Gas ONE 15k btu vs Coleman 1 burner 7.5k btu why care?

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ORANGE

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 23, 2018
Messages
166
Reaction score
25
https://www.amazon.com/GS-3900P-Por...as+one+burner&qid=1563137209&s=gateway&sr=8-5

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-Camp-Bistro-1-Burner-Butane-Camp-Stove/34761205

Bob was talking about the Gas ONE on a video, that it does propane/butane.   So you have fuel options.  The BTU's are very different.  

My question is why should a person care about BTU's for camp cooking?  If you can give me good reasons for that I will spend the money.

Im looking to get one pressure cooker and that will be my everything pot/skillet to go with whatever cooker ya'll point me to.

Thanks.
 
the lower the BTU the longer it takes to cook something.

if you are cooking outside in the winter and there is any type of breeze/wind the lower BTU will not cut it.

now if you do all of your cooking inside it just takes longer. but who wants to cook inside in the summer?

I have both a lower BTU and a higher BTU. the lower BTU is great for reheating and simmering the higher BTU is great for getting the job done no matter what.

highdesertranger
 
higher BTU's are needed if you want to sear larger things and keep the pan hot. if you have a high BTU's stove you can put it on a low flame and be fine when you dont need the extra heat to sear things. but if you only have a low BTU's burner once it is on high, you cant get any more.

most of the time i use a low to medium flame, but when i want to sear a steak or roast, or fry something, or bring a pot to a boil it goes all the way up. the low btu burners dont cut it. if i have only one burner i would not go with less than 10,000 btu. with 2 burners the second burner could be smaller but my current stove has 2 burners each 10,000 BTU's

if you dont really cook much and just need to warm up some stuff now and then a low BTU stove can get you by for sure
 
I had a Coleman gasoline 2 burner.  It worked well.  I mostly use propane now.  It works better.  I keep alcohol and a soda can stove as a backup.  It produces less heat.  I regularly boil 6 eggs.  I heat the water to a boil, add the eggs, continue heating to a boil again then simmer for 5 minutes.  The last step is 10 minutes in the hot water with no flame.  The amount of heat and amount of fuel are different.  More BTUs gets the water boiling faster.  If you are using a pressure cooker you want a lot of heat to get pressure.  I would be inclined to use alcohol much less with a pressure cooker due to the really long time to build pressure.  If you ever turn a stove all the way up consider what it would be like if you could only turn it up half way or less.  

For virtually no money at all you can try a soda can alcohol stove.  You need some empty cans, a $2 bottle of yellow HEET gas line antifreeze and a day to play with it.  When you are done you have a backup stove and experience with low heat cooking.
 
do not burn HEET in an enclosed area. or any denatured alcohol for that matter. highdesertranger
 
Because I travel solo I do just fine with a Gas One Mini dual fuel which is even lower BTUs than the one you put a link to.

I am not boiling big pots of water at a time. I am not doing high heat frying. High heat cooking destroys the non stick coatings on pans so it is a bad idea to cook with that high of a temperature. You don't cook chicken, hamburger or pork chops over high heat as it makes the meat get tough. You don't cook eggs, pancakes, bacon or most anything else over high heat either. Which means I have not yet had any issues with not having enough BTUs to get the cooking done right and done in a very reasonable amount of time.

But people do get impatient for water to heat up really fast so they can get that cup of coffee made ASAP. Of course it takes very little time to heat up enough water for one cup of coffee (Aero Press) anyway so that is pretty much not going to be a major reason to have a lot of BTUs. So what if it takes one more minute on a Gas One Mini versus on a high BTU burner? The amount of fuel it takes to produce those BTUs to heat that cup of water is exactly the same, one just does it a little faster but it is not doing it any cheaper.

Now if you were regularly cooking large quantities of food in large pots you might want to have more BTUs. But realistically are you going to be doing that type of cooking? I certainly won't and I would get tired of eating the same thing dinner for a whole week so it does not go to waste. I will let the ones in the groups who love to cook for groups be the people who travel with the big pots and high BTU stoves. My tiny rig simply does not have the storage space for such things. But I will be happy to offer to help prep food, stir pots and wash dishes for those who do the large batch cooking for a crowd.

For me the primary advantage of the larger Gas One Dual fuel is it can handle bigger skillets than the smaller mini version. That is nice if you are cooking for two or making a big batch of bacon if you are making a bunch of pancakes all at one time. But as a solo traveler I get by just fine with an 8" skillet. Weighs less, takes up less cabinet space, etc.

So are the BTUs really all that important? I have not found it to be something worth worrying about. I thought it might be but as it turned out it wasn't.
 
I read the description on amazon and I found 2 things that concern me. It said that it was the most powerful model on the market.... dual fuel..... **with propane.

That leads me to believe it only puts out 15k BTUs when using propane.

Also it said it includes a propane adapter hose. I thought at first that's a win right there. A bulk tank adapter hose is $10-15. No. It's not a bulk adapter. It's an adapter to use the little green propane bottles. An extra piece to keep track of and probably near impossible to replace.

Also the reviews had one person who had a leak in the adapter hose. Propane leaks do happen with quality equipment. But are still very dangerous. It just seems like an extra component to fail.

The Coleman unit and similar ones that can be found at Asian supermarkets are all in one. The fuel canister is inside the stove when installed and has no rubber hose and propane bottle tethered to it.

I personally havent used butane but have had limited success with lower BTU stoves. I do like to fry and sear. Also I hate waiting 15-20 minutes to boil pasta water while wasting fuel.

Also as HDR said if it's cold and or windy especially if using heavy cast iron cookware, it takes a long time to get to temp with lower BTUs. If you have higher BTUs you can turn it down. If you have low BTUs you cant turn it up any higher.
 
If I may add an additional query to my first post.

Saving money on the fuel.

If I use a teeny tiny pressure cooker like a 2 liter, 1.5 liter with small volume and small base, vs the Presto 4 qt, much larger base /volume

which one uses less fuel to bring and keep to pressure?

Am I asking an impossible to answer question?
 
butane and propane in small bottles is very expensive compared to propane in larger tanks. butane is almost impossible to find in small towns. some people stock up on butane when they find it cheap but however cheap it is, it is still a lot more expensive then bulk propane. highdesertranger
 
and butane quits flowing at 40 degrees F.    propane quits at -40 degrees F, which is the same as -40C.
 
To be the most frugal, it is propane. And the least air volume (tiny pressure cooker) is the fastest coming to pressure. Which is the most frugal.

So I am to look for the smallest refillable tank with a small burner, no family sized. A pressure cooker can also be used for searing, steaming cooking eggs, whatnot, so to me it is a great one time investment.

I found a nifty tool Im going to try to put a pic up next.
 
I have the Gas One Dual Fuel. I use it with propane. I have never needed to have it on the highest setting. I like that it has that extra capacity. On the other hand, it is really easy to turn it down pretty low, for simmering. I use it for cooking and heating. I like that I could, if absolutely necessary, use butane as well, just in case I have trouble finding propane.

I use the green propane bottles, which I refill from a 20 pound tank. Propane send to cost me about $14 every three months.



Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk
 
Orange:
Howdy! :)

Do you have a lot of experience using a pressure cooker?
Is there something about it that is useful to your current or planned diet?

If you're not currently using a pressure cooker, perhaps you might start with a lower end stove, to see how it meets your needs. :)

Last year, after much research, I decided to buy the GasOne GS-800P dual fuel stove (the same one Maki uses):
https://www.amazon.com/Propane-Stainless-Portable-Ignition-Carrying/dp/B01LW87Z9O/
It has half the BTUs compared to the model you posted, however it's only $35, and is delightfully light & compact. :)
It has been fine for all my uses, including many pasta boilings.
For example, as I posted in the Cheese thread, I often make from-scratch mac&cheese, which takes only 12 grams of butane and less than 15 minutes, on my stove.
It takes about 3 minutes to boil water, and only 2 to heat water that's useable for most of my uses.

As others have said, for simple one person meals, it's more than adequate. :)

Last month, I ran out of butane, and had many headaches getting a case delivered by Amazon & UPS to "general delivery".
During that period, I used my emergency green-propane bottle.
I had carefully stored the hose in a bin where it would be safe.
I much prefer butane canisters, because there's no gas leaked when one removes the fuel canister. With the propane adapter hose, some always is released. :(
As soon as my butane case arrived, I stopped using the propane bottle, but I'm glad I have it as a backup. :)

I've been experimenting with sun heating, using my van's dash, and that works extremely well.
It's the most frugal cooking technique available. :)
It does take about 1-3 hours, and works best with retort pouches and canned meals.

As I mentioned before, gas stoves generally don't fluctuate much in price, so take your time. :)
Bravo for asking questions! :D
 
In transit from Amazon is

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LW87Z9O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Gas ONE mini dual

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00002N602/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Presto 4 qt pressure cooker

Why did I go with the larger 4 qt. Because I wont be full time for some time, wont have a fridge. I thought to prep meals and freeze them at my home. Then 1 meal can thaw from out of the cooler and I can put it inside the pressure cooker either with extra water as stew, or elevated as steamed to hot. Also got a small bamboo steamer today from Aldi to see if when pressure cooker comes that can fit and have that bamboo steamed yumminess. I also would like to find a container to put inside the pressure cooker so then it will be heated but not steamed.

Gas ONE mini is likely good enough because really to bring up pressure takes but minutes and then it is still cooking/heating as the pressure falls on its own for 10 or so minutes.

Im going to Sams to get the butane and the propane.

In the future I will buy a 20 pound tank and fill that at Tractor supply then fill up the little propanes. I didnt even know you could do that, dont know how yet but gee a whole gallon of propane is under 3 bucks.
 
I visited an Indian store and they had both the 2 litre induction capable pressure cooker and the Gas One mini duo.

The cost is about the same as amazon.

But I dont know if I NEED the extra protection of complaining to Amazon for any problems, for repair/replace and whatnot or Id be safe enough goin ahead and buy it today.

Id like it quick because I want to practice on the stove/pressure cooker indoors, then on deck, then in van.

My LAST 2 deliveries went to another address, and the same lady. She was nice to bring them both over now twice. Yet she asked if I had been getting HER orders of the last 2 months where things went missing, she asked me if I was sure like 4 times! I guess Id be suspicious.

So it boils down toi not having much recourse is something wasnt right with my purchases at Indian store vs maybe not getting my packages timely or at all.

Please advise.
 
Top