Hot take: those fancy camp stoves are overrated now that I've tried the old school method

I spent $80 on a new propane stove last year and it kept failing in wind. Then my buddy brought out his dad's 1970s Coleman two-burner that runs on white gas, and it cooked our bacon in a rainstorm at Lake Tahoe. That thing is 45 years old and still works better than anything modern I've tried. Anyone else gone back to the old stuff after getting burned by new gear?

3 comments

3 Comments

michaelgrant1mo ago

That line about "cooked our bacon in a rainstorm" really hits home for me. In my experience, most new camp stoves just can't handle real weather, they're designed for perfect backyard conditions. My dad still uses his old Coleman from the 70s and I've seen that thing laugh off a snowstorm at 10,000 feet while a friend's fancy jetboil sputtered out. What was the biggest headache you ran into with the propane stove before you switched back? I'm curious if it was the same kind of regulator freeze-up I've seen on modern ones.

nancyg141mo ago

I had a Coleman propane stove fail on me in the Boundary Waters during a steady drizzle. The regulator completely froze up after about 20 minutes, and I couldn't get the flame above a weak blue flicker. My buddy's old white gas Peak 1 fired right up and boiled water in five minutes. I've also seen cheap propane canisters lose pressure fast in cold temps, which is a deal breaker for any real trip.

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riverh491mo ago

Honestly people act like a little drizzle is some kind of survival situation. I've used cheap propane stoves in the rain plenty of times and never had any regulator freeze up. Maybe it's a user error thing or just bad luck with that specific canister.