I finally packed my old Coleman stove for a trip in 2024 and it cooked better than my $140 backpacking burner
Back in 2009 I bought a beat up two burner Coleman at a garage sale in Bozeman for $8, and it sat in my parents' shed for over a decade before I pulled it out last spring for a car camping trip. The thing lit on the second try, boiled water in about half the time my fancy jet burner takes, and the wide base never wobbled once on a sloped site near Leadville. Does anyone else feel like the old heavy gear still beats the ultralight stuff for anything short of a real thru hike?
That part about the sloped site near Leadville is what gets me. I have a 1970s Svea 123 that I still take on short trips, and it weighs more than my whole cook kit now, but the thing just works no matter what. How many times did you have to mess with the pump or generator on that Coleman before it fired up, or was it really just the second try after sitting for 10+ years? I keep wondering if the old stuff lasts because it was built simple, or because the newer gear is built to be light and cheap instead of tough.