cooking stove?

[Kacie123]

Hello! Hoping for some advice on a good emergency stove. It's unlikely to really be needed but am vaguely worried about power cuts after a rubbish one we had a while back, and thought it would be good to be able to boil water/heat beans indoors in an emergency.

Took a look on Amazon and just got confused. Any recommendations?! Ideally don't want to accidentally carbon monoxide us to death either...

We just have a small camping stove, which we would use out in the back garden.

If you are totally electric then you either need to eat cold food in a power cut or get a camping stove which you would need to use outside (hope you are not in a flat). This link might give you an idea of different sorts of camping stove.

www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/outdoor-activity/10-best-camping-stoves-9495884.html

Yes, totally electric, and in a flat ... Would it be ok to just open windows do you think?

This is the one I use.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00PVV9GTY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00

Oh sorry cross post. No don't use it in a flat. Do you have a communal garden?

Yes, there's some greenery outside, quite exposed though if it was windy etc!

Will look at the ones you've linked, thank you

Why would you have to use the camping stove outside please? My cooker is gas but not outside is camping gas different?

Camping stoves emit carbon dioxide and should only be used in very well ventilated areas (hence why I was vaguely wondering about opening windows, but I don't think they would be enough). People shouldn't even use them in tents or caravans really.

I guess proper cookers have better ways of dealing with it, although we have an electronic carbon monoxide detectors in our flat just in case after reading horror stories...

Thanks!

Definitely don't use a stove inside a tent. Also be wary of those little portable BBQs- don't use them inside and don't bring them inside afterwards. They still emit carbon monoxide for quite a while after they've gone out.

Should have added, if you're camping and want to keep a BBQ and what's left of the charcoal for the next day, but it's raining etc., wrap it in a couple of carrier bags (once it's completely cold all the way through) and weigh down with a couple of rocks.

BBQ's emit CO when they're smouldering, as Jeff says, a fully burning Gas Stove is no different to a fully burning Gas Hob so no need to sit outside and burn more calories shivering than you'll get from the food after you've cooked it!!

www.247homerescue.co.uk/carbon-monoxide-what-are-the-risks-and-how-to-stay-safe/

I'm no expert but this says.... Never use items such as barbecues and camping stoves indoors.

We'll have to disagree then as most Gas camping stoves are designed to be used in a tent - when mountaineering no-one cooks outside for example. When out & about I often cook inside the porch area of my backpacking tent.

I have a trailer tent parked outside right now that has a camping stove built into it that can't be used outside.

Bell Tents have reinforced areas in the roof to allow the flue for a wood burning stove to safely go through.

As long as you're not sitting in an enlclosed, unventilated space with something burning away for hours (i.e. using it as a heat source) you'll be fine, although we used to have a gas heater for the trailer tent thinking about it!

Why do all the sites have the opposite advice? This is a good Canadian one. Is it just best practice but some people get away with being fine because they know the danger signs and have a window or tent flap open?

www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/faq-eng.aspx

And how do you dehydrate humus!

I think a lot of the advice is aimed at people that honestly have little or no clue.

I know to make sure there is ventilation when I'm using my gas stove in the porch of my small tent. Tracy & Steve who've just bought a "festival pack" from Argos may have no idea that the BBQ will kill them rather than warm them up.

Plus, there's a lot of arse covering by manufacturers & web pages - imagine the fuss if a camping page saying it was OK was found in the history of the deceased....

Law Suits Ahoy!!

See what you mean. Knowing my luck though I would manage to waft everyone to sleep......

Thankfully I don't have to make that choice as I have other ways to heat the house and cook.

I agree IKnow and I always thought 'don't use in a tent' warnings referred to actually inside the tent, all zipped up and ready for kip. That's how I use them at least. The porch is obviously different, and often the only place you can get anything lit on the side of a hill with no other wind breaks.

But then we have 'warning, coffee may be hot' written on our take out drinks these days, so as a species we're not really winning at common sense

In a dehydrator, zetetic. I have one. I have a friend who dehydrates salsa as well. There are liners for th trays and you literally just spread a thin layer over the liner and switch it on. In the same way that you would make fruit leather. Some stuff will be dry and powdery/ crumbly, and some will turn into a leather you can roll up.

You can dehydrate anything, pretty much.

I have never bothered to dehydrate houmous, however I know someone who does it regularly...

I suppose mountaineers on Everest don't have a lot of choice otherwise they would freeze to death or get frostbite, but if anyone is going to use one inside please would you open the window /tent flap and have a carbon monoxide alarm otherwise I will worry about you. You can get travel ones too.

A dehydrator is already sitting in my wishlist and this whole houmous thing is not helping me resist temptation.

Ive just put two pineapples onto my dehydrator. Dehydrated pineapple is the food of the gods (and prevents me eating biscuits all day).

Dehydrators, interesting! Are they fairly easy to use or if you're dim like me with gadgets a bit of a palaver?

Very easy. Chop food, lay it on the racks, turn on and wait for it to dehydrate. It can then be kept for a very very long time (although the fruit doesn't last long in this house).

Christmas wish list updated

I have a Cobb oven (a la Hairy Bikers ) and it is brilliant. That and a Kelly Kettle with all the doodads, and we are sorted for anything!
I have a heavy duty cast iron grill on legs in the garden too, and just build a fire under it for outdoors barbecue type stuff.