I bought one of these and an almost full propane tank for it for $8.00 at a yard sale.
What do you purchase for heat for cooking? Sternos? Interested for a possible bad hurricane season.
If you run out of Sternos, I hear that wood works even better.
For short-term use, I’ve got a single burner Coleman Stove that snaps right onto a a small Coleman butane tank.. I got both in Walmart sporting goods - if memory serves, it was less than $10 for the burner, and around $2.50 each for the tanks (which, when I tested it, lasted for about a week of normal cooking...)
Other options that I have for longer-term use is a 2-grate cast iron hibachi (you can burn wood chips or small wood pieces, after you run out of charcoal), and, since I live in the country, I can build a cook-shack around/over a wood fire-pit...
The trick is to get out of the “what can I buy” mindset and train yourself to look at the resources you have around you with an eye towards improvising, in extremis.... ;)
I bought one of these and an almost full propane tank for it for $8.00 at a yard sale.
Charcoal or briquets. Store in plastic trash can that have lids. Ten large trash cans, each carrying 100 lbs. of charcoal or briquets can last a year for the average family who cooks outside. That is 10 X 100 lbs.
Take a look at this I posted:
My Ammo Can Rocket Stove
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2914240/posts
Camp stove and propane tanks.
We have a regular 2 burner camp stove and a bigger 3 burner propane stove with small legs, and a number of 5 gallon (or is it pound?) propane tanks. And a wood cook stove but I sure hate cooking with those things in the summer. For the propane camp stoves or an outdoor campfire, a metal box oven works well; it’s small but it works, I’ve made birthday cakes in them as well as biscuits, baked potatoes, etc. Coleman sells them, may be availalbe elsewhere, I’ve gotten one at a garage sale too.
My preps include two sources. For the short term outages of a typical south Louisiana hurricane (i.e. power out for a few days - one week) I keep copious amounts of charcoal on hand, and can, if needed feed myself and neighbors.
In the event of a larger/longer collapse when the smell of grilling food outdoors would attract ne'er-do-wells and scavengers, I've bought some additional burner units for kerosene lamps and converted them to little stove tops. Lamp oil stores easily, and in addition to being able to heat up the contents of a can of food or two at a time, I can swap out the burner units when I'm done, and return them to lamp configuration. Best of all, I can do my food prep entirely indoors, away from the wandering eyes and noses of whatever is left prowling the neighborhood.
http://www.stovetec.net/us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=109&Itemid=643
That's an easy one. Just about every prepper list I've ever seen says "Coleman fuel - impossible to have too many."
These cost about $11 for four cylinders, and they last a surprisingly long time. I've got 80 of them in my basement, only taking up two shelves. Dunham's has the best price I've found. You can buy single or double burners to go with them, and even a heater attachment.
Also buy a couple of extra tanks for your gas BBQ grill. I have five of those.
I’ve been contemplating spending the $160 on a Deadwood Stove. All the online reviews and videos I’ve seen on it look like it’s a good little piece of equipment.
We recently lost the power here for a bit, and it gave me a chance to see how well my preps will serve. I’ve got a small coleman gas grill and about 3 dozen cans of gas for it, but boiling a big pot of water on it seemed like a waste of fuel, because so much heat escapes.
The deadwood stove has a burner on the top that’s the perfect size for a standard kettle, so you’re not losing any heat energy. Plus, it burns hot on just a few pieces of scrap wood, so having a supply of burn fuel for it seems pretty easy. And, if needs be, I can use it inside the garage with just some minor ventilation - so no risk of grilling outside and drawing attention should the SHTF scenario be overly dangerous.
Still, I’d use the gas grill for cooking meats, etc - things that can cover the entire grill surface to maximize the heat being put out.
I think it’s important to have a couple of options.