How do I heat thee? Let me count the ways...

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  • Lex Concord

    Not so well-known member
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    26   0   0
    Dec 4, 2008
    4,479
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    Morgan County
    Reading the thread on hurricanes got me taking stock of my preps (well, that, and it's a day that ends in "y")...

    Seeing the talk about stoves of various types, I was curious how many different ways folks have to heat water/food when SHTF (i.e your "standard" cooking method is rendered non-functional due to whatever circumstances)...

    Here's what I have around the homestead for just such an occassion...

    - fire pit
    - wood stove
    - Coleman stove (dual fuel)
    - Sternos w/ "stove"
    - trioxane tabs
    - Jet Boil
    - propane grill
    - 2 burner propane stove (like this)
     

    actaeon277

    Grandmaster
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    4   0   0
    Nov 20, 2011
    92,860
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    Merrillville
    Have some energy bars, or something similar, in case you are bugging out and can't stop to heat water.

    And
    In addition to Mountain House, which I would need heated water, I have MREs.
     

    bwframe

    Loneranger
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    93   0   0
    Feb 11, 2008
    38,170
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    Btown Rural
    Lex, tell me how much you've used that double burner. Do you have any of the accessories?
    I'm impressed with it and have my finger on the order button.


    I have
    2 coleman stoves
    Wisperlite International
    2 twig stoves
    case+ of red Heat and alcohol stove building materials
    Propane grill
    Fish fryer burner
     

    GREEN607

    Master
    Rating - 99%
    99   1   0
    Apr 15, 2011
    2,032
    48
    INDIANAPOLIS
    Even if you're not REALLY prepared.....

    .....like Rex, you can still cook and even make coffee, with the basics...but you must keep a standard concrete cinder block handy. And four 9-volt batteries. But DON'T do this on your carpet!

    Take the oven rack from your now useless electric range, and cover it in two layers of aluminum foil. Place the rack on the concrete floor of your basement or garage (or patio). Place the cinder block on top of the oven rack, with the openings in the block facing up and down. Take four pads of 0000 steel wool, and (one at a time) insert a 9-volt battery into the end of each pad of steel wool, placing them vertically into the two holes in the block (two pads in each hole). The steel wool will heat up, in fact, it may even glow eventually. Place your small frying pan over one hole and your pot w/ coffee water over the other (yes, it will be hot enough to boil water).

    Now you can prepare/cook your ham & eggs and make coffee at the same time. :rockwoot: CAUTION: When you're done cooking - you'll need long-nose pliers to retrieve the steel wool and shake out the batteries. -Lee
     

    Cpt Caveman

    Master
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    57   0   1
    Feb 5, 2009
    1,757
    38
    Brown County
    .....like Rex, you can still cook and even make coffee, with the basics...but you must keep a standard concrete cinder block handy. And four 9-volt batteries. But DON'T do this on your carpet!

    Take the oven rack from your now useless electric range, and cover it in two layers of aluminum foil. Place the rack on the concrete floor of your basement or garage (or patio). Place the cinder block on top of the oven rack, with the openings in the block facing up and down. Take four pads of 0000 steel wool, and (one at a time) insert a 9-volt battery into the end of each pad of steel wool, placing them vertically into the two holes in the block (two pads in each hole). The steel wool will heat up, in fact, it may even glow eventually. Place your small frying pan over one hole and your pot w/ coffee water over the other (yes, it will be hot enough to boil water).

    Now you can prepare/cook your ham & eggs and make coffee at the same time. :rockwoot: CAUTION: When you're done cooking - you'll need long-nose pliers to retrieve the steel wool and shake out the batteries. -Lee

    That sounds like a really bad idea. A battery and steel wool is good to start a fire but Im not sure having a battery inside a cinder block getting hot enough to boil water is a good idea. If it would actually boil at all.
     

    eldirector

    Grandmaster
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    10   0   0
    Apr 29, 2009
    14,677
    113
    Brownsburg, IN
    Let's see:

    - NG grill
    - jets to convert NG grill back to propane (I keep a couple of 20 lb tanks)
    - small propane camp stove (uses the 1 lb bottles - of which I have several)
    - adapter to attach the camp stove to a 20 lb bottle (I should probably find that - it is in the shed somewhere)
    - Even have a torch attachment for the 1 lb bottles. Would work in a pinch.
    - fire pit
    - grate to cook over a regular camp fire
    - sterno heater things (whatever you put the sterno in) that can also use tealight candles (we have a ton of both)
    - Hot plate and several small appliances that could run off the generator pretty easily.
    - Ever make "manifold burritos"? Any hot engine would do, even the generator.

    Haven't tried cooking with the woodstove insert. There isn't a "top" like a regular wood stove. Would need to cook in front of the glass, or maybe a small Dutch oven inside.
     

    Rocdenindy

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 100%
    51   0   0
    Feb 16, 2013
    436
    18
    Indy
    I am a firm believer in redundancy. As my primary at my bug off spot, I have a propane camping stove and outdoor grill. I also have a fire pit setup. I am looking at a biolite camp stove with grill top. https://www.bioliteenergy.com/products/campstove-2 I am looking at it since it is a smokeless fire and can recharge cell phone at the same time. Also, have the ability to due a rocket stove with cinder blocks. Lots of different fire starters. And a Jet Boil just for the heck of it if I am hiking and don't mind the weight.
     

    spencer rifle

    Grandmaster
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    66   0   0
    Apr 15, 2011
    6,544
    149
    Scrounging brass
    - fire pit
    - Coleman stove (white gas)
    - trioxane tabs with stoves
    - alcohol stoves
    - propane grill
    - 2 burner propane stove converted to house gas (mostly for boiling maple sap)
    - MSR multi-fuel backpacking stove
    - Solo stove (biomass)
    - fireplaces at BOL
    - Coleman single-burner backpacking stove (white gas)
     

    Lex Concord

    Not so well-known member
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    26   0   0
    Dec 4, 2008
    4,479
    83
    Morgan County
    Lex, tell me how much you've used that double burner. Do you have any of the accessories?
    I'm impressed with it and have my finger on the order button.

    I have no accessories.

    I've only used it once... to process a couple of unexpected roosters. It got 3-4 gallons boiling in my 5 gallon stock pot pretty quickly, making easy work of the plucking.
     

    bwframe

    Loneranger
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    93   0   0
    Feb 11, 2008
    38,170
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    Btown Rural
    I have no accessories.

    I've only used it once... to process a couple of unexpected roosters. It got 3-4 gallons boiling in my 5 gallon stock pot pretty quickly, making easy work of the plucking.

    I went ahead, done some research and ordered one. Also the grill and griddle accessories. These are very popular with a lot of video out there on top of tons of Amazon reviews and I can only guess other info not found as of yet.

    Hoping this will have my deck/outside kitchen much more efficient. I cook outside all year long on top of pretty regular canning and deep frying. I'm gonna investigate plumbing the unit into the natural gas. They make a conversion kit.
     

    rhino

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    24   0   0
    Mar 18, 2008
    30,906
    113
    Indiana
    I went ahead, done some research and ordered one. Also the grill and griddle accessories. These are very popular with a lot of video out there on top of tons of Amazon reviews and I can only guess other info not found as of yet.

    Hoping this will have my deck/outside kitchen much more efficient. I cook outside all year long on top of pretty regular canning and deep frying. I'm gonna investigate plumbing the unit into the natural gas. They make a conversion kit.


    It's just a matter of time before I move in with you. Roomie.
     

    CountryBoy19

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 91.7%
    11   1   0
    Nov 10, 2008
    8,412
    63
    Bedford, IN
    Primary cooking equipment (used on a regular basis): electric stove, LP grill, wood/charcoal fired smoker, LP turkey fryer (mostly used as a wok burner, but it is very versatile).

    Other means (not normally used, but I can do it, and turn out very fine food doing it): wood fire (along with lots of cast-iron), wood-stove, trangia alcohol stoves (I have about 10 of them, bought when SG had the Swedish mess kits for $14), and just about anything else that I can find to burn if I get desperate enough. I do have an 28" wide LP stove that I use for canning, and I could use to cook on for long-term electrical outages, but that will be a "desperate hours" sort of thing.
     

    BigBoxaJunk

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Feb 9, 2013
    7,314
    113
    East-ish
    After the last extended electric outage, I made plans to replace our electric range with a gas unit. It was a fairly simple job to get the threaded pipe and fittings and plumb it up, so now we have a gas range and can cook during electric outages.

    I had gotten a good wood stove five or six years ago, and that's been really nice. I've gone through several winters without the furnace ever kicking on, but now we use it off and on when we feel like having a wood fire. After running out of wood at the end of that really cold nasty winter a few years back, now I find considerable pleasure in gazing over my large stock-pile of split and stacked firewood, with over a cord in my breezeway under roof.

    I also have a two-burner propane camp stove, a Coleman Peak 1 backpacking stove, a Trangia alcohol burner with a homemade shroud, and a little homemade rocket stove. For supplemental house heat, I also have three different kerosene heaters, with plenty of extra wicks for each, and I keep a 55 gal drum full of kerosene, along with several 5-gallon plastic containers.

    I would like to pick up a good two-burner propane or natural gas burner so we can operate the pressure canner out in the breezeway so we don' t heat up the house.
     
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