Gear Review: The Coleman Campstove

For escapegoat's first gear review, we have chosen..a thirty-year-old campstove.

What? Not the latest solar-powered camp microwave or -20 degree sleeping bag?

This is the campstove that matters, and possibly the piece of camping gear by which all others will be measured. Simply, it works, and keeps working. And, you can probably pick up a good one at a garage sale for less than $5.

I grew up with this Coleman propane campstove. It outlived my parent's VW poptop, survived all the years of Boy Scouts, frying bacon, boiling water, and hundreds of miles of washboard roads.

Once one of the burners quit working. I took the top off and looked inside the carburetor tube. Sure enough, a spider had built a nest inside, and with a quick swish in the nearby lake, the tube was clean and the stove back to normal.

The Coleman stove boils my coffee water as quickly as my range at home, has plenty of wind protection, and the burner controls can be finely adjusted.

This stove does have a few drawbacks. Because of the wind flaps, a pan larger than 10" won't center on the burner. Also, propane is useless in cold temperatures (get the white gas version).

Coleman now has upwards of 8 models of campstove. There is a model very similar to this one which sells for $50. Everything seems to be there, but I think the quality of the valves has declined, so that it's more difficult to properly adjust the flame. Some models have push-button ignition, which would be a very welcome feature in the morning before coffee.

When you're camping, all that really matters about your gear is that it works and can be expected to work many trips in the future. The Coleman campstove is a classic piece of equipment that will serve as a standard.