I purchased this direct from the manufacturer, and got the deluxe bundle which included two extra sticks, and the various tops (grill plate and cut-out for cups), and also the bag.
Wow, this is some serious technology, and if I was going to go disappear in the woods for a month, there’s no question this would be my goto stoves. Continue reading
I’m not able to speak to how long this will last, but in terms of initial comfortt, this is probably the best I’ve seen. It’s very stable, seems reasonably durable, and not excessively difficult to get into and out of. As a backpacking chair, I haven’t tested anything better in terms of weight to price to comfort. Continue reading
The GSI Micro table is a “better than nothing” table
the GSI Macro is more of a car camping table.
I genuinely wish GSI would build a middling table that is right in between. Continue reading
Butterfly #2412 Kerosene Brass Pressure Stove
Recently, I’ve become obsessed with stoves.
In researching a variety of them, I came across this kerosene stove. Continue reading
After experimenting more with this stove, I have to say the durability is really impressive.
I originally thought the air-holed storage cap, which also serves as the base for the wood fire, would be a weak point for long fires, but I haven’t noticed any warping yet. Continue reading
This is a great device.
If you have a lot of the asian style gas canisters, but have a US style gas canister stove with a lindal valve, this device would allow you to use them together, dramatically expanding the flexibility of lindal style stoves overseas in japa, korea, taiwan, and othe places where this style of gas canister is ubiquitous. Continue reading
Since the original review, I’ve gone to New York for a winter holiday and spent 3 days in the Sierra Nevadas in below freezing weather.
Final verdict? pretty darn impressive. Continue reading
Base stats:
– BTU: 9,725 (on white gas)
– Weight: 15 oz with pump (not including bottle)
– Stove comparison chart
2013 November: I just picked up the Nova+ at AnyMountain. There have been some bad reviews of the Nova+ but so far, I can’t find a real fault with it. Since I already own the Primus omnilite ti (and now a few others), I can compare the two.
[NOTE: Since this review, I have gathered a few more. Check the Optimus Polaris Optifuel review for more comparisons with this Nova+. https://somecampingstoves.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/optimus-polaris-optifuel-801408-campinghiking-camp-stove-w0-4l-fuel-bottle/ Continue reading
Base stats:
– BTU: 4,780
– Weight: 32 oz (2 lbs)
– Stove comparison chart
Update Review:
With my stove collection growing further and quite a few more backpacking trips and hiking trips under my belt since my last review, it’s clear now that the SVEA is an even more reliable device than originally anticipated. Continue reading
Base stats:
– BTU: 12,500 in liquid LPG mode, 4,750 in standard LPG mode
– Weight: 6.28 oz
– Stove comparison chart
I’ve purchased quite a few gas canister stoves in the search for that perfect one, and also have gotten into alcohol stoves, liquid fuel stoves, and wood stoves. Sort of a strange hobby, but comparing these stoves in actual usage is the only real way to understand them.
The Optimus Vega, among LPG stoves, is my first choice when heading out and planning on doing a fair bit of group cooking, while still keeping weight and pack space at a minimum. Rafting weekends are ideal. Continue reading
Very simple but great idea. The outer silicone lip is good enough for your lower lip. The inner is not the same size but rather just enough of a rim to cover the rim of a snow peak cup.
So this will not work well with other cups. Continue reading
This is a pretty amazing piece of gear. It allows you to use coleman propane stoves on lindal connector stoves like a gas canister only stove or a multifuel stove. Continue reading
I was on the hunt for a drop leg pouch, and I chose this one because of the color.
Because I use an external frame backpack while hiking, it’s hard for me to get to loose items while on the trail. So a drop leg pouch is ideal as it gets out of the way of the backpack’s waist belt. Continue reading
The fact that this only works with the transparent disposable lighters doesn’t bother me much since they’re readily available all over the place.
The jet works really well when the disposable is brand new, but even before the halfway point the jet starts to reduce strength significantly, and by the halfway point, it barely works. Tried a few lighters and its been consistently weakened at the same point, so i now have less confidence than before Continue reading
Base stats:
– BTU: 4-9K depending on wood
– Weight 5.45 oz
– Stove comparison chart
The Emberlit Titanium is an über-thin wood stove, and despite it’s thinness, can handle a variety of fuels including charcoal, alcohol stove, fuel tablets, Sterno cans, pine cones, and of course, wood, without warping.
The titanium cools really fast which is also very convenient. Continue reading
This is a great maintenance tool kit, with spare jet bolts and a spare splash guard and base bolt.
The case is also a hard plastic to ensure that all the soft metal parts are well protected inside a stuffed backpack. Continue reading
This is a decent multi-tool for maintaining and adjusting the Primus Omnilite in the field.
I have two issues with it though. Continue reading
EDIT: This is the newer style of Primus fuel bottle, with a matte finish instead of the glossy finish so ubiquitous in the fuel bottle market today. Continue reading
Base stats:
– BTU: 4-9K depending on wood
– Weight: 4.5 oz
– Stove comparison chart
The Emberlit Mini is an amazing stove.
As a multi-fuel stove, this rocks, fitting alcohol stoves, sterno fuel cans, esbit style fuel gels, charcoal, and of course wood. Continue reading
The Primus Omnilite is a seriously loud stove. Pretty ridiculous, actually. For this reason I purchased the Quietstove Silent Muter Damper Cap, in the hopes of reducing decibels in the evenings. And it works ridiculously well. Continue reading
Depending on how you use it, this is either a godsend or a waste of money.
If you plan to use it with a pressurized gas canister based stove, it’s pretty useless because the height of the wall is just too low. With most of these setups, the stove portion fits on top of the gas canister so right there, the flame is above the reflector wall. no stars for this use. Continue reading
Base stats:
– BTU: 11K
– Weight: 2.3 oz
– Stove comparison chart
Truly the best of the best of compact stand-alone LPG gas canister stoves. It has become my goto.
While it’s too bad that it doesn’t fit in a cup along with a gas canister and utensil, which would be ideal, this gas canister based unit has one incredible advantage in addition to the wind resistance, and two small negatives. Continue reading
Base stats:
– BTU: 11K
– Weight: 5 oz
– Stove comparison chart
This thing is truly a work of art.
It’s hard to believe that a stove setup could be this small.
This stove has two critical advantages:
First, it’s so small that when all folded up, it can fit inside a GSI Halulite mug (solo) sideways. SIDEWAYS!!! This means that I can have a gas canister, silicone pot holder, tiny folding utensil, AND this stove in the GSI mug and still completely close the silicone lid. Continue reading
I’m a huge fan of wind screens. Even the tiniest breeze can dramatically affect cooking times in the outdoors. and wind screens act both to stop heat stealing wind, as well as reflecting heat, which further increases heating efficiency. When you use liquid fuel or pressurized gas, where fuel consumption is calculated in minutes instead of hours, every tiny bit of heat efficiency is the absolute order of the day. Continue reading
Woah, didn’t realize how well this thing worked.
Light, incredibly compact, but highly useful on uneven ground.
The Jetboil Sol is such an efficient system that a simple (ingeniously simple), triangular rod and steel wire setup like this works very well. Continue reading
Base stats:
– BTU: 8900
– Weight: 2.6 lbs (including pump and bottle and bag)
– Stove comparison chart
(Long Term use update at bottom)
I own most of the currently sold liquid fuel stoves as well as quite a few older ones, and to my mind, the Primus Omnilite is the best choice of a fairly good sample of liquid fuel stoves for flexibility, compactness, fuel efficiency, and reliability, though, it has couple of small negatives.
Continue reading
This is a great utensil.
I’m not a huge fan of the uber popular spark for backpacking. I’d rather a fork be a fork and a spoon be a spoon. But I also never really need to use both at the same time.
This utensil has both, and a small serrated edge on the fork for some simple cutting, and is super light. Apart from it being a little long, I’m really happy with it and hope to get years of use out of it.
EDIT:
When I originally purchased this hard anodized single person cookset with heat exchanger, I was reasonably impressed but struggled to figure out a good way to use it (Edit: It shaved about 30 seconds off water boiling time compared to my Snow Peak Trek 900, if I used the right stove and windscreen combination, competitive with JetBoil times, thus saving fuel). But it’s become, over time, my preferred set when solo backpacking where I plan to do light cooking. Continue reading
This is a simple, compact, foldable trowel.
Pretty heavy for it’s small size.
Works consistently.
Sheath is durable.
Packs easily in just about any nook and cranny in your pack.
These poles are heavy’ish for poles, but very sturdy.
They have another issue and that’s really the twisting action to unlock and lock the poles. But they haven’t slipped on me during a hike yet, so overall, I’m happy with them, especially considering that expensive poles can be upwards of $200. Continue reading
I’ve done a fair bit of camping since the last review here, and I’ve purchased and used a few different packs since then.
In that time, I’ve learned a few new things about gear, and what can be done with what kinds of gear.
For the Lastenkraxe, I finally got around to ordering the dedicated packsack for it, and the difference is huge. Before, the Lastenkraxe was, at least for me, the load carrier to use when I had strangely shaped items and I wanted quick access to them. That, coupled with the fact that it always stands straight up, and it was worth bringing on a fairly wide variety of trips. But my system was unwieldy, and even when empty, the system weighed just under 15 lbs. That happens when you attach a complete pack with its own carry system (in my case, the Bergaus Centruio 45 with side pockets) to another pack system… Continue reading
This thing is so small, it’s…well…imagine you saw only full size doberman pincher dogs your whole life….and then one day you see a doberman pincher that’s a toy breed….the shock of the toy doberman being really small….that’s what it’s like when you see this thing for the first time. Continue reading
Not too long ago, I went on a bicycle ride and got my second scrape in two months, just being stupid really. But unlike the first time, that was more surface scrape, this one cut a tad deepish. Not enough to be dangerous or need stitches, but enough to bleed black and a tad more flowing than you’d normally see. Continue reading
Edit
Having taken this recently to a car camping trip, I can clearly say this was a huge boon. Placed in a vestibule, this luggage rack allowed me to keep my pack and some other gear off the ground. As it rained the first night, it kept my pack from getting soaked from the ground. Awesome. Continue reading
Ming’s Mark SL1204-GREEN Green Full Back Folding Director’s Chair
Took this to a car camping trip recently, and my only complaint is that the side table is crazy flimsy.
On a positive note, I thought the cup holder would get in the way, but it turned out to be really useful. Knocking the chair a little or trying to move the chair would have caused most cups on a side table to tip over and spill. The cup holder did an excellent job of making sure cups didn’t get knocked over when placed in it and being jarred in some way. Awesome. Continue reading
All in all, pretty good. And a big boon compared to having nothing at all.
Having said that, there are two things that were a tad irritating.
– First, one of the bins stayed vertical, but the other one kept collapsing in on itself partially.
– Second, I wish there was a built-in way to secure trash bags to the upper rim while still being able to zipper the top shut. squirrels were a real problem, so we had to keep the bin zipped, but of course, since there was nothing to attach the bag to on the bin, people would unzip the bin and throw trash on top of the bag, instead of in it. Not fun to clean up. Continue reading
Edit:
Just got back from a car camping trip this week and wow, what a luxury item to have with you.
With this cot packed in the car, I met with several friends at a nearby AnyMountain to caravan out to Yosemite. Walking in the store, I found another cot that was a lot more stable than this one. This cot, the one I have, is stable in one direction but because the x-legs are all parallel to each other, they have just a little give going perpendicular to the x-legs, which is ever so slightly annoying. Continue reading
This latest Leatherman Wave is impressive (model 830039). The screw driver portion is a removable bit unlike the previous version. The outer sheathed blades and files have a similar but stronger locking mechanism, and overall the metal seems to be thicker, especially around focal points that show torque damage on my older Leatherman. Continue reading
I purchased two of these bottles for my tent and some clothes.
Does it work? Hard to say. Seems to. I went on two trips this year and had no issues with bugs, but then again, neither did most of my friends. So it’s hard to be sure exactly how effective this was. There were lots of bugs, so I can only guess that this must have worked fairly well. Continue reading
I am really new to dutch oven cooking. but…wow. What fun! This particular unit is the first I’ve ever purchased. But it has some nice touches that some other dutch ovens don’t have.
6 quarts is…well…a lot. I was expecting this to be much smaller and am especially happy I didn’t buy the 10 or 12 quart dutch ovens because that would have been out of control huge. As it is, I can make enough chilli that as a side dish, it easily serves 15. As a main dish, it serves about 6-8, though 4 big eaters could finish the pot. Continue reading
A CAR CAMPING MARVEL
Just got back from a car camping trip to Yosemite, and all I can say about this dutch oven is….WOW. I thought it would be just used for making chili with the dutch oven, but this dutch oven table turned out to be so much more versatile than that. And the slightly lower height turned out to be an advantage as we needed to do some BBQ’ing under a tarp when it rained. the lower height gave the smoke more vertical to spread and move out of the tarp ceiling. Awesome. Continue reading
This grill isn’t for backpacking or hiking. But it’s great for car camping.
—-
What makes this grill so awesome is that if fits on a 32″ dutch oven table with plenty of room for a dutch oven next to it. Continue reading
I buy a lot of gear, and because I’m fairly rough with gear, typically a significant percentage of gear I use suffers some pretty horrific wear and tear.
As such, I often sprinkle my reviews with updates on how my gear is holding up over time.
Rarely do I even consider asking for an exchange if I’ve used a piece of gear more than a dozen times. I simply update my reviews with how the gear is doing. Continue reading
Ever on the hunt to mitigate the need to carry spare batteries i was ecstatic to find this hand crank head lamp.
It’s pretty amazing that a minute of cranking allows this unit to last so long especially considering how inefficient cranking technologies are. Continue reading
Base stats:
– BTU: 4-9K depending on wood
– Weight: 16.2 oz including snow and ash pan
– Stove comparison chart
EDIT:
First off, 180 stove sent me a replacement because they wanted to analyse the warping.
That warping was pretty easily cleared up as i was essentially over-abusing the stove, both in terms of going way too hot and cooling things down way too fast. Continue reading
I bought this because the price for it was so good it was impossible to pass up, and I wanted something to augment my Solar Joos.
My big issue with this dual panel setup is that it really needs direct sunlight. Continue reading
Car camping trip day 2: eggs in cooler, moved around in bear locker, taken out for a bit….dropped and shattered.
Egg spills are a major hassle.
a light drop and they shatter.
instantaneously lose precious food resources….
big sticky mess. Continue reading
I’m not uber experienced in camping, and still struggle a bit with the lack of luxury. But in the weight to luxury ratio, I have a feeling even an experienced camper would take this along. Continue reading
Love this thing….love love love this thing.
A 1 piece, flexible, and tough filter that can pack anywhere? Shoooooot. After using it this past weekend on a car camping trip, I’m now of the opinion that this is useful not only on car camping trips but also for picnics, or even business trips if you’re picky about the coffee you drink. Continue reading
After spending time this weekend with this little kettle, it’s clear that kettles are pretty critical for car camping. You need the for tea or coffee or soup/instant noodles or to warm a bucket of water for cleaning…. Can you survive without one on a car camping trip? sure. Would you want to? Heeeeeck no. The compact nature of this unit makes it a little more convenient to pack, but what I’ve learned this trip is, if you’re running really low on space and need to go uber compact, take this kettle. If you can load up the car and afford to take a larger kettle, do so. a kettle is worth the space and weight cost. Continue reading
Camping Stoves and Other Gear Reviews 