Review: Gas One Mini Duel Fuel Stove

When at dock we tend to use an electric burner.  Our electric is included here and, frankly, since our electric is at least partly renewables here in MD, it seemed like a better choice, climate-wise.  But on the hook, of course, that's not an option, even with our fairly beefy solar system.

We've used a number of options while living aboard, including wood, kerosene, and  permanently plumbed in propane systems, but on Constellation we fell back on using the ubiquitous butane catering burners.  They're convenient, they're VERY hot (unless the temp is below 50F, in which case they struggle, but I digress), and they just work well, despite some occasional difficulty in finding the canisters for them (and the fact that the fuel cylinders aren't recyclable or refillable).  They also have a pretty large footprint, even compared to a hotplate.

These cook well, but just finding the (unfortunately disposable) fuel cylinders can sometimes be a challenge.

We were wandering through a local Asian market with some slipmates when we came across a stove I'd not seen before.  It was from GasOne, a brand we'd used before, but this was a "mini" version of the butane countertop stove.  The pot stand was far more solid than the thin painted steel of the earlier models we'd seen, and the thing had something like 2/3rds the footprint of the regular catering burner.  Our friends bought one on the spot.  After thinking about it a bit, I went on the web looking to see if could find them again, and ran across this:

GasOne mini, duel-fuel stove.

It was the same stove, but also with a propane adapter,  At less than $40 (and considering the fact that our existing burner was rusting apace) we thought we'd give it a try.

The little stove is solidly built, and will hold up to a 22cm (roughly 10") pot without problems.  The entire top is stainless, and the burner is HOT, I mean REALLY hot (they apparently had a problem with early versions of this stove MELTING the burner.  Not an issue with the new version btw). The little stove takes up far less of our jealously guarded countertop space, and comes with a propane adapter so we can use refillable propane bottles or plumb it onto a larger tank (you'll need an additional pressure regulator, like for a barbecue).  It cooks beautifully, as a really nice control valve that allows for low simmering temperatures, has a safety feature that ejects the bottle if it overheats, and comes with a fairly stout carrying case.

There are, of course, a few downsides.  The stove is too small to take our folding oven (we kept the old one for that), but that's a small price to pay for something more easily cleaned that saves us some valuable countertop.

Followups as we use it, but so far, it's a plus.

more later

M