Is spending $600 on a high-end camping stove really worth it or just showing off?

I dropped $600 on a fancy jet-boil style stove system last year for a weeklong trip in the Rockies. It boiled water in under two minutes and saved me a ton of fuel, which felt great. But my buddy brought a $30 Coleman propane stove and his setup worked fine for the same meals we cooked. On one rainy night, my expensive stove failed to ignite because the igniter cord got wet and I had to use a lighter anyway. His cheap stove lit right up with a match every time. That made me wonder if the extra cost is just for bragging rights at the campsite. Has anyone else seen a big difference between budget and premium stoves in real conditions?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_carr267d ago

That rainy night with the failed igniter is the kind of thing that sticks with you. Did you ever figure out if there was a way to waterproof that cord or did you just start carrying a backup lighter after?

thomasgonzalez6d agoMost Upvoted

Caught a YouTube video where this guy tested that exact thing. He ended up putting a blob of dielectric grease around the connection point and it helped a lot on rainy trips. Still kept a mini Bic in his pocket as a backup though. Smartest move I saw was just keeping the whole igniter assembly in a tiny zip bag with a silica pack when not in use. Got me wondering if anyone has tried that liquid electrical tape stuff on the cord itself without messing up the function.

iris_schmidt7d ago

Fiona_carr26, I get what you're saying but I see it the opposite way. That expensive stove's igniter failing on a rainy night actually proves the cheap one is smarter because it doesn't need electronics to start. My old Whisperlite is thirty years old and I can light it with a match or a spark from a rock if I had to. You're paying for faster boil times and lighter weight on that $600 stove, but reliability in bad weather is way more important than saving two minutes on boiling water. Bragging rights wear off real fast when you're shivering and can't get your stove to catch.