Flame Tender & Stove Cleaner

One thing that's real important for any campstove is what's called The Flame Tender.  These are mostly antiques.  They may still sell them new but I've never seen a new one.  You find them in antique stores.
Their purpose is obvious and basic.  they can tame a tall flame and render it a simmer.  A lot of camp stoves don't simmer well, their flame is far too hot to simmer or "keep warm," as the case may be.  The flame tender is your bridge between a really HOT flame and a perfect simmer.  Sometimes even the left burner won't simmer well.  That's when the vaunted flame tender really shines.  A low flame on the left burner underneath a flame tender becomes the perfect "keep warm" temperature without scorching and ruining your meal.  There are many variations of the flame tender.  Try to get one or more that have a handle.  The ones without a handle are a real hassle and you will eventually get burned.  I guarantee it.

There's really only one chemical we use for keeping the stoves cleaned--it's called Awesome cleaner and it's found almost entirely in "dollar stores."  I once saw it in a regular grocery but I can't remember where or when.  When we run low, we just go to the nearest dollar store, pay a buck and restock on Awesome.  It's the perfect stove grease cutter.  A few paper towels or a rag and some awesome and you're good to go.

Do carry a pair of pretty good gloves to use to move around hot skillets on your stove top.  Also, have at least one decent trivet handy.  Anything can be a trivit, from a flat piece of wood to a ceramic floor tile to a piece of iron cast specifically to be a trivet.  We recently found some great 12 x 12 marble tiles at Lowe's for 50 cents each.  They will make a real nice trivet and are large enough to handle anything.

Typically, we keep all the shims, teflon tape and stove clutter in a stout fabric bag.  Wrap up the bag and stow it in your Coleman.  In our 413D there's now plenty of room for everything with space to spare.  If you just throw the clutter in the stove body, it will bang around and get real annoying.  Also, it's a pain to pull out each piece and the stuff usually makes an unsightly chunk of clutter on the picnic table.  Keep is wrapped up in a stout bag and the cook area looks a lot better.  Also, if you have children, it's less likely they will be attracted to the gadgets and stove widget that you use.  In addition, all those little things can easily get lost.  By keeping them in a bag all is well.

I think that pretty well covers all of our ideas on stoves and related topics.  It's now time to move onto some other topic.  We've pretty well discussed all there is to mention about stoves.  If there's something we missed, please call it to our attention in the forms of a comment on this blog.  Thanks  & Cheers, jm

The Green Brothers--A Coleman Duet

Hey, this Duo is HOT!  Rock ON! Now that we have two Old Coleman Stoves, it sure didn't take long to find a credible excuse to set up BOTH of them and let the party begin.  What better day to inaugurate a Double Play than July 4th, King of Cookout Holidays.  We have company coming for a 9 am breakfast this morning.  The Green Brothers will have a starring role in making it a memorable meal.  No shuttling stuff back and forth from the inside kitchen.  Nope, most of our grub will be rustled up right on the glowing red hot burner plates courtesy of The Coleman Boys--they came from a green family long before green was chic, hip and cool.   Yeah, we're Green--Coleman Green!

July 3rd, we even unwrapped an artifact.  A NIB Coleman aluminum stove stand.  This rare artifact was purchased as a garage sale in 1999 and had remained unsealed in its original box ever since.  No kidding.  So, yesterday was the perfect Special Day to pop those old-fashioned copper staples and pull this puppy into the light of day.  We leveled up both stove, hooked one to a tank and the other to a green bottle.  We would have used two propane tanks but we have only one adapter hose.  We do keep a spare adapter so that was no problem.

Our friends arriving this morning are Spud Heads--they both are  TNN--Tater Nation Natives.  They were both born with hash brown hair and grew up curly fried.  They've always had a little scallop in their gallop and they can get half baked with the best of them!  So, naturally we HAVE to serve potatoes this morning and they can't be "Sinner Potatoes," as they call dehydrated potatoes.  They have to be the real deal--fresh fried country potatoes.  Heck, that's A LOT of work!

The biggest piece of work involved was cleaning our stainless steel griddle.  This behemoth weighs a blue ton and, over the years, it had become encrusted with a thick patina of cooking residue.  Some people call that "seasoning."  We call it YUCK!  It took about an hour of grinding, sanding, buffing, polishing and oiling but here it is in all its glory--a shaving mirror disguised as a griddle!

Well, it's T Minus Two Hours and counting until Backyard Breakfast is served.  We gotta get cracking, peeling, chopping, boiling, sizzling and just downright hopping to "git 'er dun."  We will photo document this one--it's going to be easily as good as making a meal in a real campground campsite--only it's in our backyard without all the gear hassle.

More stove tips

Perhaps one of the msot fun things about an old Coleman stove is the blank palette top.  It's like an artist's canvas waiting for your creativity--something to make Crafters smile.  Years ago (perhaps 1999) it dawned on us to stencil the top of the Coleman with something that would look good when seen at any angle.  I wish we had a dollar for every smile this has sparked.  The added design really gives the stove a touch of Camp Class. It's a cheery thing to see first thing in the morning, too.  It brings a smile to our faces every time we glance at it. We haven't yet figured out what to put on the 413D.  We've sure been thinking about it a LOT, though.  We doubt it will be the same motif.  There are so many possibilities.

OK, another tip is about New Age picnic tables and Old Coleman Stoves.  You may have noticed that some public agencies are using picnic tables made from recycled milk jugs or other "green" plastic material.  This is a nice idea but the tables don't mix with Old Coleman stoves.  Nope, like oil and water.  The heat coming from the bottom of the stove can melt one of those table tops faster than a New York Minute.  That's why we always carry a piece of wood larger than the bottom of the stove.  It's in case we need to protect the picnic table top.  Besides looking really ugly, the melted plastic really STINKS and it's probably emitting toxic fumes, too. 

Keep the stove clean.  It's a really good idea to keep the grease and cooking splatter off your stove.  A dirty stove attracts flies, mice and other vermin.  It might even attract bears in Bear Country, too.  Once a year, we take the stove body to the car wash and blast the heck out of it.  Then we turn it upside down and let it thoroughly dry out.  we also use a caustic cleaner to remove grease and oil.  We're pretty Type A about keeping the stove clean.  Luckily, Old Coleman's are easy to clean.

There's one other tip about those old stove.  Use a fine (REALLY fine) piece of wire to periodically poke into the small holes that rim the circumference of the burner plates.  They do get clogged and keeping them clean will give you an even flame and a much hotter burner.

Well, that's about it for Coleman stoves.  I will take one last look in my stove bag and see if I forgot anything.

The stove stand

Stove stands are indispensable.  When necessary, they can free up space on a small picnic table.  If a picnic table isn't available, you can use a folding table and put the stove elsewhere.  Likewise, if the wind is blowing from different directions, you can adjust the location of your stove to always have it's back toward the wind.  If you're cooking something that splatters grease everywhere, it's great to be able to segregate the stove location to keep the main area clean.

Old Coleman stove stands are great but they are inherently dangerous.  They can easily cause a painful pinch of your fingers or, worse, a deep cut into a pinky.  Bummer!  Be VERY careful folding and unfolding them.  They can really BITE!  Second, the stands are inherently unstable.  What camper hasn't bumped into a stove stand only to see dinner dumped onto the ground?  It's no fun.

If you're going to use s stove stand, take time to make a custom wooden cook top for the stand.  Cut holes in the right places so the wood locks into the tabs on top of the stand.  This prevents the stand from creeping closed and tipping over when you least expect it.  Likewise, it gives you a great surface to use your shims to level the stove.  lastly, it gives you extra work space upon which to place your utensils.

Stove leveling

Believe it or not, one of the most overlooked aspects of using a camp stove is the stove leveling process. Most people simply plop down their stove and think they are good to go. Nope, Little Buckaroo, yer not! The stove must be leveled to work properly, from both a mechanical and a cooking perspective. Propane will not distribute evenly in an unlevel stove. Likewise, the liquid in your cook pots and skillets will all run to one side on an unlevel stove. Just take a few moments to level the stove and it will work perfectly and you can cook evenly.

Buy a small bubble level. Attach it with brads to a small block of wood. Place the level on the stove grate. Use carpenter shims to level the stove. It's that simple and you will be amazed at the difference it makes! It took me years to finally realize the vital importance of leveling a stove. Now, I simply can't imagine doing it any other way!

Propane stove conversion

Above are generic photos of the two primary items you would need to convert a Coleman stove to propane.  Total cost for these two items is expensive.  Expect to pay at least $40 for the pair and probably $50!

Adapters vary in their ability to control a simmer flame. There's no way to know how well any given adapter will simmer prior to purchase. It's strictly luck of the draw. I'd suggest that you buy the adapter from Wally World so that it can be returned if it doesn't simmer worth a dang. DOn't skimp on the hose--get a long one. It allows much more flexibility in locating the tank in proximity to the stove. Also, hoses love to coil and curve and they don't travel in a straight line. Make sure the hose as a thumb wheel on it so you don't need a wrench to screw it into the tank.

A note of caution: ALWAYS carry teflon tape! NEVER leave home without teflon tape! It's inevitable that the hose and adapter will not fit perfectly together. Truly inevitable. When that happens, your stove is useless as there will be a dangerous fire breaking out in teh worst possible place. Believe me, we've had it happen too often to count. Now that we carry teflon tape, it never happens. We always tape the joint between the hose and the adapter and it makes camping much safer for all concerned.

The other weak link in the adapter is the coil spring that provides tension into the actual stove innards You have to have a very tight fit between the adapter and the stove portal or else you will get yet another propane fire breaking out there.

The steel used in the spring that comes on the adapter is great stuff but heat makes it brittle and it will eventually break off. It's not a matter of "if" it will break, simply when. Meanwhile, the steel is basically impossible to bend with your fingers. That's why we carry two small pliers--one needle nose and one regular. We now never worry about when the spring will break. it doesn't matter. one nice thing about the 413D is that there is a real EDGE on the inside of the box. We can simply slide the spring coil over this edge and don't have to worry about bending a hook on the end of the spring.

There's one other weak link in the hose. Almost all hoses have a machined fitting that goes into the tank. There's a little circular machined recess in the tip of the hose. There's an O ring that fits into this recess. Propane gas has a chemical that makes O rings brittle. They crack and eventually break off. Believe me, this is NOT a good thing! Some of these O rings don't even last a season. They will rarely last two seasons and, three? Forget it! The O rings typically costs 25 cents each at a full service propane place. We buy 10 of them and keep them two film cans. That way when we lose one, we're not SOL. Keep an eye on that O ring at all times. Swapping it out BEFORE it breaks is highly recommended! If you've ever had a propane fire break out right at the tank, you know how terrifying this can be. It's all because of that skipping little 25 cent O ring!

This should go without saying but.... Be sure to wait until your stove cools completely before packing your hose inside the stove. Duh. Well, believe it or not, I got in a hurry once and totally destroyed a perfectly good hose by allowing it to contact the hot burner plate. Opps. If you can put your hand on the burner plate, it's cool enough to pack the hose inside. Otherwise, chill out and wait.

Another caveat is spare propane. You need two things. One is a mechanical propane tank gauge. They sell for less than $15 most places. Don't let you tank fool you. Monitor it before and after each trip. Keep it full. An empty propane tank is very embarrassing and problematic. Also bring along not one but TWO green propane bottles. It's cheap insurance and does wonders for peace of mind.

Here's a tip about the green bottles. They are cheap for a reason. They are intended for one time use only. By and large, if you ever have to use them, plan on using ALL the propane in them or throw them away immediately after usage even if they have propane left in them. Why? Well, the little funky valves in those green bottles are worthless. At least 50 percent of them will leak gas after their first use!!!! It might be a leak so small you can't smell it or hear it but they will be leaking and eventually you could have a disaster. Susun has good ears and she can hear a gnat fart at 50 yards. So, I have her listen to the green bottles bu holding the end into her ear. It looks weird but it works. She can detect a tiny leak. You would be amazed how many of them leak. They DO NOT leak when they are new and unused. It's after being used that they leak. That's why we just throw them away in a VENTILATED dumpster. Oftentimes, if the leak is big, we will simply put them downwind and let them run out of gas before throwing them away. Green bottles are very dangerous. Use then with great caution and suspicion! User beware!

Stove ignition

Here are some perspectives regarding methods of lighting a Coleman stove.

There are at least three ways to light your stove.  Using a match is the most obvious.  Matches have drawbacks.  The next is what we call a "clicker."  It's a butane thingie that's "point and shoot."  These have drawbacks, too.  The third is a device that lights a welder's cutting torch.  We call it a "sparker."  Its drawbacks are fewer than either of the above and it's what we use to light the stove.  It's major drawback is that it doesn't work when it's wet.  However, as long as we keep it dry, it works great.  The main drawback of matches is that you have to get your hand too close to the burner plate to make them work.  Also, high humidity can making striking a match a real guessing game.  If the match heads are damp, forget it.  The clickers are great but they've become less reliable over the years.  You never know when one of them will up and die.  Typically they die in secret just before your camping trip.  You get to camp only to find out your clicker is DOA.  Even carrying two or 3 clickers sometimes will not solve this vexing issue of Sudden Clicker Death Syndrome.  That's why we prefer the sparker.  We do ALWAYS keep at least two stashes of matches tucked into various boxes.  It would be crazy to leave home without matches!  We keep the matches in their own zip lock bags to seal out humidity.  damp matches are worthless.  The nice thing about the sparker is that it's virtually bombproof and can't accidentally start a fire by itself.  You can throw it inside the stove and it's always there.  Matches somehow take on a life of their own, sprout legs and walk away to unknown, mysterious locations.  Matches and socks are probably related in a way that is poorly understood.
I have become so exasperated with clickers I can't even stand the sight of them any more.  They work really great when you really aren't depending on them.  But when the chips are down, clickers will leave you stranded beside the road.  Their fickleness is very frustrating.  If I could find a reliable clicker, I would change my mind but the words "reliable clicker" are a classic oxymoron.

I haven't priced out sparkers recently, nor would I even know where to buy one in Idaho Falls.  I presume I could find one at a welding shop.  I will look around and obtain some prices.  Well, that was easy--Amazon sells them!  Click here to see the listing.

A test of the 413D

Here we go--Type A-Ness to The Max!
We fired up the new 413D and amazingly got the right burner to 977 degrees!  It actually maxed out the temp gun a couple of times.  That means it went over 1000!

Meanwhile, we put on precisely one gallon of water.  We want to cook four ears of sweet corn.  A gallon can cook more than four ears but we figured bringing a gallon of water to boil would be a good test of the 413D.  We actually used a measuring cup to make sure we put in precisely 128 ounces of water.

The pot is 10 inches in diameter and 8 inches tall.  The water content is 3.5 inches.  The water temp was 68 degrees before we put it on the stove.  The ambient air temp is 85.  Winds are light, officially 6 mph right now at the Idaho Falls Airport.  We put the water on at 6:12:30.  We will now go out and monitor the water and see how long it takes to boil a full gallon.

Most stove testers use the Boil Time  (BT) for a mere CUP of water!  What good is that unless you are a backpacker making soup?  Why not go the full monty.  A gallon BT will really tell you something.
The only other BT that matters is a coffee pot but the size of those vary so widely it's hard to find "commonality."

The water came to a roiling boil at 6:37:00, that's 30 seconds less than 25 minutes.  Yes, that seems like a long time but for a FULL gallon of water, that's nothing.  We put on our four ears of corn at 6:38:00 and will time how long it takes to bring it back to a boil.

WOW, It came back to a boil in less than 3 minutes!

We pulled the corn off after 6 minutes BT @ 6:44 pm.  We let them cool for a couple of minutes and scarfed down those ears like we were starving sailors stranded on a desert island.

As long as the stove is already set up, I think I will test boil a pot of coffee.  Stay tuned.

I put the pot on at 7:04:00 and it boiled at 7:16:00.  Bear in mind it's a large pot with a small bottom surface area.  Stainless steel pots with large bottom surface areas will have lower BTs than smaller diameter vessels.
This particular coffee pot is a Family Heirloom.  It was the pot Doris and Don used on all their camping trips.  It was in their camper th day Don had his unfortunate accident up in Washington!  As such, we consider it a Sacred Obligation to use this pot to make our coffee for as long as this pot shall last.

Sometimes I get impatient with the pot and boil water in a larger diameter stock pot and then pour it into the coffee pot.  This is a valid option for shortening the BT of coffee water.  BT is what it is all about in camp.

Well, that concludes our test of the 413D.  I will add photos later.  At least we have the data.  Cheers, jp

No, not quite--the Doris & Don Pot holds a couple of ounces over 8 full cups--that's 64 ounces!  That's a half gallon.  So the BT was actually pretty good.  A full gallon with a much larger diameter bottom took 25 minutes.  A half gallon with a small bottom took 12 minutes.  All-in-all, I'd give that an A+.

What we do in camp is real simple.  We get up and put on coffee water and then do all the other camp chores one does in the morning.  It usually takes awhile to get a fire up and running.  It take awhile to go to the outhouse and so forth.  So, the 15 minutes or so that it takes to boil the coffee water doesn't really seem so long.  Bottom line is that we let out coffee percolate for 10 minutes so you know it's at least 25 minutes to coffee when you get out of the tent.  It simply cain't be done quicker for the coffee quantity and quality we desire.

Coleman 413D vs 425D

Ah, the venerable Coleman stove!  It's such a integral part of The Great American Camping Experience. Probably anyone who has ever camped has been up close and personal with a Coleman stove.  Those green boxes are a genuine icon of camping.  One of my very first memories of camping was my Dad cussing out a Coleman stove that simply wouldn't start.  He'd pump and pump and cuss and cuss and that stove wouldn't budge--nary a flame to be seen from its cold, stoic burners.  I've fretted over many a white gas-fueled Coleman stove myself--their frustrations are legendary.

But no more!  Those days of pumping and cussing are long gone--a distant memory of bygone years.  Today, we convert our old relic Coleman stove to propane and laugh all the way to the picnic table.  HA!  What white gas?  That smelly, dangerous fuel is a thing of the past.  It's probably been 15 years since we purchased a gallon of white gas.  That's been at least 15 years of Coleman stove bliss.  Coleman stoves are truly wonderful to use and even more so now that the Frustration Factor has been removed from the equation of their usage.

It's simple and relatively cheap to convert a Coleman to propane.  You simply buy a $20 adapter, a $20 hose, a propane tank and, viola, instant success.  The propane adapter fits perfectly into the stove just like the old fuel tank did.  Poof, it's done in seconds.  As long as your propane tank has gas in it, you're good to go.  Turn a knob, fire up a match and you've got FLAME, baby!  The danger of a gas explosion is virtually eliminated.  What could be better than that?

Since at least the mid-1990's, we've been using a Coleman 425D.  This model was built in 1965-66.  It's a wonderful stove with few design drawbacks.  On June 26, 2010, we accidentally found an even older Coleman 413D.  It was produced from 1950-1953, probably reaching it's peak production in 1952.  The overall trend in Coleman stoves has been to make them lighter and smaller with more bells and whistles. The older Coleman stoves are built like Sherman tanks--big, heavy, stout, real steel artifacts of a bygone era when American workers actually MADE stuff right here in the Good Ol' U.S.A.  There's probably more real steel in an old Coleman stove than there is some modern hybrid passenger cars!

This is our very first post to the Camping Tips blog.  As we've been typing this post and processing photos, we've realized we're getting in over our head on this topic.  There's simply no way to summarize everything we want to say about our Coleman stoves in a single blog post.  I think it's going to take at least 3 and maybe 4 (or even more) blog posts to cover this topic.  WOW, my head is spinning.  Anyway, here's what we will do--we will put in a little bit more about the stoves and then do back to the drawing board to "rethink" how to discuss this topic.  Then, we will come back later and delete this post and start from scratch.

Here's the nitty gritty comparison between the two stoves--the 425D measures 18x12x4.375 and its burners are 9.5 inches on center.  The 413D measures 22x13x5.375 and its burners are 11 inches on center.

The actual net cooking area of the 425D is 10 x 17.  The net cooking area of the 413D is 20.375 x 11.25--a 35 percent increase in cooking area!  The extra inch of depth and larger overall dimensions of the 413D allows storage of two green propane bottles onboard.  (ALWAYS carry extra green bottles in case your large propane tank runs out of gas at a most inopportune time!)

The burners on the 413D run considerably hotter than the 425D.  We clocked the right burner (always the hottest) at well over 900 degrees.  The photo shows it clocking at 923!  The hottest we could get the right burner on the 425D was 850 with occasional short bursts to 875.  Meanwhile, the left burner on the 413D ran consistently 870 with short bursts to 900.  The 425D's left burner ran only 800-830.  Basically, the 413D is running roughly upwards of 10 percent hotter.  This doesn't sound like much but it will make a huge difference in the time it takes to make morning coffee--a VERY important measure of any stove's success.

Well, there's huge amounts of stuff to write about these stoves but I have spent far too long this morning messing around with blogs--it's time to get out and enjoy the day.  Cheers, jp

Blog Born

The Camp Tip blog was created at 7:30 am June 26, 2010, in Idaho Falls, Idaho.