Hi All, I'm relatively new to camping for more than just one night. At the moment I have the canister type single hob burner. Which I mainly use for a kettle and frying breakfast. I am thinking of expanding to a double burner hob or just buying a second of the same as I have already as they are cheap £13 ish at argos.
What I wanted to know is is this type of cooking not as cost effective as using the bottle/regulator type of cooker ? I have been buying 4 cans for £4 Any help you be appreciated Thanks
A double burner running off a gas bottle and regulator is cheaper to run, but if you take into account the initial cost of the new setup it will take years to get your money back.
I ditched mine about 10 years ago and now use suitcase type single burners, much more convenient and easier to carry in the car.
suitcase stove, if you're not going to be doing much cooking, scoot67, but only if you can get cheap gas cans (I can't!) and you aren't going to be doing the cooking in cold weather - I got through four cans and still didn't have boiling water!
I got a Coleman double burner with grill for £35 last year and got regulator for under a fiver. I already had a 6kg propane cylinder so didn't have that expense. Mind you, I use mine for making chutney (avoid smells in the house) as well. I can also use the gas for my small gas BBQ so to me, it's worth it.
Still use my suitcase stove for boiling kettles on short trips and that's always in my car, with gas cans, in case I get stranded due to ferries breaking down or sudden bad weather. We have to think survival at times up here!! ;-)
Post last edited on 17/08/2015 21:40:33
------------- " When I die I don`t want my life to flash before me in an instant, I want it to be a 3 hour epic !"
we use a double burner and gas bottle and regulator - lasted us all last year and (so far) this year - and were a family of 6! :)
------------- June 2015: seaview international 2 nights
July 2015: little winnick 2 nights
August 2015: lower polladras 5 nights
august 2015: tollgate farm 5 nights
august 2015: oakdown 3 nights
September 2015: tregarton park
family of 6 with young children
i think if you`re only using a kettle and doing a fry up stick with what you`ve got. if you`re doing lots of cooking a double stove would get the use out of it. plus bigger, space in the car etc? we manage on a single suitcase stove and the trangia. although getting another trangia soon (birthday) so will ditch the suitcase stove altogether.
You are best off looking at the end of season sales... starting now in most shops (Go Outdoors, Yeomans, Blacks etc)
You can pick up a new double burner with grill for around £30, advertise on freecycle for a gas bottle to save that expense or even visit the local tip. Lots of people dump old empty bottles. You can do a deal and take it away for a couple of £ and take that to exchange for a full one.
We use a 4.5kg bottle and camp 4-5 weeks/weekends a year doing a lot of cooking. We use it for the stove and our Cadac. It normally lasts us 2 summers. Although we do go "electric" with the kettle.
We have a single suitcase stove for picnics (£7 new), double electric hob (£2 second hand) for the majority of our camping holidays as we generally use EHU and recently bought a Coleman petrol stove (£20 second hand) for if/when we decide to go non EHU.
I bought a cadac mini chef a couple of years ago but the small gas canisters it took worked out more expensive than the suitcase stove gas and I wasn't confident I could cook for 5 on it so sold it. I then bought a beauclaire which is much larger and a calor gas bottle from a car boot sale with a bit of gas in but never had enough room in the trailer for them so they have yet to be used although may get used when we have a bbq at home next.
If a double gas hob with a separate large bottle is still what you want sportsdirect.com have a gelert one for £12.50 here and would expect you will also need a hose and regulator (approx. £5) for which ever size/brand gas bottle you choose and get the bottle privately (which may even have a bit of gas in) rather than direct from a supplier to avoid the initial 'cylinder refill agreement' fee (approx. £40!).
EHU , or look around as you can get cheaper gas stove , watch out for double burners as gas bottle not cheap & you need somewhere that refills , just use EHU it's the future lol
I picked up some good cookers from eBay in December, found as the next years products are being released, people start to have a clear out. Obviously the people with space wait until spring to get the best price for their item (always found selling camping stuff at beginning of season the final sale price tends to be higher)
I have been looking at cookers as well, as the ones we have are old and pretty unstable, physically, being the old camping gas type with the c206 cannister. They serve well enough for me, but the OH wants something more stable.
We don't go camping together a lot, so forking out for a double burner £30, then the regulator £10 and bottle £50, really is overkill and really not worth it.
As I have never used anything other than my MSR, a Ghillie kettle and these small calor gas stoves, I have no idea about the size of bottles, or indeed anything about other bottled gas. An EHU is just as much out of the question, as we really don't like the manicured sites, where you have this facility.
I have been looking on line at the bistro type propane cookers. Has anyone used these and what are they like ? How does the propane bottle connect ?
Another query is, I have a propane gas bbq, that came from my late farther, I would presume this runs off a large 3.9Kg cannister, but no idea if you can use smaller cannister, if so, this may be an option for cooking on. ???
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Topic: Cooking with gas
