Coleman Camp Stoves

Coleman camp stoves have been as much a part of the US camping scene as their famous pump-up Coleman Lantern was.

Two-burner or three-burner Coleman camp stoves have been doing sterling duty for families and outdoorsmen for many decades, and indeed I was proud to have one in my own camp kit for a long time.

Coleman camp stoves use white gasoline as fuel, it's sometimes has other names, and if you've got nothing else they will handle unleaded gasoline at a pinch... but it isn't good for them. Use the right fuel again as soon as you can.

These camping stoves have a little brass hand pump which builds up air pressure in the fuel tank to force petrol into the stove's burners.

You have to pump the thing like crazy, then turn a tap to let the fuel fill a little copper cup underneath the head of the burner. Then turn off the tap and light the fuel. It will start smoking a bit as it pre-warms the copper head of the burner. This is the priming stage.

You wait until the priming fuel has almost burned itself out, and then you open the tap again and let more gas fuel onto the burner, which should now be really hot.

Once the head is hot enough, any petrol touching it is vaporized from liquid to gas, which is what we want for efficient, smoke-free, combustion. A nice, clean, small blue flame.

This is where the stove starts it's familiar 'roaring' sound, and within a few minutes the copper cooking head will be glowing red-hot.

You regulate the heat by opening or closing the fuel tap slightly. And you maintain the pressure in these fuel stoves by pumping more air into the fuel tank from time to time.

These Coleman camp stoves have to be maintained in top condition, or they can have a big 'flare up' of flames. It happened to me once, and that's when I ended up getting rid of the thing. I probably could have serviced it, but I didn't have the patience.

But as long as they're kept in pristine condition that won't happen to you. If you look after it, your old Coleman can last you for decades.