cheap

Red Camp 9 “El Cheapo” Cookset

/ chubbyblueberry / Leave a comment

I’ve got a GSI Dualist cookset that I’ve used for several years now and it’s great. But I’m building out a pack for my wife and figured she’d want her own gear. I don’t know if she’ll love backpacking as much as I do – or go out more than a couple times – so I figured I can go cheap on a few items and if needed we can always fall back to my setups. OR…if she doesn’t like backpacking…I’ll have a complete backup set of gear to loan to friends 😃

Okay on to the review…I picked up the Red Camp 9 cookset from Amazon for $19 shipped.

Size comparison…that was a good beer.
The cookset comes with a mesh carry bag, 2 bowl/cup things, a folding spork, paracord bracelet, a sponge and a card type multitool.

We’d gone on a car camping trip in November and I tested the cookset that weekend. Primary use for this pot would be to boil water for beverages or Freeze Dried backpacking food, so that’s all I really did.

The white plastic bowl/cup, corded bracelet and multitool are not well made and may just be there to make things interesting, I’d leave those items at home…in the garbage. The spork is useful enough and the sponge has a brillo-ish side to it so it will clean things for a while.

All in all, I’d say that this is a good kit. The pot and lid comes in just under half a pound. When paired with the Etek City pocket stove you’ll have a competent cookset. Is it the lightest, space efficient and durable cookset on the market? Probably not. But if you want to save money and need to start “somewhere” the Red Camp 9 is a good place to start.

The pot’s lid make a better bowl/cup than the white plastic bowl/cups.

EtekCity “El Cheapo” backpacking stove

/ chubbyblueberry / 1 Comment

I’ve had this little stove since maybe 2016, tekkster and I planned on going on our first backpacking trip about 3 months ahead of time. The Gear research that happened was so disheartening because all of the “Good Gear” was sooo pricey, so I ended up searching for cheaper gear with “Okay” quality and “Good” price. One of the first pieces of gear that I’d bought was this little Etekcity backpacking stove for $9.99. It was a cheap stove, good reviews and well I wasn’t sure if I’d ever use it again after this trip was done.

5 years later, this stove has been on all of the trips I’ve done and for the most part is working just as good as it was the day it arrived. The mechanism that makes that spark to light the gas doesn’t work anymore but I normally just use a lighter so it’s no big deal. The stove comes with a cheap plastic orange case which, um, you put the stove into when it’s in your bag and not in use…the case will not save the stove if you or your friends step on it.

I’m not easy on my gear, nor do I abuse it. I just use it as intended because things tend to last longer when you do that 🙂 I use this stove with a GSI Pinnacle Dualist pot and a half pot of water will boil in a about 5 minutes. Not the fastest time ever, but I’m on trail not at work so there’s no need to rush. This thing has boiled lots of water for coffee or some kind of freeze dried food, cooked a few meals(plus spam) with it and it has not failed me…yet.

I’ve searched Amazon and am unable to find this particular product but there are several that look similar and around the same price point(AOTU, Extremus and GasOne.) At 3 ounces, $10 to $12 and it using most major cannister threading this thing is pretty reliable at the el cheapo stove price point. I mean yeah, you can make an alcohol stove cheaper but go ahead you can make one and I’ll use this. But if you’re looking for a decent main stove or a solid backup stove you should give this one a try.

*Disclaimer* I’ve read a few reviews that said they received bunk pieces of sh*t and I’m sorry if that happens to you if you go with this, but my stove worked as expected, hence this review 😀