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The night my camp stove became a flamethrower at Yosemite
I was cooking dinner near Bridalveil Creek campground when my little butane stove started shooting a jet of flame sideways. Turns out I didn't seat the canister right and the valve seal was loose. I panicked and kicked the whole thing into the dirt, which actually put it out, but then my pasta was covered in gravel and pine needles. Has anyone else had a stove do something goofy like that?
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corah7516d ago
Oh man, that is SO terrifying! @the_viola is right, you were brave to kick it. I had a similar scare once where my propane tank's regulator just froze up and started hissing like crazy. I didn't kick it though, I just shut it off and waited forever for it to warm up. But your gravel pasta sounds like a TOTAL loss. I bet you were just so mad eating dirt with your noodles. Solidarity on the near-disaster meals, friend. I hope your next trip is full of perfect, clean cooking.
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felixhenderson13d agoMost Upvoted
Gotta wonder though if the real issue here is how these butane canisters handle cold weather. Everyone's talking about loose seals and kicking stoves but nobody's mentioned that those little green cans just don't work right when it drops below freezing. The fuel doesn't vaporize properly and you get all kinds of weird pressure spikes. I've had one start spitting liquid butane at me in winter camping, scared the hell out of me. Sure the gravel pasta is a bummer but I bet the cold temps made that canister act up way worse than normal. Maybe we need to start pushing for better winter-rated stoves instead of just blaming ourselves for bad luck.
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the_viola16d ago
Wait, you kicked a flaming stove? That's wild, I would have just ran away and let it burn down the whole campsite. But seriously, a loose seal on a butane canister sounds terrifying, how do you even check for that before you light it?
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