Coleman 2 Burner Dual Fuel Compact Liquid Fuel Stove

If you buy this stove, it is something you'll take on all of your family campouts for decades, and you'll give it to one of your kids one day. This is a piece of classic Americana, but it works better and more reliably than any newer design. Yes, it's slightly old-fashioned, with a manual pump that pressurizes the gas, and a tube in the stove which warms up in order to draw the fuel out, but it adds to the charm and fun, and I've never found it to be any trouble. The directions are printed inside the lid in case you forget. I recommend the little red plastic fill spout accessory that Amazon sells, it makes fillups easy and foolproof.As you can see, this camp stove uses liquid fuel instead of a tank of pressurized propane. The liquid fuel is less expensive and longer-lasting than propane, and you always know how much you have because the fuel sloshes around in the container. It's difficult to tell how much propane is in a cylinder. I borrowed a friend's propane stove before buying this stove. Since you can't tell how much fuel you have, you wind up buying more propane cylinders before a trip, and you mix them up, so you wind up with a trunk full of half-empty cylinders. And, of course, there's a lot of waste with the empty propane cylinders.Once this stove is lit, it burns and burns and burns! You'll have no trouble boiling up a pot of water for spaghetti, and the fuel lasts for hours and hours. I really love this little stove and I can't wait to break it out again. By the way, it's not just great for camping, it's also easy to toss into the trunk for picnics and cookouts. Enjoy!By the way, if you're gonna go retro and buy this, there's a companion gas lantern from Coleman. Apart from the hassle of the flimsy mantles on those lanterns, they burn very brightly for many hours. The stove/lantern combo makes a fantastic pair.

I just bought a second one of these for my folks to have for car camping and earthquake preparedness. I have had the other one for over ten years and it just keeps on fine. These are very durable little stoves. They are easy to use ( except that you need a match or lighter) and are very stable. Certainly much more so than the 1 burner camping stoves you see for backpacking etc. As far as the requiring a match, its actually just simpler that way. You can always find matches at a store but you won't often find the replacement parts for an ignitor unit when it finally needs to be replaced.A lot of people like the propane stoves but then they waste a lot of those expensive canisters. A ten dollar gallon can of fuel for this thing will last as longer than 15 of the propane tanks for most stoves. And of course being able to run it on unleaded gasoline in an emergency is a very useful feature for earthquake/ emergency preparedness. I have actually used my stove for weeks on end while camping. If you are in an emergency situation this will allow you to boil water and still make good hot food when your gas line or electricity is out.There is enough space that you can use pretty decent size pots and pans. For instance when I make my spaghetti and italian sausage there is plenty of room to boil the water in a big pot while cooking up the italian sausage in a skillet right next to it. If you are really worried about space, have a big family etc, than you should consider the three burner variant of this stove.If you are a car camper or want a good little stove for emergency situations this is the one for you.

I purchased this stove because my grandmother has a Coleman stove that she's been using for 35 years. I remember when I was much younger, waking up on camping trips to hear the sounds of cooking oatmeal, eggs, and sausage on that stove, not to mention hot chocolate. I must have one myself now that I am older and do my own camping more often than the family camping. She's 79 and still organizes a family camping trip every other summer.Anyways, this stove is very much like the old-school units, escept I think the steel is a little thinner. I think it is sturdy enough though. The Dual Fuel designation allows me to use less expensive gasoline instead of Coleman fuel. My experience with gasoline on this stove is the same as using Coleman fuel. It is easy to light, and as long as I follow the lighting instructions word for word, I don't have any issues with flooding burners or high yellow flames. I like how the windscreen really works, and how the tank stores inside and then the windscreen folds down and closes like a lid, making the stove look like a green metal briefcase.This is a must-have for anyone who does car camping or state-park style modern camping. People who are cooking for a larger group than one family may want to consider the Coleman 2 Burner Dual Fuel Powerhouse Liquid Fuel Stove, which is a little bigger and has more powerful burners, or the Coleman 428-700 3 Burner Dual Fuel Deluxe Liquid Fuel Stove.If you are thinking about a propane stove, think again. Liquid fuel is superior in every respect. It is less expensive, better for the environment (no little green bottles to throw out), has better flame control, and one tank of liquid fuel will far outlast a little bottle of propane.I can't recommend this unit highly enough! See the two photos of the stove in use on my deck in the product gallery.