Herbie
Rendezvous Conspirator
Hello all. I'm looking for comments from owners of single-burner stoves, preferably stuff like the Coleman 442, 533, or Exponent multi-fuel stoves.
Specifically, I'm questioning whether or not I would put a big pot of boiling water on top of one of those... with the possibility of children in the "kitchen" area...
I'm looking seriously at changing around my camp stove setup. I have Coleman 2 and 3 burner white gas suitcase stoves that I like very much. They're super hot and very stable, so I can put a gallon of pasta water in a big stock pot on, no-problem.
But I am also trying to reduce the packed size of my kitchen gear, along with other considerations. I really like white gas, and I'm heavily invested in it between the coleman stuff and my backpacking stuff (MSR whisperlite, etc.). I also like the dual-fuel nature of my stoves, since I've always got some unleaded on-hand as a backup. I've been considering swapping out the Coleman 425 for a single burner stove, and maybe supplementing with my butane "catering" burner for the rare times when I need a second heat source and/or better heat control. I would gladly do a proper french omlette on my catering burner, but wouldn't consider it on either coleman, I just can't dial the heat down enough. Conversely, I wouldn't want to try to bring a big pot of water to a rolling boil at altitude with butane...
The problem, as I see it, is that even though I often use only one burner of the coleman, I really like that big stable suitcase. Now that I have a daughter and I cannot 100% guarantee she won't be in/around the kitchen when food is being prepared (although I will discourage it), I feel funny about moving to a system that might be sort of unstable...
I'm not that excited about the idea of moving to propane, despite the advantages of the smaller stove sizes, mostly because I really don't want to deal with the issues of storing disposable canisters or finding a home in/on my van for a refillable tank. I know this sounds contradictory to using the butane in my catering burner, but I really do see that as a limited-use second burner, versus moving over to propane as my main cooking fuel. I could confidently go on a trip with only a single butane cartridge the size of a can of spray paint, and bring it home with fuel for a nice tableside bananas foster at a dinner party...
Any thoughts? Thanks!
Specifically, I'm questioning whether or not I would put a big pot of boiling water on top of one of those... with the possibility of children in the "kitchen" area...
I'm looking seriously at changing around my camp stove setup. I have Coleman 2 and 3 burner white gas suitcase stoves that I like very much. They're super hot and very stable, so I can put a gallon of pasta water in a big stock pot on, no-problem.
But I am also trying to reduce the packed size of my kitchen gear, along with other considerations. I really like white gas, and I'm heavily invested in it between the coleman stuff and my backpacking stuff (MSR whisperlite, etc.). I also like the dual-fuel nature of my stoves, since I've always got some unleaded on-hand as a backup. I've been considering swapping out the Coleman 425 for a single burner stove, and maybe supplementing with my butane "catering" burner for the rare times when I need a second heat source and/or better heat control. I would gladly do a proper french omlette on my catering burner, but wouldn't consider it on either coleman, I just can't dial the heat down enough. Conversely, I wouldn't want to try to bring a big pot of water to a rolling boil at altitude with butane...
The problem, as I see it, is that even though I often use only one burner of the coleman, I really like that big stable suitcase. Now that I have a daughter and I cannot 100% guarantee she won't be in/around the kitchen when food is being prepared (although I will discourage it), I feel funny about moving to a system that might be sort of unstable...
I'm not that excited about the idea of moving to propane, despite the advantages of the smaller stove sizes, mostly because I really don't want to deal with the issues of storing disposable canisters or finding a home in/on my van for a refillable tank. I know this sounds contradictory to using the butane in my catering burner, but I really do see that as a limited-use second burner, versus moving over to propane as my main cooking fuel. I could confidently go on a trip with only a single butane cartridge the size of a can of spray paint, and bring it home with fuel for a nice tableside bananas foster at a dinner party...
Any thoughts? Thanks!