The best simmering stove I have found is the old Coleman 505 "Pocket" stove. The ones from 15-20 years ago are the ones to get. They have TWO controls, one that acts as the classic "turn up to light, left to run and right to off" knob, and another that combines an orifice cleaning tool with a very precise and functional simmering control. More recent versions have only a single knob, that is supposed to combine the left, up and right knob with simmering control. It doesn't work, it is digital. If it looks like it is simmering, it is really dying slowing, and will go out when least expected. DON'T get one of these! The best source of these old stoves is garage sales. I bought one to replace my venerable 1978 model for C$20. The old one I gave away to someone who was similarly frustrated with the inability of many stoves to simmer. The old one still ran great, but too many pasta and oatmeal boil-overs had rotted away the lower wind guard under the burner. These are good stoves, robust and quite field-strippable (when the oatmeal boils over!) with a pair of pliers. I have had way too many problems with MSR's that haven't been maintained to trust them. The next best bet are the simple propane stoves that take the screw-on bottle. Anywhere from $15 - $30 apiece. Simpler to operate, simmer well, cheap, but you wind up carrying heavy cylinders. They don't work well below freezing, either. Have fun. Rob. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Dec 09 2004 - 08:32:48 PST
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