stove

We got a new Cobb Premium cooker and thought we'd give it a go making pizza. We thought pizza would make a good meal while camping.

How did it turn out?

• The base was perfect, crusty but not burnt
• It took quite some time (the cobb cooks slower than most other styles of bbq's)
• The cheese melted but didn't brown up too well, perhaps if we didn't fill the moat it would?

I was recently shocked by coleman's after sales support.

I scored an old Coleman dual fuel stove. It's a great piece of gear for the family camp. 2 burners running on coleman fuel (aka white gas, or shellite) or unleaded petrol.

The stove was about 10 years old and the pump mechanism wasn't working too well. As I've been using the stove for our home bbq the pump completely died forcing another trip to our local camping super store (ok they are getting to know me personnally now).

I enquired about purchasing a replacement part which they didn't have in stock. So I left the details of the stove with the store to get back to me.

A phone call later and the part was in. Nice quick service but the best bit.

They covered it under warranty!

Now that's a big thumbs up for coleman. A surprise that a manufacturer would stand behind their product like that when so often they seem only interested in the sale.

Note: Coleman does not support this blog

Over time the jets in camping stoves can become contaminated through dirty gas. This can decrease the performance of your camping stove. The hot tip is to remove the jets and put them in hot water for a couple of minutes. This normally cleans them up and you are back to new. In this video you'll see where the jets are, how to clean them and also how not to do it and the adverse results if you do it wrong.

Old Wal is a good bloke. He's my father-in-law...

Anyway, he's done a stack of miles around Australia in his caravan and knows a thing or two about camping. Over the next couple of weeks we are going to run a few of his hot tips.

The first is the fire bucket.

Wal reckons his fire bucket...

• can be used with minimum amount of firewood or sticks
• is easy to light with paper, leaves or small sticks
• is safer than open fires in windy conditions, around kids and stops fires from spreading
• cheap and easy to make

And he adds that it's cheap as sticks to run and warm to sit around on cold trips.

Wal's instructions to make the fire bucket are...

• get any old 20 Litre metal container with handle
• cut a hole midway on side to put wood in, make sure it is large enough to fit jaffle iron in
• cut 6 or 7 Small 2mm slots approx 50mm from base around bucket. These allow the air to draw like a chimney. Too much air will make fire roar and too hot.
• Find a piece of old steel mesh or grill (ex old fridge) for a top plate.

He's final hints for the fire bucket are;