A halfway there cooking system with massive value for money.
There are a few absolute must-haves in the equipment category when considering a camp in various manners. Ranging from a shelter for sleep/rest, to the humble cooking system to provide that warm meal and cup of tea at the end of a long day.
There are so many options on the market; small nano stoves, sold as the ultimate lightweight solution to your cooking requirements, to fully fledged cooking systems complete with iron skillet and kitchen sink. In this review, we have a look over Coleman’s offering to the happy medium of this range – The Fyrestorm Personal Cooking System.
Personally, I’ve used a few different cooking solutions, simple hexi burners and a Jetboil being the most notable. My experience with those drew my attention to the Fyrestorm. I needed a stove that appeared to be lightweight and complete, while providing enough ‘capacity’ to cook two meals at once.
At first glance, the stove is pretty lightweight. Similar in construction to a Jetboil, a large ‘jug’ style pot is provided, allowing for the heating of 1.25l of water in one burn, which is impressive for a so-called personal system. In addition, the quality of finish is pretty good, with a resistant anodised finish, a nice neoprene insulating/protective sleeve and the ability for the stove component to completely stand alone.
Coleman themselves advertise a water boiling time of 4.5 Minutes in 0m/s, which is respectable, if a little conservative for the full 1.25l pot. However, now we’ve discussed performance in wind speed, this stove stands up well. Coleman have videos available (I’ll try to embed below) which show that, thanks to particular features of the pot and stove combination, a respectable breeze has little to no effect on the flame power and efficiency.
The standalone stove allows for a range of other pots to be used, ideal if you’re less into de-hydrated meals and more into steak and mushroom ciabatta on your wild camp. Without the pot providing some wind protection separate wind shield would be recommended in this set-up. The stove unit is separate from the cartridge, so it won’t suffer from the instability I’ve encountered with cartridge-mounted burners.
The value for money of this system is the primary plus-point of this system. Coming in at close to half the price of the equivalent Jetboil, it is really hard to justify spending the extra; Boiling water is boiling water at the end of the day!
There are a couple of downsides however; Coleman advertise that, fully packed away, a Coleman brand C300 cartridge should be able to fit inside the ‘pot’, reducing the volume sacrifice in your pack. Despite trying every which way, I cannot get the cartridge to fit without bending the soft lid to the point where it won’t fit into place. Not a complete game-breaker, as there is plenty of space to stash other bits in there to win back some volume.
Secondly, the dreaded piezo-electric starter is classically temperamental in anything other than perfect conditions, so carrying a secondary method of fire-starting (I.E. a lighter) would be recommended.
All in all, this stove comes with a shining recommendation from me. It’s proved very capable in some of the worst conditions I’ve personally encountered, all while being a bargain and only having somewhat trivial downsides.
Stand Out Features
- Power: 2200W
- Gas consumption: 158 g/h
- Boil time: 6min 35sec at 3m/s wind speed, 4min 30sec at 0m/s wind speed
- Size: 20.4 cm x 13.6 cm pot
- Features: Unsurpassed cooking performance under wind, thanks to our downstep HyperFlame® burner design, and patented Wind Block™ wind shields. Comes with Piezo and extra long flexible metal hose to allow flexible positioning of the cartridge. 1.3l pot with neoprene sleeve allows storage of stove and one C300 cartridge inside during transport.
- Weight: 261 g (stove) + 225 g (pot + lid)
- Fuel source: Coleman® Xtreme Gas & Coleman® Performance Gas
- Protection cloth: 100% Cotton
Recommendation Rate : 95%
Coleman Fyrestorm PCS – Personal Cooking System – Available at Blacks
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