Help Needed: Concept Camping Stove

[Ross_]

Hi guys,

I'm a design student at Loughborough (England!) working on a concept camping stove.
The stove has to perform well in a desert environment and so I stumbled upon this fantastic site.
I've managed to find some genuinely brilliant stuff from reading through various reviews and forum threads...
But I was hoping to get some more feedback from you guys, your frustrations with current models, your favourites, the best fuels in your opinions, and maybe features you'd love to see... Anything you feel would be useful, (stories of times it all went wrong!)
Any feedback would be massively appreciated!
If nothing else I've definitely been inspired to get myself out into the middle of nowhere some time soon!

Ross

 

[toymaster]

I have been looking for a multifuel stove in a "full size" frame. There is a brand available here called Partner and it is a fine example of a stove however, it only runs off of propane. One can find many backpacking style light weight multifuel stoves such as the MSR firefly; I have used mine faithfully for many years. Propane is used here because it is plentiful and easy. I for one do not like to carry around the bottles. For expedition travel having a stove that will run off of petrol, white gas, diesel, and kerosene is very practical.

My vote is to look at the partner and other stove of similar size and place multifuel burners in them. Two burners are best and it would be great if both could be run off of one pressured fuel bottle. I have not checked the flow rates of current marketed systems. My plan was to just plumb in two burners and empirically test the idea.

 

[Yellowkayak]

First I say create a stove that runs off of any alcohol...even moon shine...anything you can make at home in your basement. Coleman fuel, gas, diesel is all expensive. So a free or really cheap fuel source is a must. Second, it must be light weight but tough as nails. Must have wind guards so flame isn't blown around or even blown out. Pumpup like Coleman stoves (I have two of them). Fully adjustable flame hiegth. Small and compact, maybe small enough to store in a large pot with a lid. Adjustable legs for uneven surfaces is a must also. Stainless steel so the darn thing won't rust over time. Oh yeah, most important...affordable so poor people can buy one to cook on when a hurricane or tornado wipes out there home and there is no power for their home stoves to run, or the gas gets shut off. Single burner would suffice!

Hope those suggestions helped!

JJ

 

[DesertBoater]

It would appear to me that you need to make some big design decisions fairly quickly in the overall type of stove. On one hand, you've got the 2, 4, and 6 burner Partner Steel stoves that prefer to run off of large propane tanks, and then you have the backpacker style alcohol/solid fuel/liquid fuel/butane mix stoves. Perhaps, as you're a design student, there's a way to create a stove in which there's a base platform (think, Partner type) that runs off of whatever fuel and then one or both of the burners can be removed and used on their own by themselves with however many different types of fuel (maybe not solid). That being said, consider how many people are you cooking for, and what kind of cooking? Could you get away with simply boiling to make Ramen, or do you need to grill, saute, bake, fry, and get fancy? How are you traveling/transporting the stove and the rest of your gear?

Generally speaking, the fewer moving/clog-able parts the better. Seems like there is no one stove that can do everything (well) thus there is as much diversity as there is.

Good Luck!

West

 

[Chazz Layne]

Moved to the Camping Equipment forum, you'll likely get a much better response here.

 

[AeroNautiCal]

My minimum stove requirement was for two burners and a grill, it had to be lightweight, portable, and pack away small.

This, the Kampa Alfresco, (which runs on propane or butane) ticked almost all the boxes and was not expensive.