I live in a house that is plumbed for natural gas. I use it for heat, cooking, and clothes drying. Broadly speaking, when the power goes out, I still have natural gas available for my use. However, this will not be the case in every circumstance. A power outage caused by a squirrel humping a transformer three blocks down the street will not affect natural gas delivery to my house… a large natural disaster or distrubance, on the other hand, may impact delivery. (Could be anything…union goes on strike, pipeline damage, etc, etc.)
So, to me, it makes sense to have another way to cook. And, really, cooking is a bit of a luxury in a crisis…I can live a long time eating unheated food out of its can. But, being able to create a big pot of steaming hot water…that has a tremendous value.
For my cooking needs I have a couple small camping stoves. One, a Coleman Peak 1 stove, will run on white gas or on kerosene. The other stove, a Primus multifuel, will run on literally any hydrocarbon I can find. But those are small stoves that don’t lend themselves to real cooking. Great for backpacking, though. I need to pick up a small two burner propane stove and that’s on the list as soon as I do some research. But…one thing I’ve wanted for a while is a kerosene stove. I have kerosene lanterns, kerosene heaters, and a rather healthy amount of kerosene on hand. Its the hottest burning of the liquid fuels, stores well, and is safer than gasoline. I can, and have, cooked on top of my kerosene heater but it doesn have nearly the heat control I’d like. So, whats the options look like for kerosene stoves?
Well, there’s a buncha sheet metal stamped kero stoves that are out of China and India. They all look a bit flimsy and their sharp edges of stamped steel could give you tetanus just by staring at them too long. But I did a bit of research and came up with this:
Seems pretty solid. Not made in China or India, which is nice. If you get one of these, you really need to follow the one big cardinal rule of any kerosene appliance: when you fill it for the first time, or you are using a new wick, give the wick plenty of time to soak up fuel before you light it. Seriously. Fill it with fuel and then go forget about it for at least several hours. Otherwise trying to light it will only result in the wick burning rather than the fuel. Here endeth the lesson.
Like most kerosene appliances, there is some smell when you start it up and when you shut it down. I’d normally say you would want to do those procedures outside but I think this is a product that you really should be using in a wildly well ventilated space…like maybe a garage with the door up.
It takes a bit of fiddling and adjusting to get things just the way they should. What youre looking for is for a blue gas-like flame. Not the cheery yellow of a kerosene heater. It takes a little learning curve to figure out just how much or how little wick to give it, etc, but once youve got it dialed in the results are pretty good.
I was able to put a covered dutch oven with one liter of cold water on this and it had it at a rolling boil in seventeen minutes with an ambient outside temperature of 37 degrees. I’d imagine that building a screen or shield around it to keep the cold away would help quite a bit.
I see this as a choice for tailgating, car camping, picnic tables, and other outdoor venues where you want a long-burning heat source to cook with. In a crisis, I’d see no trouble sitting in my yard boiling up water for freeze drieds or frying something. I suppose that i a well ventilated indoor space you might be able to use it, but I’m going to have enough problems going on around me at that point to want to add another one like CO poisoning.
I got mine offa Amazon for about $140 and I think that was about the right price for that. The build quality seems better than what I’ve seen in the China/India versions, and it appears well made although realistically it isn’t a terribly complicated device. As always, while you’ve got your wallet out go pick up a spare wick because.
For me, since I’m a bit heavy on kerosene, this was a good choice for an alternative cooking method. A small propane stove would probably be more efficient and easier to work with, but I have a lot of kerosene so for me this makes sense. I’m still going to get a small two-burner propane stove that runs on the 1# bottles, and when I do I will report back on it. In the meantime though…I rather like the cheery heat and warmth of kerosene.
If you have a lot of kerosene stored, a stove burning it is wise. Just one less thing to worry about.
The ranch house had an ancient Dietz ‘Hurricane’ lantern stored on top of the wall cabinet for years and it never failed to work when power was out at the ranch house. Thinking back, I wonder how old the kerosene was – the round can with metal cap appeared ancient.
I have a butane stove (China or Japanese made) that is very convenient, as long as your cannisters are there. A couple of camping type white gas stoves, a couple of alcohol stoves (about as simple as it gets – fill body with alcohol, light and put pot on top. But its heat is not high, simply warming rather than cooking.
Following. Good one Commander, this unit will dovetail well with your existing Kerosene kit. This is a well regarded unit that is prevalent in many areas. Go to milesstairswickshoppe, for spare wicks and parts. He has a lot of extensive info pages on his web site on kerosene heaters and stoves, etc. I ordered in three spare wicks for my dynaglo heater, set up for a long time now with them. He does carry that stove and parts as well for other readers to research. Have a back up layer of kit in addition to and on top of your back up systems. Makes staying frosty more assured with a good plan.
Thanks, I’m heavily invested in propane for camping so that’s my logical natural gas alternate. But adding things like this to my wishlist is never a bad idea.
Do you have links for kerosene heaters? Lanterns?
When the power goes out, can you still heat and cook? Or do your devices require electric for pilots, safety valves, etc?
I’ve got kero stoves too: Including one from an old boat, has an oven and all
Follow up to your first questions, these are wick type stoves, or heaters, that are self contained to function without power or inputs. Big circular wick sucks up kerosene to top to burn like a big candle or alladin lamp wick and only needs it’s first ignition by you to get going and any minor adjustments for your desired performance. Most are c battery piezo ignitor buttons to start. I just use one click of extended barbecue lighters and my dynaglo heater glows. Check out milesstairswickshoppe web site, kinda cool info there.
I’ve got at least five ways to cook or heat food, and all are viable any day of the week. That said, if things go ugly enough that I’m forced down that road, I want low signature. Indoors, no smoke, no big lovely smells of hot food, not even any real light. For that time, I use a portable butane stove burner. The kind restaurants and caterers set up to cook off-site. Fuel cans come by the case and will store fine till the can rusts through some year. I bought mine almost ten years ago and use it every canning season to run the big pressure cooker. I’m still on my original 10-pack of fuel cans.
May I ask how much is “a lot of kerosene”? It is ‘second backup’ for us for cooking and lighting and we’ve got 35 gallons. Just looking for a comparison…
I’ve got a little over 100 gallons tucked away.
https://www.commanderzero.com/?p=4349
You’ve got a small fortune in kerosene. That’s the number one LIMFAC in using kerosene. It’s not diesel fuel, unless you want your house to smell like tractor exhaust.. I’ve priced it recently remembering how really cheap it used to be….now it’s $12-20 a gallon. I’ll stick with propane and butane.
I’ve got an MSR that can burn any liquid carbon based fuel but it’s a PITA.
I have a jet boil for coffee and the heat up water/ can of soup type stuff. For more robust cooking a good ole 2 burner Coleman propane stove With the adapter to feed from a 5 gallon propane bottle is my answer.
You know, for scenarios where I just want a big damn mug of hot water with no fuss, I think the JetBoil is the way to go.
They aren’t cheap but I’m super happy with it. Got it for camping originally. Works great. Very happy with it.
Definitely has emergency preparedness cross over. For emergency preparedness in my AO a lot of power outages are pretty short. Maybe a couple hours or part of the day. For a short duration thing like that using the jet boil to make my morning coffee or heat up a can of soup is a good answer. If it goes longer than that or I am feeding multiple people I’ll bust out the real stove.
What about burning wood for heat and cooking? It’s abundant, renewable and can’t be turned off like gas or electric will be.
Check out stpaulmercantile.com, they have a selection of several and they seem a little higher quality than some of the Amazon options.
The capital ‘A’ with the red center looked mighty familiar. It is IDENTICAL to the Aladdin Mantle Lamp company – the one that’s been around since 1908. I have several of their kerosene lamps. The new ones are not as well made as the older ones, but still worth the price of admission if you have kerosene. The burn about as brightly as a 60 watt lamp, and best for the colder seasons as they throw quite a bit of heat.
CZ,
Better think twice about “no electric” and assuming that your nat gas furnace will kick on, and make you warm. Depending on your brand and age of furnace, the sequence of events that must occur after the thermostat causes your furnace to “wake up”, may not happen.
For example, after your thermostat sends a signal to your furnace for heat (through a wire), to “wake up” and before gas from gas line comes into furnace, an “electric” fan on you furnace may have to come on, before an “electric” spark is allowed to ignite the inflowing gas to the burner in order to combust said gas in order to create heat to warm you. Said warm air will have to be distributed to your living space via and electric fan (forced air heat) or heat already stored water in your radiators.
Of course, this micro sequence in your dwelling does not include any number of gate stations/valves/electric monitors that are occurring downstream in the “big” gas transmission line which originates who knows where? All of them very likely have to communicate via “electric” signals to each other before any of the above happens in YOUR furnace to keep you warm.
I would suggest, Plan B: Buy chain saw(s), along with lots of gas/oil/spare chains/parts/files etc. for said saws. Then saw wood, and stack wood. Then install wood burning stove and cookstove. Then saw wood, and stack wood, then rinse and repeat. Just a thought 🙂
The furnace and water heater have electronic controls, so do gas ovens and cook tops. I knew this was a problem after I called the Natural Gas provider and was assured that they do not cut off gas in power outages or in hurricanes unless there is a gas leak from damage to the distribution system. Therefore, installed a full house generator. I have back up 6KW and 2 KW gasoline generators and 50 gallons of gasoline, which I replace every 12 to 18 months. The longest I have run the grid was down in a windstorm and last just over five days. It was in the mid 90s and the generator was a blessing. Lots of neighbors came to charge their phones. And a young couple with a newborn stayed at our house. They have just recently bout their own generator.
CZ:
OT: https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2024/02/burning-desires.html
Riff on it or ignore, at your whim.
Multiple sources with multiple uses. The good ol’ burn your house down if you’re not careful turkey deep fryer burner works well with the same propane bottle on the BBQ grill. I actually used it to melt lead wheel weights down into ingots.
I still have an old Svea white gas stove I bought in the 70’s that will heat a quart of water pretty quick. Coleman makes a two-burner stove that can use gasoline or Coleman fuel.
A gas furnace should work off a small generator if the power is out, I don’t think the control/sensor and blower take too much load. I have seen the newer appliances are sensitive to over or under voltage conditions. My generator puts out 128 volts for some reason and the A/C will not come on with voltage that high.
The wood stove is still the king of low-tech cooking and heating but requires a ready supply of dry wood, I scrounge old pallets and don’t have any problems, just stay away from treated wood.
CZ, if you poke around on YouTube, there are numerous vids proving that Coleman-type gasoline stoves will operate on kero. Apparently the main problem is using kero in cold weather when the generator (vaporizer) takes a little longer to reach temp. Some of the videos advise firing up a propane torch first, firing the stove with kero, then using that torch to heat the generator faster. If you understand how a Coleman stove works, it totally makes sense. Yes, I’m sure burning kero is gonna leave more residue in the generator and various orifices, but it you have a LOT of kero and not much white gas, you do what you’ve gotta do.
I’m pretty sure you already realize that an Aladdin lamp cranks out 3-4 times the heat of a regular wick lamp. I haven’t done it yet, but I plan to build an adjustable metal stand so I can suspend a cooking grate at various heights above an Aladdin. The main challenge I see is protecting that fragile Aladdin glass chimney.
I wound up purchasing the kerosene generators for the Coleman.
Where’d you find those, CZ, I’m having trouble.
Pat Coleman Peak 1 445-5261 Kerosene Generator
Theres some on ebay
I believe thats the correct one, but do your homework….dont take my word for it
I remember when these were super popular back in the Y2k days. If you had one of these and Aladdin lamps you were considered upper tier survivalist. I saw this post and yesterday I went through and looked to see how many ‘stoves’ I had to cook or heat water with. I couldn’t believe all the different stoves that are in storage.
I have an older model on that same stove I picked up from Lehman’s years back. Works great and expect it to do so for years to come.