Well here in France Campig Gaz is widely available, you just wander into supermarkets and voila.

Couple of things to consider. If your gaz stove has cartridges you pierce then look out for the packsize as you can't remove the cartridge once it's on, and secondly, environmentalistness. Unless you religiously recycle them the cartridges are a huge waste of metal.

For years I travelled with a Camping Gaz stove, and I still use it for festivals, as I can take my toaster, and it lights easier. But for travelling I use a Trangia with the multi-fuel adaptor, just for the fact I know I can always scrounge some fuel.

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Sorry guys I should have added a link, The campingaz stove and cylinders/canisters are of the Easy Clic type. You can remove them at will. I had one back in Aus but didn't use it much so never found out how long a cylinder/canisters lasts.

Alexlebrit, is it these campingaz Easy Clic canisters that available in France or the type you referred too only ?

You can see the different types on the link below. It also shows the Coleman versions as well.

http://www.johnscrossshop.co.uk/WebP...egoryCode=1500

Sorry for the confusion.

Being French (I believe) Camping Gaz of all types is easily found. Coleman being American might be different, but to be honest those canisters look the same to me, are there any differences?

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Ah "Being French" is an important fact. I didn't know that. In theory the neighbouring countries should / might sell them.

Yup both the Campingaz and the Coleman have puncture type and detachable types. The Campingaz detachable type clips & clamps on. The Coleman screws on.

I bought my 270 stove in the UK, they are very popular cannister in France also. Note the 470 has double the gaz for just a small increase in price (same fitting). Also these use a mixture of butane and propane so work much colder than most. They are much used for soldering/brazing and can be had in any toolshop or supermarket. a cannister usually lasts for more than one season for me.

Hi there I have used camping gaz ones, trangia and have finally setteled on a msr dragonfly. This is mainly for two reasons, the first of which is the fact that you have a great amount of heat and control with the msr enabling you to actually cook as apposed to just boil water and reheat.

The other reason being I was away on a trip in wales, set up camp just started to cook with my camping gaz stove, and it started to run out of gas, it was a Sunday and I had been trying to find a spare to buy all day, but to no avail. Anyway it ran out with the pasta part rehydrated, leaving me with no brew and no dinner, stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Guess what I am saying is this happened mid camping season in wales which is built on camping caravanning tourism and absolutely riddled with campsites and camping shops. It might not be quite so easy in the middle of eastern europe.

Anyway there's my two penny's worth.

All the best and a happy new year Tom

additional. I always carry a spare cannister
second, make sure the flame area is shielded from the wind, can halve cooking time.

Very sound advice.

Also when you say "a cannister usually lasts for more than one season for me" is that going on bike trips ? if so how long ? ie how many hours do you get out of a 470 cannister ? I know it will depend on how high you have it turned up.

Cheers for all the help so far everybody.

Axelbrit, does the multifuel adaptor also attach to gas canisters?

the euro screw type gas cans are readily available all over. when bike camping i generally get 3 or 4 days out of a 270, thats cooking breakfast and some dinners, lunch and as many dinners as poss eating out, im supposed to be on holiday!

in UK i cook myself all the time, as i can do a better job than the overpriced crap some foreign student undercooks for you. in france the stove only comes out for breakfast, when you can have a slap up feast in any roadside caff for a few quid whats the point?

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dave

No, the multi-fuel stove is liquid fuels only, to be honest I've only ever used it with petrol, and don't really know which other fuels you can put in it, I should look sometime I guess. You just take out the spirit burner and it fits in the same place.


They do do a gas burner as well, but it says it fits the Primus system, and I have no idea what fitting that is, anyone know?

EDIT: I just looked on the Primus site and it says "INTERNATIONAL STANDARD SCREW THREAD" so I'd guess it'll take other canisters than Primus's own.

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ah right, i thought so.

i knew they did a gas converter, and its one of the most economical gas stoves you can get because of the trangia set up, all the heat goes up past the pot and doesnt escape out the sides.

the euro standard screw thread is the common one, coleman, primus, sunngas seem to be the most common makes here in UK.
gaz do their own types, the old piercable one that you cant take off again and a newer one with a valve in the cans.

you can get adaptors to put canisters on different types of stoves, could be handy if you cant get the type of can your stove needs? quite pricey though compared to just getting another stove.

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dave

I was on a really tight budget when I bought my kit so I've got a military Trangia from here...

Buy your Trangia Army stove, mess kit, Trangia Army Stove, from Surplus & Adventure online Army & Navy superstore

The Trangia meths burner may work fine in summer and at low altitudes, but I found the time to boil a mug of water was unacceptable. I don't bother taking the Trangia burner and my Gelert S/S insulated mug is a perfect fit inside so keeps everything compact. At present, I see no reason why I'd need to upgrade this.

At the time, I couldn't justify the prices asked for some burners so I bought a Sunngas alpine stove from a camping shop.

Sunngas Alpine Camping Stove from Surplus and Outdoors / Camping Stoves

This set up has done everything from bike touring and short camping trips to beach fishing trips on the North Sea coast in winter and is still going well despite the sand and salt water. Price and stability are it's big plus points. The legs do fold away but due to the hose, pack size isn't anything special. I will look at upgrading to something more compact and better quality as and when I need to but it's well worth a look if money is tight.

As for the ecomentalists, I took the old cannister along to a camping shop in Germany, just in case there was a language problem buying a new one and they took the old cannister for recycling. BTW, I get about 5 days out of the small cannisters but I've never had a real problem finding a replacement. Even gas cannisters from DIY shops will fit if you're desperate.

I have done some serious google-ing and this is what I have found.

As Alexlabrit said Campingaz is indeed French. The company interestingly became a part of Coleman Inc in 1996. The cylinders / canisters are available in western Europe and the Campingaz web site is even in French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch.

The AA Caravan & Camping guide tells which sites sell Campingaz and other gas types. Although I think this refers to the bigger caravan sized cylinders mostly.

I think carry a spare is the smart thing to do.

I used a Brasslite alcohol stove on a recent trip in the US and it worked ok even for two pot meals but it was all but useless when I was camped at 2,500m/8000ft. This isn't a problem in Europe though. It's tiny, weighs nothing and the fuel is available everywhere. The important thing with these stoves is the windbreak. You have to make it close fitting, about 1/2" larger than the pot. I just bought some disposable oven trays and made it from those. Adjustable for each pot with two paperclips.



Brasslite Ultralight Alcohol Backpacking and Camping Stove

If you really must drag around cooking equipment, why use anything than a coleman Duel fuel stove.

Pretty small, runs on the same petrol as your bike and packs a punch. Never let me down !

Why piss about with carrying gas or searching for replacements !!!

I also see no need for these hugely expensive MSR petrol stoves. They cost a fortune, block up just by looking at them and need Ieuan & Charleys back up crew to carry to tools to clean them..

Personally, id forget the stove and just carry bread, cheese and tinned meat for when you cant find an alternative... It usually ends up cheaper eating at a small local diner or kiosk than cooking for yourself anyway..

Just my 1 pence worth !

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.