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Can I Cook in my Tent?


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Home Forums Campfire Editor’s Roundtable Can I Cook in my Tent?

Viewing 25 posts - 26 through 50 (of 72 total)
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  • #2148739
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    "dominant smell in my tent is hiker funk not meatballs and spaghetti!"

    Hiker funk is just meatballs that are a little past their expiration date as far as a bear is concerned. ;0)

    #2148746
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    "If a bear is crossing a mile of territory just to investigate a tent that had a pot of spaghetti in it last week then that bear just wasted a lot of energy for no payoff. I call bogus."

    Problem is, once he's there, he's going to investigate a lot of other things while he's at it, and you're going to be in for a long night. Best not to attract attention in the first place.

    #2148747
    Nick Gatel
    BPL Member

    @ngatel

    Locale: Southern California

    I never get huge flare-ups with my Whisperlite and I get less with the Dragonfly. Properly used a Svea 123 is even better. Have used all inside a tent — but I always start them next to the "door" just in case :)

    Heck, some people use special wood stoves in some tents/shelters.

    Canister stoves are great in shelters, just ensure there is proper ventilation.

    globetrotter in pryamid

    #2148753
    BC Bob
    Spectator

    @bcbob

    Locale: Vancouver Island

    It would help if the article didn't spend the first four paragraphs dismissing any contrary opinions about cooking in a tent as coming from ignorance, stupidity or corporate lawyers.

    #2148766
    Luke Schmidt
    BPL Member

    @cameron

    Locale: Alaska

    Theron the point was that I'm "out in the cold" on this one, not to shut down discussion. I will definitely be filing this information away as potentially useful in certain situations (i.e. the middle of winter when bears aren't out anyway).

    #2148783
    Robert Blean
    BPL Member

    @blean

    Locale: San Jose -- too far from Sierras

    Bringing up bear discipline is confusing two separate issues — both issues are important for at least some of us to consider, but let's keep them separate.

    The article was about whether or not one can safely use a stove in a tent — whether the stove would explode, burn the tent, give you CO poisoning, etc. This discussion applies to everyone who uses a stove — whether or not to use it inside their shelter is always a decision to make. The article's contention is that you need to be careful, but the risk is small for certain types of stove. If you disagree with that, then explain why.

    Bear discipline is a separate issue, and not the topic of this article. It is a topic that is important for some, but not all, of us. It applies when camping in many areas, such as much of the mountainous US and canoe country. However some camp where there are no bears, and some camp where there are bears, but not at that time of year.

    Getting back on track, I have not seen much in this discussion that disagrees with the article's point — that the objective risks of using a stove in your tent are overblown. Does that mean everyone agrees it is safe to do so — that the only issues are how to be careful and whether it is wise to do so (bears, etc)?

    –MV

    #2148785
    Billy Ray
    Spectator

    @rosyfinch

    Locale: the mountains

    "Getting back on track"

    Oh… how unBPL that would be!

    You must me an engineer?

    Or new to BPL????

    Is there any thread at BPL that stays on track???

    lol

    billy

    #2148786
    Hikin’ Jim
    BPL Member

    @hikin_jim

    Locale: Orange County, CA, USA


    Is that an old Globetrotter? Nice, Nick. Do you still have the "half height" canisters for it? I have one or two left, but they are not to be had anywhere.

    In fact, rumor has it that Camping Gaz is not importing puncture type canisters of any type any more in to the US. I don't have any confirmation on that though.

    HJ
    Adventures In Stoving
    Hikin' Jim's Blog

    #2148791
    Nick Gatel
    BPL Member

    @ngatel

    Locale: Southern California

    Jim,

    Yes it is. I have two of them. I have about 6 of the 1/2 height canisters left. Also have some of the full size ones too.

    BTW, a Svea 123 fits into the two Globe Trotter cups perfectly!! The Svea is the same size as the Globe Trotter with the canister attached. I also have one of the Globe Trotter Lanterns I used for motorcycle camping.

    I have been looking for more 1/2 height canisters for years.

    Also ran out of the Optimus canisters for my Mouse Trap 731 and Gerry stove.

    I don't collect stoves, I just don't throw anything away.

    Back on track…

    Seems that common sense has become a lost art and we have replaced it with personal injury attorneys :)

    #2148824
    peter vacco
    Member

    @fluffinreach-com

    Locale: no. california

    " The only things worse than corrupt businessmen are corrupt politicians and corrupt preachers. "

    so … there's a difference. ??
    —-

    all good with the article. and a first person note of co poisoning.
    if one is wandering thru life, and that little voice in your head ever stops …. go find some frikk'n air. NOW.
    that could well be the last clever thing you didn't get around to.

    recovery from co is Far from instant.

    i cooked in my tent fer a coon's age, with a whisperlite, and it didn't throw no one meter (sissy metric) plasma ball of flame.
    i kept food in there too (nervously) for a few years.
    and i still am not dead yet.
    all of it makes solid proof that Roger is right, and that the much bally-hoo'd Darwin effect may be sort of a delayed manner of affair.

    esbit in a tent comes close though. yeoweee, that is some foul stuff if one is cooped up.

    cheers,
    v.

    #2148833
    Roger Caffin
    BPL Member

    @rcaffin

    Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

    Hi Jim

    > HEET, unless the formulation has radically changed recently, is 99% methyl alcohol.
    > See MSDS for HEET. Perhaps a clarification is in order?
    I dare say you are right. I see the term tossed around so much as a generic that it never obvious what the person meant. The term is not used in Oz. Of course, methyl alcohol is toxic anyhow.

    > Larry Penberthy, the founder of MSR, was himself a climber. I believe (but don't
    > know for sure) that the instructions remained as quoted above until the company was
    > sold and Penberthy was no longer in charge.
    Yeah, the loss of Penberthy was the start of the decline for MSR. The word 'Safety' in their name now refers exclusively to 'safety for the company from being sued'.

    Cheers

    #2148834
    Roger Caffin
    BPL Member

    @rcaffin

    Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

    > rumor has it that Camping Gaz is not importing puncture type canisters of any type
    > any more in to the US.
    Considering the legal hazard they present for the importer and given the situation in Europe, that would be a smart move. They leak!

    Cheers

    #2148835
    Cameron M
    BPL Member

    @cameronm-aka-backstroke

    Locale: Los Angeles

    whisperlite + friend = user error = bonfire incident

    #2148846
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    "My memory says the sale occurred in the early 1980's."

    It might have been a few years before that. I was going to guess that Penberthy was out of the picture before 1975.

    REI then had two major manufacturing divisions. One was Thaw, which made the clothing, and MSR, which made the hardware.

    –B.G.–

    #2148854
    Billy Ray
    Spectator

    @rosyfinch

    Locale: the mountains

    Pretty sure it was after 1975… in the early 80's

    billy

    #2148856
    James Couch
    Spectator

    @jbc

    Locale: Cascade Mountains

    REI purchased MR in 1981 and sold it to Cascade Designs in 2001.

    Interestingly enough, Penberthy passed way in 2001. He was a VERY interesting man. My wife went to university with his daughter.I am pretty sure that Larry ran the company unil he sold in 1981.

    #2148868
    Mat D
    Spectator

    @matd

    Locale: Europe

    Just back from the Alps, plenty of snow. Mountaineering & camping above the tree line. The three of us carry the tent: stakes & poles, outer, inner. Standing still to cook & eat isn't an option, you cool down too much. Plus there is plenty of wind, cooling you & your stove down even further. So here's what we do.

    Outer gets setup. We throw a CCF inside (no groundsheet) and cook. Vents are wide open. Since there's no inner you gain some more space and headroom, and with that I suppose some safety. Inside the tent it's dramatically warmer than outside. Cooking merely consists of melting snow, which we grab from the area we'll be sleeping on, equalizing the ground as we go.

    Typically two of us will be hugging the canister with our gloved hands, to heat it up. Works very well, you see an immediate improvement on the output. The third guy takes care of the actual melting.

    Can't imagine cooking outside.

    Once done we hang up the inner, get into our sleeping bags. Long nights this time of year.

    #2148965
    Hikin’ Jim
    BPL Member

    @hikin_jim

    Locale: Orange County, CA, USA

    REI purchased MR in 1981 and sold it to Cascade Designs in 2001.

    Those dates sound right.

    The period between 1981 and 2001 are known as "the dark ages" to MSR fans. They killed the Firefly, gelded the XGK, "replaced" the excellent yellow pump with the inferior (but cheaper) gray and black pump (et seq.), and so on.

    Since 2001, a lot of really nice things have come out of MSR:
    -The new duraseal pump which is the best pump since the yellow pump was phased out (ca. 1984).
    -The Reactor
    -The much improved pre-heat loop on the new Whisperlite Internationale (ca. 2012)
    -The Whisperlite Universal
    -The Micro Rocket which is a huge step up from the Pocket Rocket for so many reasons.
    -The Windboiler
    -The Windpro II which is a nice refinement over the old Windpro.

    HJ
    Adventures In Stoving
    Hikin' Jim's Blog

    #2149027
    Mark Fowler
    BPL Member

    @kramrelwof

    Locale: Namadgi

    I sense a little hypocrisy from MSR as they refuse to acknowledge that cooking in a tent is relatively safe while they will happily make and sell you a hanging kit to let you cook in your tent. I think their legal defense could be compromised.

    Perhaps they need to start selling sky hooks.

    #2149081
    Sam Farrington
    BPL Member

    @scfhome

    Locale: Chocorua NH, USA

    Roger,
    In my early forays northward into Canada, there was always bottled ethyl alcohol, so labeled, for sale in the liquor stores. Never checked the proof, because I liked the taste of 151 proof rum better, and not being a southern boy, didn't have access to pure moonshine.

    Thought you would get around to your latest models of inverted canister stoves, but no.

    Also, your silnylon seems to burn much more slowly than mine.

    Since you design both summer and winter tents, or your web site says you do, can't imagine you using your cooked-in winter tents in the summer when the bears are out. Anyway, it is reckless to cook in the tent even in the winter because there are man-eating polar bears who never hibernate and roam the mountains as far south as Duluth, coming right across Lake Superior skating on the ice. That's why their claws have blades on them, and not to slice you up as you might have thought.

    Is there any info about other toxins generated by Propane and Butane? Since folks may want to button up the tent in a gale, it might be very appreciated if you were to do an update article about generation of CO, in canister and other stoves best suited for winter use.

    This one was fun though.

    #2149088
    Roger Caffin
    BPL Member

    @rcaffin

    Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

    Hi Sam

    > bottled ethyl alcohol,
    Overproof Vodka?

    > your silnylon seems to burn much more slowly than mine.
    Possible. It suggests different amounts of silicone polymer on the fabric maybe.

    > man-eating polar bears who never hibernate and roam the mountains
    Are they as bad as the lawyers, politians, preachers and marketing spin doctors?

    > any info about other toxins generated by Propane and Butane
    The basic fuel molecules are so simple that there is little opportuntiy for more complex byproducts to form. Youmight get some aldehydes, but you would smell them fairly easily. In general there is no smell.

    Cheers

    #2149318
    Andy Jarman
    Member

    @andyjarman

    Locale: Edge of the World

    Roger – probably at bit off topic but, after one of your earlier articles about stove evolution I invested in a fire maple titanium FMS-300T.

    45grams by jove!

    However – there is a design flaw in this stove I think we should be aware of.

    Completely tightening this stove onto the cannister detaches the threaded brass insert in the bottom of the stove (along with the gas cannister) from the rest of the stove. This leaves you with two pieces of very elaborate looking junk and a couple of backpackers huddled around a lone esbit tab in a howling gale on a mountain top.

    The lower portion of the rectangular housing around the valve should be filed back so that the stove can enter the cannisters valve collar.

    Being a gram tragic, and despite this incident, I bought a second FMS-300T only to discover it is NOT a one off incident but a fundamental design flaw of this stove. I could barely get the valve to emit any gas, so timid was I with tightening the thing down onto the cannister.

    95% Polish Vodka (Australia's only alternative to America's Everclear) is one of my favourite pieces of multi purpose kit – cheers!

    PS I notice the MSR Micro Rocket has a pretty blocky piece that hits the cannister valve collar too. Is this required for heat exchange or something? Perhaps filing it it off will reduce efficiency of the stove?

    #2149321
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    Is this the same as the Monatauk Gnat, which is 45 grams? Or, is one a knockoff of the other?

    I have a Gnat, and I have never had any problem with tightening it.

    –B.G.–

    #2149367
    Roger Caffin
    BPL Member

    @rcaffin

    Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

    Hi Andy

    What you experienced is not a fault in the stove. It is a fault in the canister you have. I suspect the nipple has been seriously depressed. Have a look at my article on Lindal Valves:
    http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/lindal-valves-caffin.html

    In particular look at the last photo, which shows canisters with their nipples sticking up different amounts. I strongly suspect your canister has the nipple not showing much at all above the rim – which is definitely wrong.

    It may be that valve on your canister has been thumped at some stage, or maybe you have a poorly made Chinese canister. If the crimping machine is set up wrongly, the Lindal valve can be distorted to do this.

    I have just checked a number of my stoves and a large number of Fire Maple FMS-300T bases. The square bit on the 300T should NEVER touch the rim. There should always be a gap.

    No, I really don't think the FMS-300T stoves are defective. And the MicroRocket should not touch either.

    Cheers

    #2149398
    marjolein Keuning
    BPL Member

    @laincha

    Locale: netherlands

    Hi, i read this thread when there were already a million reactions, but i don't seem to see anyone cooking on a wood stove in a teepee style tent, like titanium goat or seek outside.
    then there is a (wood)stove in the tent, and you can easily cook on the stove, a little slower but works fine.

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