Coleman Feather Stove

When you are out camping, hunting or doing serious back packing with very lite weight gear and equipment you will want to carry along a camp stove. A good reliable camp stove is essential for boiling water, cooking food or for use in areas where camp fires are prohibited.

Coleman is the brand name synonymous with camping equipment and they also carry a line of camp stoves. In particular there is the Coleman Feather camp stove models designed for ultra portability since it weighs in around 24 ounces and is capable of burning different fuels. This stove is a bit heavy compared to some of the other ultra lite backpacking stoves on the market, but the all in one design and duel fuel capability are features worth considering.

Another great feature for a camp stove of this size is that the Coleman Feather has three flip and fold out style legs which help stabilize the stove and prevent it from tipping over especially when you have a heavy pot on it.

This type of stove is not really for serious camp cooking for a bunch of people because of it's limited capacity and fuel tank, for that style you should get a multi burner stove. But the Coleman exponent feather weight stove is rated to burn up to 7 hours on simmer. But if you just need to heat up some water in a pot or do some quick cooking with a fry pan then this style of camp stove can work very well for you. And unlike other stoves it is versatile and not just for boiling water.

By far one of the biggest tips for having any kind of camp stove is to buy or put together some sort of makeshift wind screen. These small stoves aren't like using the stove in your kitchen where there is no wind, and even the slightest wind or breeze will blow the flame to the side and make cooking really difficult while taking longer. So be sure to buy a wind screen or at least place the stove in an area huddled around some large rocks.

The Coleman feather is a dual fuel stove meaning you can burn either Coleman brand fuels or use plain unleaded gasoline available at a gas station. This is a major plus over other types of stoves that require exotic specialty fuels or propane bottles that are hard to find when your miles away from the nearest big box sporting goods store.

But because of the liquid fuel used you must operate the stove carefully and follow the directions. The feather works by pressurizing the fuel tank, this requires pumping the stove up then lighting it, then pumping on it some more to get the flame a hot rolling blue color. When you shut the device off there will be some residual flame still burning for a few moments, this is unlike propane based stoves. So be careful and blow the flame out or let it burn out on it's own and store when it has cooled off completely.

When finished with the stove on your camp trip or for the season be sure to drain out all of the excess fuel in the tank. You will find that even if you let the stove run until its out of fuel and the flame dies there will be some leftover in the tank. To get the remianing bit out you will have to take the fuel cap off and gently shake the stove upside down.

If you run the flame on the highest settings you will quickly burn up all of the fuel, so be sure to turn it down to low when possible to conserve gas.