As its name suggests, the SPRK+ runs on butane, which isn’t as readily available as the ubiquitous green propane canisters. In addition, butane struggles in cold temperatures , so it’s less versatile than the propane designs on our list and also falls short of more winter-ready liquid-fuel models. That coleman camp stove said, the SPRK+ is very well rounded for a butane model and handily beats out Coleman’s popular Butane Instastart in heat output, weight, and wind protection. If you don’t mind the tradeoffs in opting for this fuel type, the Eureka is an affordable and thoughtfully designed single-burner stove.
(It’s also your only option in places where fires aren’t permitted, which is an ever-increasing number of places.) I also found that you don’t really have to remove the two-burner. You can put the griddles on top of it, which gives you even more cooking versatility. Also includes griddle and grill plates for more cooking options.
Beyond that, if you are someone who enjoys cooking a variety of food at camp — not just packaged oatmeal and burgers — a more versatile camp stove becomes a necessity. If you can’t manage the extra weight, consider purchasing a refillable 1-pound bottle and kit from Flame King . As with the 5-pound option, with this one the savings are significant when you consider how much cheaper it is to refill a propane tank with gas directly than it is to buy a disposable bottle. While cooking, the Cascade can hold a 12-inch pan and a 10-inch pan side by side, same as the Classic. With 22,000 Btu , it produces a touch more heat than our top pick—not all that much for a stove that costs twice the price. If that’s all the Cascade could do, we probably wouldn’t recommend it.
What makes this stove a league above the rest is that the regulator port is external to the stove, making it much easier to avoid smashing the delicate brass threads. Instead of blindly threading the adapter into the port, the two attach visibly, which reduces the likelihood of cross-threading. The Genesis Basecamp has many of the same features with a great external regulator port, but it earned lower marks because the windscreen is difficult to attach. However, both stoves are straightforward and simple to clean, and with time even the Basecamp is easy to use.
I just purchased a Coleman stove at a yard sale this past weekend for 10 bucks the model number is 6j. It started right up and works great I used it all weekend camping. A propane conversion is healthier than running RUG which will clog the generator very fast even on one designed for it.. A gas grill can be used at the beach; baseball games; on road trips; camping or even on your patio at home.
If you want to save money in the long run, the inexpensive Coleman Classic performed almost as well as other tabletop models, and it is much less expensive than many of the other stoves in our review. The most fuel-efficient stoves in our review were the stoves that require coleman stove the usage of a large propane tank. With these stoves, we used a full 11-pound tank and weighed it in between uses. However, the tank was too heavy to use with our smaller, more sensitive scale, so it is possible that our larger scale missed some amount of fuel consumed.
Most of the best camping stoves are in the 20,000 to 30,000 BTU range. That gives you plenty of power for quick boil times and high-heat cooking while staying compact and fuel efficient. To measure boil times, we head to our windless “lab,” aka our garage, at 5,000 feet and do two boil tests. For the first test, we boil 1 liter of 58°F water in the presence of 2-4 mph of “wind” generated by a box fan. For the second test, we boil 1 liter of water in the absence of wind. For the windy test, the Classic boiled water in 6 minutes 15 seconds, and in the wind-less test, it boiled water in 4 minutes 45 seconds.
Cain Kremitzki, whose collection this is in, has used this appliance to make popcorn a number of times. For the three that couldn’t, we stopped the test at 15 minutes and recorded the temperature of the water. Stoves with 9,000 to 15,000 BTUs will get the job done, but you’ll notice slower boil times and a drop in cooking performance. This stove uses butane instead of propane, which may be a drawback for some. Butane fuel canisters are not as widely available or common among campers as propane.
We needed to make only minimal adjustments during our simmer test. The burners deliver a combined 22,000 BTUs.The Cascade also does reasonably well in moderate wind. The Cascade wind shields are not as large as the original Classic wind shields. They still retain the adjustable wire clips that let you adjust angle, which is a benefit.
The Jetboil Genesis Basecamp may have had an average boil time of 7 minutes 30 seconds, but it only burned 0.5 ounces in our wind test. It was followed closely by the Coleman Cascade Classic with 0.81 ounces, the Kovea Slim Twin with 0.91 ounces, and the Eureka Ignite Plus, also with 0.91 ounces. Aside from doing well in terms of fuel efficiency in the presence of wind, these stoves have another thing in common, they all have 10,000 BTU burners .