Camping Equipment - Stove

Coleman Fold n Go

Camping Stove

   As I posted last week, I went camping last weekend with some other families.   That is a camping next to cars.  So people bring many equipment, food, drinks and etc.  This is totally different from mountaineering and backpacking.  If I look at camping sites, almost all sites have cars which is fully loaded.  Since most of camping equipment is really big and taking a lot of space.  In my case, I was sharing equipment with mountaineering before.  But nowadays, I also started using some big equipment.  Today, I showed camping gas stove.

   The photo above is what I usually use such camping last a few years.  It is folding type gas stove.  It is still relatively smaller one.  The reason why I started using it is there are two burners and it is much convenient like kitchen at home.  Most of time it works very well.  The only issue I had was there were no wind shields like other bigger two-burner stove.  If we need to use a big cooker out side when wind is there, then it will take very long time to cook.

 Carrying bag with pockets for gas canisters

    Most of families have one with wind shield and they are better for out side cooking.  However the size is much bigger.  This model has nice carrying bag with pockets for gas canisters.  That is the reason why I bought this.   If people really need to cook rice, then it might have some trouble depending on weather especially wind.   However, majority of cases, I did not have much trouble in the past camping.

Here is what it looks like when it is in use

Back packing stove

   I also have gasoline stove which is probably better long hiking / mountaineering especially in winter.  However, I have very few chances to use gasoline type stove last a several years.  Because gas stove is much convenient, easy to use.

Backpacking gas stove, it is very small and light

   Here is one I have for backpacking.  I put a gas canister for the folding stove for a reference.  It is very compact and light.

It is almost the same size with a gas canister for the folding type stove

   If I use this type of stove, overall space for camping equipment is much smaller.  However, it depends on how people plan for meal.  If we just need to cook own family which is 3 to 4 people, I would prefer to use the backpacking stove.   Because we do not need to use a big cook ware as long as we pick a right menu.  However, if we need to cook entire group, it will be sometime a several families.  Then we might need to use a big two-burner stove.  Since we need to use large cooking ware.  So it all depends on how we organized the camping plan.

Which is better?

   It is tough question.  It all depends on a style of camping.  If people do as similar as what we do at home, I think it is probably better to use a large stove.  Since it is very similar what we have at home.  However, if people want a smaller, the backpacking stove would be a good choice.  But people need to consider a good menu.  As long as people always pick a right menu, I do not see much problem.  But if people need to cook a large amount, the backpacking stove would not be a good idea in many cases.