Where do you cook? Or will my tent vanish in a puff of smoke?

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

Ok we have an Outwell Montana 6, last year we set up the kitchen outside protected by only a windbreak, needless to say it rained on and off all week, mainly when we needed to cook, and making porridge at 7 in the morning in the rain is not something I will be doing again.

So this year we were going to buy the extension for our tent, but having seen this scary clip on utube, I am now worried about fire risks, though tbh vid. has nothing to do with cooking and the owners seem to be nowhere in sight.....

Anyhoo, so is cooking in an extension ok? Would just a canopy be better, but will the rain still get in? Am I over-worrying this?

Back away from the youtube tent fire videos!

I'm presuming those people were cooking inside the tent? That's a whole different ball game isn't it.

We have the monty 6 and canopy. Obviously you aren't going to put your cooker right up against the fabric of your tent(even if you are outside).

You will be fine.Just take sensible precautions.

Alan was having a ball wasn't he!

So is the canopy enough? Or am I still likely to get wet?

I think I would rather the extension, we tend to go to Norfolk and it's always so windy.

Alan makes me roffle.

Was the last part of your question about the rain getting under a canopy?
errrm
We've never had a problem with rain getting in. Hard rain coming in at an hard angle has sometimes made our table wet (when it was under the canopy)...but generally no.It really extends your dry space...you don't get the wet worn away bit you get outside your front door that you do without a canopy.

either are good tbh there isn't much in it....my mate has the extension on hers. We just wanted something a bit smaller (but that did the job for cooking without getting wet).As it is we can also sit at our table under it when it's raining too.

Thanks, I've never seen one with a canopy on, the nearest tent display to us has a Monty with an extension on, which is why I was going for that, but maybe the canopy is enough, decisions, decisions.........

have you seen this
here

I just mailed it to dh and told him the pressure is on to prove his alpha male tent-put-y-up-iness.

I'm gonna sit in the car with the camera rolling when we go away in a few weeks.

Well, our friends set their cooker up inside their quite small family tent every year.

When they bought a huge tent last year, they decided to set it up outside, but right next to the tent.

Never had any problems

I have a Montana 5 and cook inside the tent. I always peel a corner of the groundsheet back as DH once managed to melt a hole in it (the stoves get very hot underneath as well). Touch wood I haven't yet set fire to the tent.

I've cooked in all sorts of tents, even tiny one man ones.

Funnily enough the only time I've ever cooked outside I set the (very dry) grass field on fire! Managed to put it out by lots of stamping and rapid emptying of big water container but it spread fast.

I have the montana 6 and also cook inside the tent. We have a cooker stand that has a windbreaker and make sure it is quite far from the tent itself. I think it's safe - especially if you don't leave it unattended, which is hard to do in a tent!

Thanks all, I am a bit of a worrier, I guess it will be fine.

Troutpout 8 minutes 52 seconds eh? It actually looks like a better way to pitch it though.

We cook under a canopy and its never been a problem, I won't have anyone cooking in the cun valley since I saw a vid of a tent fire- you have @ a minute in a cotton tent to get out. Not worth it.

We often sit in our canopy watching thunder staorms etc, never been a problem with rain even in the worst of weather. Even in fact last Whitsun

Oh if you do cook in PLEASE ventilate the tent- some people near where we used to live died from CO poisoning from cooking in an unventilated tent.

I am starting to be very swayed towards the canopy and it's about £40 cheaper....

Well we would never have a tent withot a canopy, very much a basic requiremnt for us; a good sized one. We put our table out under it and the cooking equipment (well might not with the Cobb this year- a bit too nickable size wise) and pretty much only use the tent for sleeping and storing clothes otherwise.

What sort of canopy are you looking at? Are tehse the things that are like a tent extension or totally seperate?

They are separate pieces but clip onto the main tent stripey
Didn't realise they were that much cheaper Wildthings.
I'd say go for the canopy then....cheapskate that i am.

Well what benefit is the canopy apart from extra space? If you cook in it and it catches fire, if its clipped to the tent then the tent will be in flames in a second anyway.

We cook in the frontb of ours; hence no wall to catch fire.... n suppose like ccooking with a wide open tent door except that we can still keep the tent contents dry when it is pissing down. Oh and for us no SIG to melt, the SIG is essential for us.
Nowt better of an evening IMO than sitting outside a tent drinking wine; given that 90% of out trips seem to involve precipitation that requires a canopy LOL. Sititng on nodes bay site watching storms rattle around the coast whilst dry and snug ourselves is a massive high point from years gone by for both of us.

It might not matter so much but Dh seems allergic to water; its ahrd enough getting him to have a bath, making dinner in the rain would be a no no!

Just somewhere dry to sit and cook really stripey...but outside. Also...it keeps the front area of your tent dry too..acts as a buffer zone to the mud and wet.