Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Coghlan's folding stove is a nice stove for camping with Sterno type burners or for an emergency kit.
I also own a Sterno brand camping stove, so I'll do a quick comparison:
The stoves are the same size - about 7" square by about a half inch when folded. This one's design is clearly based on the Sterno one as it has a similar opening which the Sterno stove uses both to leave room for the burner and also to brace the burner. The Coghlan version doesn't brace the burner at all, but it does have a shallow circular indention in the base to allow the burner to sit relatively securely (by which I mean that the burner won't slip unless you move the stove).
The Coghlan stove is made of stamped metal - it feels like tin or aluminium. Sterno's is also tin or aluminium but Sterno's is bent, not stamped. This means that the Sterno stove has lots of sharp edges - not good. This one is all rounded corners - this makes it less likely to get bent out of shape and also you're less likely to cut yourself on it if you're rummaging around your pack in the dark. A big point for Coghlan's stove.
Coghlan's stove folds completely flat and stays that way, which is nice. The Sterno brand folds flat too - if you force it. If you leave the Sterno stove to its own devices though part of it pops up at a 45 degree angle. Not a huge deal, but it means it's a negative point and a positive point for Coghlan's stove.
The Sterno stove is silver while the Coghlan version has been spray-painted black all over. It looks good but inside it's going to absorb heat rather than reflect it - not good - the oven may get too hot to touch and it may not heat the food as efficiently as the Sterno version. Basically, you need to sandblast that black coating off the side panels if you want it to reflect heat. The Sterno is the winner on this score.
Unfortunately, this stove doesn't place the burner precisely below the opening - not a big deal but mildly annoying as it's evidence of poor design. Also, the access panel easily pops open if the stove is not perfectly level. Not really a big deal - but it's something to be aware of.
Someday I would like to see a smaller stove. Sterno cans are only 3.5" wide, so I see no reason for the stoves to be larger. It would be easy to make an inexpensive stove that was about 4 x 2x 1/8" with three flat pieces that were connected at a single hinge and opened out to sit on top of the Sterno burner's top lip. There's really no reason for one of these stoves to be any bigger, and I will miss the extra space that this stove takes up in my pack. I guess I could always make my own.
All-in-all, the Coghlan stove is the better stove out of the two. Its flaws are either negligible or fixable. All it needs is a quick sandblasting to remove the black finish on the inside and it will perform as well or better than its competition. I think it's bigger than it needs to be, but then again there's nothing smaller on the market that I can find, so until something smaller and better comes along, this stove works. 4 stars out of 5.
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Coghlan's Folding StoveCoghlan's Folding Stove is convienent and easy to use.It burns Coghlan's Camp Heat or any other type of canned fuel. Built for outdoor use with coated steel construction.
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