Stoves

[sweeper]

I just sold off most of my Coleman Collection. I did keep the best of them.

 

[snapper]

Late to this party but obviously I'm not the only one with too many stoves. Selection for me comes down to what I'm doing (paddling, backpacking, winter camping, etc.) and how many people will be joining me. For 3 season solo trips I typically use a home made alcohol stove regardless of the activity but once winter rolls around, or I've got a group I'm leading, it's back to the one burner white gas stoves; unless I'm in my traditional winter canvas tent with a wood stove. All that being said, large family trips always bring out the old Coleman two burner. It works and there's just something magical about using it with my family around.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[Canotrouge]

We use gas stoves les then 10% of the time on trips, in the winter we cook on the wood stove in the canvas tent, all other seasons, we cook on the fire box outside or over an open fire with a grill. On our BC road trip, we did bring a white gas stove, an old optimus nova. but I also have a original XGK (the best stove ever made to this day IMO). We also use a trangia some times. But the fire is the most common and the one we are most used to!

 

[Iskweo]

We forgot to put the oven out!!!! dang. We have one just like that Sweeper.

 

[stripperguy]

Kelly Kettle, any season, any number of folks with me. I use home dried meals exclusively. Bulky, but lightweight, never have to carry fuel.

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[Guest]

I am surprised that there is no love or nostalgia shown in the collections for old brass Svea/Optimus stoves. I have an ancient 123 with thousands of hours on it. Always reliable, easy to take apart and clean, adjustable to a near simmer and cunningly encased with pot, pan and windscreen.

I have not fired that 123 up in at least 10 years and packed it with fuel tank empty so the residual gas didn’t congeal/varnish, but I bet if I filled it and lit some fuel to pressurize the stove it would light right away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyKAAjjnd1E

Uh, yeah, I used a pour spout adapter on the Sigg bottle or eye dropper to carefully fill just that recess atop the stove. I wasn’t really keen on slopping fuel around the base of the stove and lighting the forest afire.

23 stoves and a towering stack of Colemans. . . . I’m feeling better about my gear excess all the time!

 

[southcove]

I am surprised that there is no love or nostalgia shown in the collections for old brass Svea/Optimus stoves.

I am not in that excess gear category (LOL, at least for stoves) but I think if you pump it a bit harder you will no doubt find that there are a few guys around this and other camping and small boating forums who are BIG TIME into old stoves, brass, Coleman, any type of pressure appliance...I know I followed one of SG's postings once about repairing ancient Coleman's and was amazed to find the depth of interest in collecting, restoring, working old stoves and lanterns.

Mercifully, I think the power went out right about then and I plunged into darkness...

 

[Boatman53]

I haven't have much time to go through the the stoves, but I have to join in for the svea 123 I've had mine since the 70’s. Haven't used it in a while but like you said they are easy to clean. I used to use 'Fire Ribbon' for the pre-heat, comes in a tube like tooth past a little 1/2" dab was all that was needed. No mess or flare up, did take some of the excitement out of it I admit.
So Coleman twin burner, Svea 123, JetBoil, an old MSR (again from the ’70’s, I wonder where it is) a Coleman Peak 1 multi fuel stove I got a yard sale a couple of summers ago, and my twig stove I just made.

 

[forest runes]

For all the different stoves out there ,I also have to vote for the svea 123, small , reliable , great heat control ,works well in all temps and the vintage brass design. Need a double burner bring two. The original is the greatest !

 

[Canotrouge]

I've been thinking of a 123 for a long time, but never pulled the plug... I might do it and get rid of all the others!!

 

[Guest]

I have to join in for the svea 123 I've had mine since the 70’s. Haven't used it in a while but like you said they are easy to clean. I used to use 'Fire Ribbon' for the pre-heat, comes in a tube like tooth past a little 1/2" dab was all that was needed. No mess or flare up, did take some of the excitement out of it I admit.

There was always an element of excitement, and faith, when lighting a puddle of gas on fire atop a canister of gas with the 123.

So Coleman twin burner, Svea 123, JetBoil, an old MSR (again from the ’70’s, I wonder where it is) a Coleman Peak 1 multi fuel stove I got a yard sale a couple of summers ago, and my twig stove I just made.

Gotta wonder if everyone who has ever camped doesn’t have a Coleman 2-burner stashed away somewhere. We have two, one horribly rusty and one just rusty. Those Coleman’s do not fare well on salt water trips.

There are a couple of Coleman 2-burner idiosyncrasies I always find amusing, especially in something like a State Park setting with nearby neighbors.

One is the clang-bang, clang-bang, clang-bang of a camper pumping up the Coleman with the fuel tank attached to the stove. Uh, no, just take the fuel tank off, set it on the nice firm picnic table and pump it up there. Much easier, much quieter.

The other is when the clang-bang goes on for 20 minutes, followed by puzzled cursing, followed by more clang-bang and more cursing. That is a sure sign that the leather cup in the pump has dried out.

It is kinda fun, and quieting, to demonstrate how to remove the pump clip, slide the pump out and use some oil from a car dipstick to lubricate that leather cup. And then, lookee there, pump up the tank on the picnic table.

 

[dave0]

At Raystown one year I got my 2 burner Coleman going. It leaked and there was a flare up of fire. Tried to put it out but was unsuccessful so just wandered over to the next site and sat down. Both guys asked what was going on while eyeballing the flame. I replied it's either gonna blow up or go out! (that response was probably from the previous nights debauchery) It went out! I still have the one coleman stove I can't part with. It's a 3 burner that was bought by my parents before I was born, which makes it almost 59 years old. Haven't used it in a long while though. I did just find my Peak 1 stove that I haven't used in years. Still filled with gas...if ya wanna call it that after sitting for so long. I've switched to propane as of late for base camping and short trips, just easier for me. I did build a twig stove out of a 4" stove pipe but dang is it dirty to pack up.

dougd

 

[sweeper]

I sold off my collection of old stoves, a 123 & an R, Optimus, Soviet Optimus knockoff and a pair of Turm Alcohol stoves along with most of my Colemans.

Out with the old and in with the new (Base Camp Kelley Kettle).

 

[Guest]

At Raystown one year I got my 2 burner Coleman going. It leaked and there was a flare up of fire. Tried to put it out but was unsuccessful so just wandered over to the next site and sat down. Both guys asked what was going on while eyeballing the flame. I replied it's either gonna blow up or go out! (that response was probably from the previous nights debauchery)

Ah, flaming Colemans.

I was on a gentleman’s trip and, despite the previous evening’s debauchery, had arisen early to take a walk, returning to camp in time for one of the infamous Gent’s trip communal breakfasts; eggs anyway you like ‘em, bacon, sausage, pancakes, pastries, juice, real coffee. Bloody Marys. Multiple stoves and multiple cooks, all pitching in at once.

Including my stove. My brand new, never used and not-yet-rusty replacement 2-burner Coleman.

My brand new Coleman, going up in flames. One of the gents, who firmly believed, despite all evidence to the contrary, that he raised the collective IQ of any group he entered, had filled and lighted my Coleman.

He had wayyy overfilled the fuel reservoir, pumped the bejesus out of it and lit it. I returned just in time to see flames engulfing the stove, conveniently located on the cooking table beside the other stoves and fuels. His solution was to slam the lid shut.

Oops, now the flames are jetting out the sides instead of vertical towering inferno. His solution was to kick the stove off the table, maybe the only thing he did even partly right that morning. The stove eventually went out and we doused the burning pine duff.

On newer Colemans the interior of the lid sports a huge vinyl sticker of instructions. Or at least mine used to.

One funny part with all of those Coleman 2-burner idiosyncrasies, ie remove the fuel tank from the stove to pump it up, the little hole in the pump end stamped “oil” is for occasionally lubricating the leather cup, fill level/headspace pressurization, all of that is quite clear in the instructions.

Meh, who reads instructions?

I did just find my Peak 1 stove that I haven't used in years. Still filled with gas...if ya wanna call it that after sitting for so long.

I am pretty good about emptying stove fuel before storage. But we had a small Coleman lantern that I put away for several years with a bit of fuel left in the tank. I detest the over-illumination of Coleman lanterns, which is probably why I put it away uncared for and didn’t look at it again for years.

I went to dump the old fuel and it had congealed some sludge. Trying to light the lantern with that fuel source would have been a deathblow.

Among the suggestions I found for removing varnish, AKA lacquer, from the emptied tank was lacquer thinner (duh), which I didn’t have, or Acetone, which I did.

Acetone did the trick.

No Doug, do not attempt to light the stove using acetone. Dump the bad gas, add some acetone, slosh and repeat.

 

[martin2007]

Two-storie high orange flames, especially on dampish days, are the particular charm of those green beasts. How else is one to remove overabundant eyebrow hair?

 

[stripperguy]

I am surprised that there is no love or nostalgia shown in the collections for old brass Svea/Optimus stoves. I have an ancient 123 with thousands of hours on it. Always reliable, easy to take apart and clean, adjustable to a near simmer and cunningly encased with pot, pan and windscreen.

I have not fired that 123 up in at least 10 years and packed it with fuel tank empty so the residual gas didn’t congeal/varnish, but I bet if I filled it and lit some fuel to pressurize the stove it would light right away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyKAAjjnd1E

Uh, yeah, I used a pour spout adapter on the Sigg bottle or eye dropper to carefully fill just that recess atop the stove. I wasn’t really keen on slopping fuel around the base of the stove and lighting the forest afire.

23 stoves and a towering stack of Colemans. . . . I’m feeling better about my gear excess all the time!

I just bought a SVEA 123R a week or two ago. Local synagogue was having an indoor lawn sale, I told MDB we should go, never no what you'll find.
Well, there was mostly chipped dinnerware and stained T-shirts, but I spotted the SVEA on the $1 table.
Original box, all the little tools and pan, looked like it had never been used!! I originally intended to sell it on Ebay, but it was only worth $75, not the over $200 that the earlier models fetch.
Anyway, I poured some fuel in it to see if it actually worked, and I was pretty darned impressed. Even though I've switched entirely to the Kelly Kettle, this thing is too cool to not keep! I can see why they have such a following!

 

[Dagger]

I have several of the aforementioned green Coleman beasts, but I have to admit some interest in the twig stoves, the larger ones. On of the items I struggle with when cooking over a wood fire is the heavy soot under and around pots and pans, and subsequently on hands, clothes, face... etc. other than trying not to have the flames touch pots and pans (which I am not good at), is there a good way to avoid/clean soot?

 

[Canotrouge]

I have several of the aforementioned green Coleman beasts, but I have to admit some interest in the twig stoves, the larger ones. On of the items I struggle with when cooking over a wood fire is the heavy soot under and around pots and pans, and subsequently on hands, clothes, face... etc. other than trying not to have the flames touch pots and pans (which I am not good at), is there a good way to avoid/clean soot?

Don'T worry about it, let the flame lick the pots and pans, wear some gloves, always a good idea wile working the fire anyway.... We always clean the fire pots and pans last and just remove the minimum, let dry and put everything in a light cotton bag so the rest of the wannigan content doesn't get all black... After a few trips, you will get the hang of it and you will never go back... Fire cooking is the best, IMO!

 

[yknpdlr]

I have several of the aforementioned green Coleman beasts, but I have to admit some interest in the twig stoves, the larger ones. On of the items I struggle with when cooking over a wood fire is the heavy soot under and around pots and pans, and subsequently on hands, clothes, face... etc. other than trying not to have the flames touch pots and pans (which I am not good at), is there a good way to avoid/clean soot?

Old Boy Scout trick - coat the bottom of your pot with liquid dish detergent before using it over a sooty fire. Then the soot will easily wash off after the pot is cool (do it with LNT in mind, well away from any water source, please)

 

[Iskweo]

No Title

Here is a little gem a friend of mine got at a yard sale for $3. British army primus style petrol ( gasoline) stove. This thing is built really heavy, it weighs about 10 lbs. I have not had the time to fire it up but I bet it works with most any liquid fuel. I will try naptha.

Christy