Portable Stoves - What do you use?

We love our Vector butane single burner stove and usually take it to the cockpit and use it on top of the cooler. Too hot down here to cook much inside! It is perfect for our needs...heat up the water for coffee/tea and the occasional meal. When on the boat, we mostly eat cold food because it's refreshing in the summer heat. Did I mention it gets hot here? :roll:

Rick
 
Dr John,

I too have a Cobb grill and I do love how it works. The downside for me is the time it takes for the coals to burn out. Have you found a way to get them to stop burning when you're done cooking your meal? I cooked sausages one time, and then had to wait a seemingly very long time for the darn thing to burn out. Yes, it was cool to touch, but I couldn't put it away because the coals were still burning. I was at a marina so I couldn't bury them. Tossing them into the trash would have easily caught the trash on fire. With some lesser grills you can shut the air flow top and bottom and stop the 'rapid oxygenation' (aka: fire), but I couldn't figure out how to do that with the Cobb.

Thanks in advance,
 
Sarge,

I see how that could present problems in close quarters. I toss the coals off downwind sometimes. At the marina I leave the lid off hoping that will burn them down more rapidly. I suppose one could dump water on them but that could cause some damage to the equipment.

John
 
flrockytop":2alk2lgd said:
You can't beat the ol COBB grill for cooking a meal while on the move. On my Texas trip. I set it in the cockpit on top of the cooler. Loaded it with 10 pieces of charcoal and got it going. Is does take about 20 min for the coals to get right to start cooking but then you can toss a 4lb roast in there go about you business and forget about it for four hours til its done. With the cobb it is easy to move around while cooking.

Roger
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We love the Cobb too - an amazing little thingie, even did a demo of fish, pork, chicken, and even baking bread on the old boat : https://youtu.be/AECpyiAVgtk We also like the induction stuff (NuWave) very much and even more now that you can control the wattage.

Coals and the Cobb - they do burn a long time. We have picked ours out with tongs and into a can of water.

Edited to add: if you do watch that vid - don't try looking up Gene's Camp & Kitchen recipes, he and his wife died within a year of each other years ago and the cookbooks are long gone.
 
Coals and Cobb? Wow. That rang in the ears of an Aussie lover. "Hear the bells of Cobb and Coe.". Mean anything to any other Brat?

Cobb and Co had the delivery service to Outback Communities in Australia -- and there was a very popular song known to every young person in Oz about hearing the bells of Cobb and Co and knowing there was a package to be delivered to the Ouback farmhouse.

Sorry -- just happy memories.

Now to cooking on a small boat -- do it out back under cover in the cockpit, on a two burner Coleman propane camp stove. No odors inside, no big gas container, small and easy to store outside, simple and inexpensive. We did it for years. El and Bills
 
Well this has been well hashed over but knowing all the risks of white gas, regualr gas, propane, butane, and even alcohol and diesel, my number one stove is a Bremer Sea Swing using one pound propane bottles or a hose to a tank. I also use a Coleman dual mode gas stove, a butane single burner (like the ones Australia banned), a Camp Chef that mounts on top of a one pound propane bottle, a Scotch Box charcoal Bar-B-Q, a microwave/single burner hot plate/toaster oven running off my Honda 2000, an old Svea camping stove, an ancient Bruce Roberts butane camping stove, and MSR white gas stove, and a homemade rocket stove. Hand down the Bremer/Force Ten Sea Swing is ths best of the bunch.
bob
 
Last summer I bought a one burner, butane stove, all stainless steel and commercial grade from Costco. It was $25. It is a 1000 times faster than the Wallas and when we are done with it, I put it back in the case and store it away.

The Wallas will eventually be removed, replaced by a dedicated diesel heater and put up for sale.
 
I have used a Trangia alcohol stove set on my boat for many years. It's very simple with no moving parts, super stable, wind proof and nests with the pots and pans for easy storage. The burner is controlled with a ring-lid which allows decent simmering and quick searing/boiling. Denatured alcohol is easy to source, relatively safe to store and can come in handy for other uses. Trangia makes the pots and pans in several different materials and I have what they call "Duossal". It's basically an aluminum pot lined with a thin stainless steel coating. They have held up very well for us, we usually wash them in salt water and use sand to clean them out. The only thing that has failed after having the set for nearly 20 years is the little rivet in the simmer ring. Simple enough to pop in a new one.
It's not exactly made for gourmet cooking but for a single burner setup it's pretty amazing in my opinion.
 
West Marine duo cook single burner that uses either an internal butane or exterior propane. It is very compact and burns hot almost instantly. There are a lot of this type out there and they are often part of the equipment sold on new small boats. They also have a nice storage case.
Our built in alcohol Origo stove that came with the boat is ok for slower cooking but is to slow for coffee on cold mornings so we use both. We mostly cook dinner on our small rail mounted bbq off a big propane that we can also refill our small green tanks for the stove with. All very simple and reliable.
 
Marvin, as to your problem with leaking 1 lb propane bottles. I bought some brass screw on caps with o-rings on Amazon that will hopefully help on ours.

We have been trying to stock up on denatured alcohol for our upcoming Baja trip but it has new restrictions I think because some of the cleanest burning and least toxic fume types were being drunk and making people sick. The price is through the roof here and now hard to get, we found none at West Marine and barely any on Amazon.

Great thred!
 
I'm quite happy with our set up.

The Wallas was removed to make more counter space (we have a diesel heater). We cook with one of those cheap butane cylinder, 1-burner cookers. The small butane cans (about the size of a spray paint can) are a bit expensive for the total BTUs you get, but the stove can be set anywhere inside or in the cockpit; and it cooks most foods quickly and easily.

If we need to cook something a long time (e.g., boil water for pasta or crab), the butane cylinders are too slow and expensive, so we also have a single burner 10,000 BTU Coleman that screws right to the top of a 1 pound propane cylinder; it stores easily (less than half the size of 6-pack of beer). The fuel cost is practically nothing since every year or two I refill my collection of 1 pound cylinders from a 5 gallon propane tank.

Lastly, a standard Magma circular, permanently rail-mounted BBQ that also uses the refilled 1 pound propane cylinders. I am always surprised how well this BBQ works whether it be fish, hot dogs, beef roast, shrimp, oysters, you-name-it.
 
Olekils, I should have made clear on cooking denatured alcohol the we only use 95% ethanol 5% methanol fuel to avoid the toxic fumes of higher % methanol fuel. I think klean-strip is the brand we are having a hard time getting. I did find cheap alcohol at Ace and Home Depot today but skipped it as I knew Dana would reject it.
If we were in another state Everclear drinking alcohol would be mighty useful, dual use!
 
Micahbigsur@msn.com":1lnd6wgz said:
Marvin, as to your problem with leaking 1 lb propane bottles. I bought some brass screw on caps with o-rings on Amazon that will hopefully help on ours.

We have been trying to stock up on denatured alcohol for our upcoming Baja trip but it has new restrictions I think because some of the cleanest burning and least toxic fume types were being drunk and making people sick. The price is through the roof here and now hard to get, we found none at West Marine and barely any on Amazon.

Great thred!
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HEET fuel line antifreeze in the yellow bottle is commonly used by light and fast backcountry travelers in alcohol/spirit stoves. It is I believe 100% methyl and available at nearly any gas station, feed store, hardware store, auto supply shop, and grocery store in the northern half of the United States. $/gal may not compete with Home Depot cans but it is easy to come by for resupply. I use it regularly when I do not want to listen to the jet engine sound of my modern canister stoves. I would not use it on my boat, but would definitely use it on a picnic table or a rock or a stump on shore in a Trangia type stove. Why anyone would try to drink denatured alcohol at 20$ a liter when you can buy a handle of vodka for that price is a real testament to ones confidence in their own liver.
 
We have been using a single burner butane Iwatawni stove for years and love it! In fact, just purchased a second one. (Available on Amazon, of course - around 80 - $90) Very fast and hot! No moisture issues. High quality construction. Easy to simmer or crank her up for a fast boil. Will be ordering an infrared (electric) hot plate to use when on shore power to conserve fuel. Also have electric drip coffee maker and crock pot when on shore power. That Cobb grill is looking pretty interesting, too! Looks like a very versatile unit.
 
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