Am new to family camping (ie lots of equipment) and have never bought a stove for more than one pan. We're going to France for first trip - a fortnight - and there are 3 of us. Think we need 2 burners and grill, ideally. What's the best power source for France? Do we need those hefty cyclinders..? And if so, do we also need tubes and other stuff? Should we buy THOSE before we leave and get gas or whatever in France? Also, is there a stove that we can use normal sized pans with - or do we have to buy camping pans?
For France your best bet is Camping Gaz, probably a 907 cylinder. As Camping Gaz is French it may be best to buy in France, although you will have to factor in exchange rates, check prices both in this country and over there.
You will need a gas pipe and regulator.
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thanks for your advice mattlad. Was looking at a campinggaz chef and a customer review on amazon said calor gas is much more economical (if one has the choice). If i DO go with the chef model, can anyone who owns one suggest what the best option, fuel-wise, is for France? Can you get calor gas there easily? Or is the advice from mattlad best, ie to use a 907 cyclinder of campinggaz, despite calor gas being (apparently) more economical... ?
You can get CampingGaz refills almost anywhere in France but you won't get Calor. No brainer really! You will need a gas hose, two jubilee securing clips and a regulator for butane (for CampingGaz, if you do insist on Calor get a propane regulator.) You can buy the regulators and CampingGaz in bigger french supermarkets but not sure about the hose. You won't save much though so might as well get things sorted out before you go rather than frantically hunting around an hour before you need to cook dinner.
If you get a CampingGaz chef it will take up to medium 8"sized pans...leave the giant stock pot at home though! You can use your household pans but only if they have thin bases...thick based heavy pans use a lot of gas to get them hot. If you don't want to buy specialist camping pans then supermarket Value type pans work well too. I do take a good quality thicker based non-stick frying pan though...I hate cheap thin frying pans.
We have the CampinGaz Camping Chef, it's a great little cooker.
We carry two of the 907 cylinders that way you never run out of Gas, don't rush out and buy a brand new 907 cylinder(as there is no such thing!), as you can often find them at car boots, or folk who are chucking them out.
The CampingGaz Camping Chef was on clearance at Tesco at £33. c/w rubber hose but no regulator.
Charlies Direct were alo doing them for a similiar price, no mention of whether the regulator was included or not, as it somtimes is.
We have had over 4 weeks use out of a single 907 whilst camping in France, and it's still got a fair bit of Gas left in it.
No doubt next time we use it, it will run out half way through cooking dinner, that's when our spare 907 will come into it's own!.
thanks everyone for your advice and ideas. We're now borrowing a 2 burner kampa stove that runs on campingGaz to see how it goes for this trip. Will probably buy our own stove for next time.
Hiya. We have a stove like that and the best piece of advice I can give is, if you use the grill, watch it like a bloomin' hawk. I actually burned 6 slices of toast before I got a satisfactory pair :)
Check what comes with the stove when you buy it. You'll often get a hose but not likely to get the regulator.
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Topic: HELP! confused by stove jargon
