Camping stoves and gas - any knowledgeable folk?

champ222

champ222

champ222

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Hi All

Ive been trying to figure this out, and i was on the forum anyway, so someone here must know...

Looking for a camping stove, but i'm confused as to which stoves go with which cylinders and regulators.

I see loads of "bundles" suggested on various website, that dont seem to fit together, which just adds to the confusion.

This is the one that looks good to us:

https://www.halfords.com/camping/cooking-equipment/halfords-double-stove-with-grill-new-290269.html

No frills, but should do the job... so what cylinder should i get for that? we have two, one week long trips coming up this year, which is our first go at camping. Considering cost, ease of refill/change out and boot space, Which would you recommend? Once i know which cylinder, i can get the corresponding regulator.

Thanks
 
Do you need to buy online? If possible go to any of the outdoor type shops which are all over the place to get the right advice for what you want.

Most kit has the three parts:
Stoves
Regulators
Cylinders

Campingaz stuff is usually all compatible with each other - regulator clips onto the cylinder and the rubber hose from the regulator slots onto the gas in connector on the stove. For the regulator you will need either:

901 cylinder
904 cylinder
907 cylinder

Looks like halfords dont sell filled cylinders so you would need to find somewhere that will fill them for you. If you can head to somwhere like GoOutdoors and see what they have and what would work best for you
 
Thanks guys, we went to go outdoors. they had loads of stoves, and loads of small cartridge type things, plus piles and piles of the the aerosol can looking ones, that only seem to fit one single type of single buner stove, where it slides in at the side. (unless i'm missing something) It was a bit overwhelming, and our kids were being difficult as usual, so we left and i figured id "do some research" which is where i'm at now really.

We kind of figured Halfords would be a good bet, as "surely" they'd sell the gas and the regulator and the stove, and halford stores are everywhere, but they dont seem to do the gas, other than the CV470 type things. What are they used for?

Dont really want to invest loads, as this could well be a passing fad, but need to be able to feed two kids with zero patience some dinner in a reasonable time scale.
 
They sell the cannistors (but come empty), you can also just find a diy store and get it done there. I got a 907 filled and bought for £37 at a local place I found on google maps.

The CV470 will attach to the small burners. Though, you can probably use them for the bigger ones with an adapter.
 
We've got one of these: https://www.campingaz.com/uk/p-27581-camping-chef-folding-stove.aspx - connected up to a 904 or 907 (we ended up with both for some reason!) Campingaz cylinder with a GoOutdoors OEM regulator . It's ok if you don't want to spend tons - can cook a spag bol or something like that on it no problem at all. If you want something a bit better, the general consensus is Cadac is the king - they have their party grill type things or they do a similar 2-burner type model plus have all the accessories for doing different things like Paella, Pizzas etc.

An alternative we also take camping (as well as the stove) is an electric teppanyaki grill - they're cheap as chips and you can cook meat, fish, eggs etc. way quicker than gas plus. Other thing we do is take disposable foil trays (like the ones you get from the chinese/indian) with us and then you can cook beans, sauces, boil water (and therefore pasta) in them as well. No need for gas either although you'll need electric hook up.
 
so the one you link to in the first post will do butane and propane (and propane accessories) - but you'll need to buy a hose and regulator. The regulator will define what bottles you can use - this one: https://www.halfords.com/camping/cooking-equipment/campingaz-regulator-and-hose-kit-663710.html will let you use a Campingaz butane but i'd recommend going with Calor (ie https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/15898415/continental-calor-regulator-15898415) as its generally easier and cheaper to get canisters in the UK - nothing worse than running out of gas mid fry up.

You can't easily keep track of how much gas you have left so we've ended up running with two smaller canister, one were using and one full one.
 
Siliconslave said:
so the one you link to in the first post will do butane and propane (and propane accessories) - but you'll need to buy a hose and regulator. The regulator will define what bottles you can use - this one: https://www.halfords.com/camping/cooking-equipment/campingaz-regulator-and-hose-kit-663710.html will let you use a Campingaz butane but i'd recommend going with Calor (ie https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/15898415/continental-calor-regulator-15898415) as its generally easier and cheaper to get canisters in the UK - nothing worse than running out of gas mid fry up.

You can't easily keep track of how much gas you have left so we've ended up running with two smaller canister, one were using and one full one.
Click to expand...

thanks, can you recommend a source for the calor canisters?
 
Slackworth said:
Most DIY stores like B&Q hold Calor in stock - Go Outdoors has it too. If you have any plans to go to Europe though, then I'd consider Campingaz instead as it's more readily available.
Click to expand...

the cheapest place tends to be camping / caravanning places if you have one locally, and most UK campsite seem to stock it. B&Q etc can be a real rip off in my experience. I've heard that about campingaz in europe, but had to do a few big diversions in the UK to get replacement campingaz when sites etc don't stock it. I guess in a way regulators are so cheap should have one of each :D
 
I'd probably agree on buying both although the outright cost of buying the cylinder first time round makes it more expensive to have both. We've camped in France a few times and if you think there's any remote chance you're going to run out then Calor is a none starter as you just can't get it. We ended up with CG for that reason as it's available across the EU and in the UK.

Agreed on the pricing though - best off with an independent camping shop rather than a bit chain.
 
A few petrol stations around here also do Calor gas bottles. There's a dealer locator on Calor website too.
 
In terms of the aerosol type canisters - these are used for specific burners and can be a very neat all in one solution. To my mind though they are more suitable for day / overnight trips as opposed to something for a week.
 
All good stuff, thanks guys.

So do the regulators that fit the 901, 904 & 907 cylinder also fit the CV470 canisters too?
 
Having got fed up of all the hassle of gas stoves, we tried using the cheap £30 single induction hobs and got pitches with a basic electric hook up and never looked back, we had a travel toaster/kettle/induction hob and a power strip that had a power meter in to make sure we kept within the current limit of the electric hook up, and being able to cook inside the tent on a rainy day made life so much easier!

And with 'electric' in the tent, lights/chargers, etc just makes life that little bit easier.. great if you have a large tent as well do (3m x 7m)

And pitches with electric hookup generally ended up being nicer ones and often only cost £5 extra.

Back OT...

We had the VANGO IR Combi which replaced a Camping Gaz Elite, both are 'combi' items with IR Grills underneath, but the Camping Gaz one didn't last that long, it didn't deal with a bit of extended cooking (family of 4)..
The CampingGaz Elite was £45 and the Vango IR Combi around £70 when we bought them, we still use the Vango now in a pinch when we have no electricity (due to building work going on).

And I bought the stoves online, but the cylinder and regulator etc I bought from a local shop, they had everything in, a range of bottles and it was cheaper than buying online and you knew it'd all fit together, IIRC, the exact same fitting was on both our stoves, I don't recall buying a new regulator or fitting when we bough the Vango.
 
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Man you don't need all that gear, you see these people turn up to camp sites, with their chelsea tractors, rediculously large tents and all their camping gear unopened lol - don't be one of those.

We do loads of camping even going with family we just use one of those single burners that use the aerosol type gas cans. Usually come in a plastic brief case looking thing, take up little room, and cheap as chips and work perfectly fine.

Sometimes I will bring a solid fuel burner which is literally the size of a wallet when it's folded down.

Id say for me personally finding a small kettle BBQ is more important, especially one you can take the legs off so it'll pack down, something about cooking on an actual fire feels more rewarding.

I guess it depends though what you want to get out of camping, I reckon some people would bring their dishwasher if they could.

Edit: Oh god it's a thing

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WWD5...n_i_DVPQ7M0RQMH22DKNS10R?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

......just nuke us already.
 
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