Camping Stoves

In my book there are two kinds of camping stoves to select from: single-burner or multiple-burner camp stoves.

Single-burner stoves are more suited to the lone camper on an overnight camp or backpacking trip, where small size and light weight are the prime consideration.

Multiple-burner camp stoves have two or more burners, and are better suited to camping situations where size and weight are less important. This includes any camping where you will be in the one place for several days or longer, and usually where you don't have to hump your own equipment in a backpack for miles at a time.

A single-burner camping stove is perfect for brewing up a cup of coffee, tea or drinking chocolate, or heating up a packet of dehydrated food for a quick carbohydrate hit while miles from any real nutritious, wholesome food on one burner - especially when you're in a hurry.

A two or three burner stove does allow you to cook meat on one cooking ring and vegetables on the other, or pasta and sauce. So a multi burner stove is much more suited to cooking for a group or a family.

The most common types of fuel for camp stoves are:

Propane gas stoves: use bottles of liquefied gas. The smaller one-burner stoves use disposable canisters of propane or butane gas. These are lightweight but a bit expensive. The larger versions have rechargeable gas bottles that can be refilled at camping supply stores or at most gas station where you buy the petrol for your car.

Kerosene camping stoves: usually have a hand-operated pressure pump. They need to be pre-heated or else the kero won't even burn, so most campers carry a small bottle of alcohol (meths) or a solid fuel tablet to get it started safely. (In case you're confused here, Kerosene fuel is called paraffin in Great Britain.) Kero is a slightly messy to use, but comparatively safe and quite cheap to run. The fuel is easy to obtain.

Petrol camping stoves: mostly have a hand pressure pump. You pump up the air pressure at the top of the tank, and the fuel is forced out through a tiny pin hole. Early petrol stoves did without the pump. You just heated the tank in your hands, and the warmed air in the top of the tank expanded and pushed the fuel out. Again, you need to pre-heat the stove to avoid a sooty flame. Some campers use a fuel jelly for this, though the previous mentioned substances work fine as well. You can't use just any old petrol (gas to you in the USA to run these petrol stoves. You should use Shellite or 'white gas' which you can buy from a camping supply store. In an emergency when nothing else is available, you can get away with unleaded petrol (normal fuel for most cars today), but not for extended periods. It is bad for the stove... It will clog up with soot and other gunk.

Alcohol camp stoves: are my personal favorite (see the photo on the Contact me page). The alcohol fuel is called Methylated Spirits in the U.K. or just 'metho' here in Australia.

It is easy to obtain in any hardware store and is pretty safe, as fuels go. It contains poison though, so don't ever try to drink it. If it doesn't kill you, you will go blind. (I am not joking... I promise you.)

Metho fuel doesn't need priming or pumping, like the other liquid fuels I mentioned do, and it burns cleanly.

The alcohol stoves I use are made by Trangia in Sweden, and can be bought as complete cook kits, in different sizes. Forget the cheap shoddy imitations, the Trangia stoves are the original ones and built to last a lifetime.

I own and use a large Trangia cooking kit with a fry pan lid, two saucepans, a grip handle and even a little water-boiling kettle with a spout. And I have a backpacking version (shown here) that's much more compact.

Solid Fuel stoves: These use little white tablets of solid fuel, similar to the ones issued to soldiers in combat zones.

The design of the stove part depends on the brand you buy, but the fuel tablets will work on their own if you can find a few small rocks or half bricks to hold your drink container above the flame.

As far as I'm concerned these stoves are better than nothing, but not much better. It's worth having a few of the tablets though as emergency fire lighters or as your backup stove. They will just about manage to heat a small can of beans or brew you a cup of tea or instant coffee. Just don't expect to actually cook anything with them unless you are really keen.

Now let's take a look at Sleeping Bags.