Found out my trusty old gas stove uses way more fuel than I thought

I was reading the manual for my Coleman stove while killing time at a campsite in Shenandoah. It said on high it burns through a full propane bottle in about 2 hours. I've been running it wide open for years without thinking. Anyone else find a weird stat like that in their gear manual that totally changed how you camp?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby83615d ago

Wait, were you running it on high the whole time or just not paying attention to the knob? I've been guilty of that with my old dual burner - crank it up for boiling water then forget to dial it back. That 2 hour figure is probably for continuous high flame, not normal cooking. Did you actually measure how fast you go through a bottle or was this just a wake up call from the manual?

seanperry15d ago

But doesn't it sort of depend on what you're cooking too? Like if you're simmering a pot of chili for a couple hours versus just boiling pasta for ten minutes, that has to change the math quite a bit. I'm curious, have you actually timed how long one of those little green bottles lasts you during a normal meal prep session? It might be way less dramatic than the manual makes it sound if you're not running it wide open the whole time.