooking.jpg>work station and stove

Yes, there have been other concerns about the breeding of bacteria in these...

I use mine a little differently......

You may laugh, but hey, it's what I do!!

I am a vegetarian, and on real quick no fuss trips, where I get to camp REALLY late after photo's, I do this..

Open up say 3 small tins of vegies, say carrots, peas & tiny taters, along with some soy vegie links ( clayton snags! ).

Put all of these into the small top pot, with NO water or tinned juice. just a knob of butter, and some spices.

Leave in Dream Pot over boiling water in the bottom pot for 15 minutes, basically heat'n'eat!!

Can't burn the tucker, if you get full, put it back in the pot and it stays hot. No stirring the food, and best of all......... NO WASHING UP!!! EAT STRAIGHT FROM THE TOP POT!!!

Switched on Wolfie

I'm with you Wolfie. Small gas bottle with a burner screwed on top. Quick and lots of them BTU thing'os. I use a 2 burner primus if more substantial cooking required. Lighting is 2 fluors and it turns night into day...no prickin the wick here!! I have a dual fuel Coleman that I am so impressed with that anyone who wants it can pick it up (Glen Waverley) Stinkin fuel in the vehicle and replacing mantels....no more thanks.

OK done, will even give you a slab or bottle of Jim for the trouble.

will organise pick up

can you email me darrenm@bigpond.net.au as i couldnt find an email for you on your membership, so pick up can be organised please Luxoluk?

I have emailed you my contact details. Cheers

GO_OFFROAD...if you want another I have one here you can have for a slab, comes with the plastic case as well, and I think a spare generator. I think we're talking lanterns aren't we...not cookers

OK,
done deal, will organise to pick yours up too, and swap for a slab of the good stuff.

can email me darrenm@bigpond.net.au so I know where to get it from
thanks

porl,

You make a good point, there is often no one ideal solution for a lot of camping needs. Summer camping is different from winter, moving camp every day is different to staying in the one spot for a few days or more without using your vehicle. Travelling in convoy is different than going solo, with kids different to without, the list goes on. We all like to share our opinion and many have arrived at by the school of hard knox, but no one size fits all.

Personally, given the price of camping gear relative to what else we spend our money on, I think it's worth it to buy the best for the given situatuation even if you end up with a couple of duplicates. I've found the compromise drives you crazy and is not worth it.

To use your example of lights, like you I have fluro's and also a Northstar Duel Fuel and a couple of old Tilley's. For winter and quick stays, it's the Northstar, convenient and gives out some heat. Longer stays justify getting out the Tilleys for the extra heat (and just gotta love the sound). In summer there is nothing worse than sitting around a hot light so the fluro's come into play. Similarly, cooking over a fire is a PITA in summer that somehow takes on a new attraction on a -4C morning.

FWIW on stoves etc, we've found the cast iron gas rings expensive on gas (if that's a problem) but good for the wholesale jobs eg: heating a 20L drum of shower water when you can't have a fire. For regular use we have one of the two 10,000BTU electronic ignition regulated Coleman LPG stoves that have already been univerally lauded here. Just not having to find the bloody lighter every time is worth it! But we also carry and old fashioned fire grille/plate in winter!

I know some of the purists think that a certain way is nirvana but it's just not the case for most people. Like the argument about only having to carry one type of fuel. If I were doing a vehicle only (no trailer) desert crossing, MAYBE this would become a factor, but if you have some space, particularly of you are not going away long enough to consume much, it does not come into play. On some weekends in Winter we have been known to carry Coleman Fuel, Kero, LPG, firewood, Diesel in the vehicle tanks, 12V in the battery and used every one!

Wolfie is correct too...opinions are different but most bepoe are correct in some kind of way.

Although I said about flouro lights I also have a dual fuel light and it is fantastic, but not as convenient as electic, and 2 flouros hung up around gives very acceptable light, only time i use petrol light may be in winter as it warms up tent great ??
Cheers

How about carrying 18 x 2kg cylinders inside your vehicle? Is that OK?

Common sense..? sure but stupid laws should be ignored.

Mike Harding

What state are we talking about here.

At www.gameco.com.au/cts1.htm they state:
max no of cylinders is 6
max size is 2.25 kg
max total capacity is 5 kg
A 9 kg cylinder is only allowed in car to get refilled.
Adrian

Thanks Adrian, it appears to be a QLD regulation. Haven't heard of it down here.