Got a camel price drop notification for this well regarded butane stove. Was floating around the $180 mark.
15,000 BTU with a "built in windbreaker".
This is probably excessive for most people but if you need to do some wok cooking, kbbq or hot pot, it's a great option.
CamelCamelCamel.
How long does a can of butane last?
Found this on their website: "This butane stove has a total power output of 15, 000 BTU per hour and a max duration of 55 minutes at full power."
I use it mainly for cooking with a wok, which requires high heat from a proper flame. Not really achievable on an induction or ceramic cooktop or those shitty camping butane burners.
I’ve been eyeing this off for Wok cooking 🧑🍳 glad it sounds like it’s doing it’s job!
Induction can be 40,000 BTU equivalent, so should be able to compete with this. Though there is a big difference in quality of induction stoves.
@ikey2: The problem with induction is that its flat. Heat doesn't rise up on the sides of the wok. They do make induction cooktops that have a concave top which is designed for woks, but they're more commercial restaurant products.
@jjjones: Good point. Haven't used a wok since getting induction stove. I see you can also get portable induction wok burners but they do cost a lot more than this gas one.
@ikey2: It's more to do with the shape of the wok and the induction being typically flat. You can get induction wok burners, they are a scoop shap that the wok sits in
https://repthewild.com/how-long-does-a-butane-gas-cartridge-…
"An 8oz (220 gram) butane cartridge contains about 10,600 BTUs. If your single burner butane stove has an output of 8,000 BTUs, then your butane cartridge will last about 1.3 hours at the highest heat setting."
1.3h (1.3h * 60m) = 78m
So 8000 BTU / 15000 BTU * 78m = the cans will run this for 41.6 minutes on high.
The drawback is (using Bunnings site info) 220g * 4 cans = $6
And 4 cans * 220g = 880g of gas
So $6 / 0.88kg of gas = 6.82/kg for the gas!
May as well be more selective and buy a burner that can be run from a BBQ bottle (or find adapters first, so you know it can).
e.g. Bunnings 8.5kg BBQ bottle refills are showing as $29.87. And $29.87 / 8.5kg = $3.51/kg, or, about 50% cheaper than buying the small cartridges this burner uses. (And you can often find a cheaper price again for 8.5kg BBQ bottle refills.)
Alternatively you can refill one gas container from any other (like these small cannisters from a BBQ bottle) using adapters. Though these cans should be discarded regularly, not refilled forever, because apparently a seal inside deteriorates. Look on youtube.
Personally I'd either buy a different burner matching the intended use. e.g. A low pressure cast iron "ring burner" type you see at Bunnings, or a high pressure wok type burner on ebay or Asian food shop - that run directly off BBQ bottles. (Tthe 50% saving in gas will repay you fast.)
Or, with the price of petrol and gas, an electric induction hotplate. If using it for camping you'd need a generator and/or inverter over 2000W (and the battery capacity) to run it, but they heat nearly instantly so don't need to be on as long as people think. BCF sells what looks like a good one with an all glass top (no plastic press buttons to crack/peel). It was on sale a couple of months ago for $50 so will probably go on sale again. There were others the same price/type (all glass top) in the same thread: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/741526. I've had an all glass one for something like 7-9 years.
Price of refill convenience
can it produce wok hei?
I feel like buying one of these and setting up a cooking area on my balcony and get Wok Hei. Hard to do high heat cooking inside when the smoke sets off the fire alarm
wouldn't a $15-20 camping burner be more of a bargain when it comes to butane bottle burners?
Not if you need a wok apparently
hm…
stir fry in the jungle
People go a bit overboard with the "high BTU needed for wok cooking." They forget countries who used woks for hundreds of years before we had bottled gas and high BTU wok burners did, and often still do today, cook over open fires/coals. It's nice to have when the volume of food is high, but reduce the volume and high BTU is often unnecessary. I cook Asian food in a carbon steel wok on an induction hotplate like this: https://www.bcf.com.au/p/germanica-ceramic-induction-cooktop… and comes out as good as the local takeaway.
Do you get wok hei? Flames in the wok?
Depends on your requirements, those cheapie ones don't produce enough heat for wok cooking or really good sears on steaks.
My cheap one from bunnings died after 2 uses.
who is high temp wok cooking on a camping stove??
I am, because your typical in house gas stove is garbage unfortunately.
Been wanting to replace it, but at the same time I don't think we'll live here that long so portable butane gas burner it is.
the only difference between this and the cheap ones is that this one comes with a "Heat Panel System". Basically, butane canister will get cold when liquified gas is used, this heat system tries to warm up the canister to maintain constant pressure as fuel is being consumed, that is one of the features of this stove to provide "providing the maximum and consistent output for the life of entire fuel canister".
You could modify a cheap $15 one by adding a rod to conduct heat from the burner to the canisters to keep them warmer and get the higher burn rate.
seems safe
My unit did not "warm" up the canister but made it extremely hot. The burner would keep turning off after 5-10 mins of use. Canister was burning hot each time. I'm sure it's a faulty unit but I threw it in the bin because I did not want this to explode on me.
After having been around a butane canister that exploded (and subsequently exploded several others), you made the right choice. Scary shit.
didnt learn the first time?
@kgbhouse Was your unit an Iwatani as well? That would be very scary.
This would be handy for cold weather camping. Normal canister stoves are virtually useless when it gets down into low single digits celsius
Or liquid fuel ( i.eColeman) stoves work well in cold weather
$25 Kmart ones only does 8000 BTU, this would generate a lot more heat one would assume…
Yes, almost double (15000 BTU).
Almost 3000 BTU more, looks decent.
I bought one about a week ago with a round bottom wok after looking at butane options… It took my electric/induction stir fry/fried rice from a 5-10 to an 11-10. Been trying for years to perfect these dishes but it just wasn’t possible on standard cook tops. They also sell a double burner for $120, I’m not skilled enough to do 2 at a time so I bought the single
I feel like this would be much better option.
I just got this last week for wok cooking.
Way cheaper on ebay through downunder.
The thing is great! I have a large gas cooker on my stove, this is way more powerful.
Gets that delicious wok hei, but I don't have to clean up the kitchen from my messy uncontrollable flipping.
Looks like it has BBQ bottle fittings too which means the gas is half the price of this one. https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/13261662/redir
Isnt a Rambo the market leader in outdoor gas cooking. They state 55MJ per hour
Watched the YouTube video. Why the hell is there a massive fire at the end of the video. The dude just put in vegatable oil, brought it to a smoke and put some vegies/greens in….why the fire….
Geninuely looking for answers as I'm not familiar with this style of cooking.
oil was left too hot, usually the 1st batch of oil is to heat the wok up, then you need to chuck it away and pour additional oil to star doing stir fry
You see him tilting the wok towards the flame to light the oil on fire which gives the vegetable a smoky flavour. Kenji explains it in the below video and you can even use a torch for your home kitchen to get a similar result.
Thanks for that.
We already use a butane torch for cakes, creme brulee, lemon meringue pie, etc. We are also familiar with flambe (alcohol added to a hot pan to create a burst of flames) which seems a little more controlled then this oil lighting via the flame. Probably something we won't be attempting any time soon at home. Best I leave it to the pro's when we are out.
Not great for camping though. If its cold they dont work as well, if its windy they dont work as well, if the can is under 1/2 full they dont work as well, at high altitude they dont work as well. LPG and petrol stoves work much better outdoors.
These have a nifty in-built gas warmer. Makes sure it works cold and gets every drop of gas from the canisters
Just out of curiosity how do we discard the canister though?
edit: sorry, replied to wrong person
Just pop it in your lit fire pit. Cheap fireworks for the kids
I would do plus 1, but don't try this T home kids.
You have to find the cans without the pressure relief valves for the fireworks. Otherwise they just vent off with a large flame rather than going boom. Or so I'm told by someone who definitely isn't me, anyway.
Last I checked, which was admittedly a few years ago, as I was made to understand it, as long as it was completely empty, it can go in the yellow bin. I just used a can opener/piercer to let out whatever gas remained.
I mean, what am I going to do with 15000 BTU that im not going to do with 8000 BTU? It's probably like a couple more minutes of waiting for a pan to heat up while camping. Not exactly in a hurry.
Makes a lot of difference with wok cooking
Yes, I have a 65k BTU and it's seems like it's no where close to a commercial grade wok burner.
What do you use has 65000BTU?
For stir fries, the higher the output the better. With 8000 BTU, you're just steaming stuff in the pan.
Ahh righto. Not my use case at all especially if camping but makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.
I think 15k BTU is still a bit low
Boiling a large pot of water, using cast iron cookware, wok cooking as others have mentioned………
I dunno, I just got a camping stove with a max of 28,000 BTU, nothing wrong with a bit of extra power on tap
Well i guess im saying i wouldn't pay $130 for extra power versus $30 for easily good enough. I think people mostly buy this because it's Japanese and cool, which is fair enough.
Looks way better quality than the typical $25 unit!
Got a $35 one 5 years ago and still working.
I’m not living. When I go camping last thing I do is wok cooking.
More of a sous vide kind of camper then?
More bear Grills
Ah yes B U T A N E 😋
I wonder how V2G tech will impact portable camping gear? Just take an electric portable burner and plug it in…..thoughts anyone?
Uncle Roger approved for fried rice?
Prob not
How does it compare with Snow peak GS600, which is around $160 including shipping from Amazon jp
That's such a nifty little device. It looks like the Snow Peak is only 8,333BTU so this one has nearly twice the BTUs. The one in the deal is likely better for wok cooking but does appear to be less portable
I thought about getting this, but checked my cooktop manual and supposedly the wok burner does ~14k btu (just under the Iwatani). I have to cook small amounts separately and let it heat up inbetween, otherwise it cools off too quickly and just steams. So Im hesitant this would be any better.
I might check out the bunnings gasmate one others mentioned.
A random thought I had about the BTU ratings, especially for a gas burner… The heat from the combustion is radiated in all directions not just to the pan itself. It could very well be producing 14k BTU, but how much of that is actually searing my food?
Does this one work well in low temps (burner i.e)?
My gasmate one's low setting is still too high for certain items.
This one has very good control across the whole range. Honestly you can’t compare to the cheap ones, it’s so much better.
Is there anyway to hack one of those Kmart butane burners to be able to take a lpg gas tank? Have always been wondering if there was some sort of kit I can buy
Anything is possible, but is it worth it?
There's adapters to refill anything from anything else. Look on youtube.
e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMnLAJnzHd8
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=refill+butane+c…
The cheap ones like at Kmart have a pretty weak flame/heat though.
Is this stonger than gas stove tops?
Thanks, just bought 1 based on the review "Superior performance outdoor in high wind"
I got this for under $150 in 2020: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B003GISCDK, I stll think 65k BTU is bit low for proper stir fries, fried rice or noodles etc. I use it for camping and at home in the backyard.
Get a carbon steel wok - doesn't have to be fancy - jusy head down to your local Asian grocer. Season it (I use grapeseed oil) and maintain it like a cast iron pan/skillet. I've used my 65k BTU with cast iron and it works great.
Stir frying is supposed to be very hot and very fast, and I'm going to start using some fancy words. Prep your mise en place, sometimes you might want to cook certain ingredients beforehand to add at the end. "Wok hei" is essentially the same as the Maillard reaction, sort of like browning or caramelisation (yes I know there are differences), and makes food more yummy. So you got your mise en place ready and fire up the burner until the wok is smoking and then add oil (some peole throw out the oil, then add new oil but i cbf). Then chuck the ingredients in the hot wok in a certain order depending on what you're making while tossing frequently and it should only take a minute or two. And if you did everything correctly it should taste amazing. When people stir fry shit at home, no matter the type of burner, you're not getting the "wok hei" of a Chinese kitchen's 100k+ BTU burners. In most instances they aren't even frying anything, they're steaming it, and very likely overcooking veggies in particular. So now you know why your kids don't eat your stir steamed veggies.
I have also used my 23 quart Presto pressure canner/cooker on it, and very recently used it for deep fried chicken.
Edit: Sorry, yes 15k BTU is pretty great for butane and a lot more portable.
Guess this would do the trick
Concord Professional Single Cyclone Wok Burner with Stand. Up to 100,000 BTU. Great for Home Brewing, Wok Stir Fry, Turkey, Etc. (13")
No-one buy the steel wok from Kmart. It's far too heavy, which means it takes too long to heat up again every time a breath of wind hits it. I can't believe how heavy that thing is.
Yes, stir frying is meant to be hot, but people seem to forget Asian countries made their food in woks for hundreds of years before high BTU gas burners existed. They cooked (and many in provincial areas still do) over open fires and/or on coals, open holes in the top of wood-fired clay ovens, etc. I get good results with a carbon steel wok on a 2000W electric induction hotplate.
Traditionally Asians aren't big eaters either. So there wasn't a need for extreme heat we see in commercial restaurants. The largest (or only) part is rice, a medium amount of vegetables, and a small amount of meat (or none, because they'd quickly run out of animals if they killed for meat even every few days). e.g. There aren't many beef dishes in many Asian areas because cows are so large they'd only go to waste. So they'd gather an entire suburb first before deliberately slaughtering one.
I think the main reasons high power wok burners are "needed" today is because food is more abundant (so people eat more, so they need to cook a greater volume of it), and they want it faster.
Oh and I've heard some Asian cooks mention "wok hei" but heard of other people talking to Asian folks about it, and receiving a blank stare not knowing what they were on about. ;-)
Yeah, don't buy any woks from a "western retailer", or the fancy hand hammered mamafongs. They are way to heavy and thick. Grab a round bottom one from an asian grocer thats not too wobbly. I don't have an induction but have used my friend's fancy Bosch which also had a gas burner, but he didn't like both so got a dedicated wok burner in his outdoor kitchen. You'd also need a flat bottom wok for induction, which I personally don't like.
Traditionally Asians aren't big eaters either.
lol not anymore, and imported beef is very popular in China now
I have a 65k BTU burner, got it for cheap, so I'm gonna use it. I understand if other people are happy with their current set up. But I like a flame that looks and sounds like an afterburner on a jet engine.
Uncle Roger on youtube popularised then term "wok hei" and the use of MSG (god bless him)
I thought that too at first but technically you don't need a flat bottom wok. But it would be easier if you're someone who moves the wok around a lot. e.g. I know the two areas where the induction coils are located inside mine, and I can move my cast iron cookware and wok away from them, so it is barely heating the cookware but close enough to still work. (It's good for when I can't get the exact temp I want because the hotplate only has certain temperature steps.)
I've also noticed I can lift cookware and the wok off the surface and have it still heat without beeping and chucking its "E" error code. That's what I meant above by "still work." Anyway, all this means you can use the stainless steel ring that comes with many woks. You put that ring on the induction hotplate then set a round bottomed wok into that. Because the flat section of my wok is only getting heated by a small area of the induction coils, the rest of the coils are heating the curved sidewalls. So with the ring for stability a round bottom wok would be almost the same level of heat as my wok, perhaps exactly the same.
I'm not explaining it very well, but basically if you put a large flat cast iron frying pan on it then pour some water in, you can see the coils are heating two small areas, the outer left and right sides of the pan. So the middle area of the pan mainly gets hot by conduction from its left and right sides where the heating coils are located - not via induction directly heating its center area. So because the coils are out to the sides, they only heat part of the bottom of the wok, and also the curved sides even though those are raised off the surface. Pull it much higher though and you get the error code.
My bet is all the single induction types that are about $100 (when not on sale) are built similarly. But yeah, constantly adjusting the ring and wok might be a pain. That could be overcome by lifting the wok directly up/down before any tossing.
For the old style resistive "mosquito coil" type hotplates that glow red on high, you definitely need a flat bottom wok. Even then it's difficult to get enough heat into the wok for stir frying. Deep frying works though because you're not moving/tilting the wok. (I use my flat bottom wok on that type of old house stove sometimes to fry chips, the small Asian style spring rolls, and prawn crackers.)
I have heard "wok hei" before Uncle Roger came along, but it's become more "trendy" to say in recent years. Ching-He Huang (in the UK) is one who says it, as does Kylie Kwong (Australia) I think. I wonder if Ken Hom (best-known in USA) uses it (in his earlier years I mean - not today, with everyone else using it).
Oh and yes, while as you say the lighter woks from Asian grocers are better, an even better type I never see there but wish they'd sell, are woks that are still iight but also have concentric rings up the sides. They help "hold" at least some of the food so it doesn't all just slump into the very bottom of the wok. It's probably why the "The Wok Shop" in the USA and "The Wok Store" here exist. To get more specialised tweaks like that.
@[Deactivated]: Thanks for your very informative reply, but for me, stir frying involves a lot of movement, whether its sliding, a stirring motion, banging the flat side of the ladle to break up rice, and most importantly tossing; which is actually sliding the wok on the ring with a slight flipping motion and using the ladle at the same time. Skilled chefs can toss fluids without spillling. This is the way I was taught, and I've heard wok hei from my dad, aunt etc since I was a kid.
Using an induction is a hard pass for me because of the way I use a wok, it just seems too fiddly and cumbersome with no fixed ring. I know what you're talking about re: woks with rings, but then I'll just keep scraping it with the ladle and makes tossing more annoying/difficult, and the food is always moving anyway, and I'm done in 3 minutes max.
So yes, I understand how you can make your set up work with a ring and making adjustments, but it's not for me. I just want a hot flame, a cheap round bottom carbon steel wok, and a large stainless steel ladle with a wooden handle. And MSG.
Edit: I ordered one of those ~18k BTU Gasmates for $80 to use on a table. It should be ok for single serves - like making char kway teows to order - instead of maing 4 serves at the same time.
I think the main reasons high power wok burners are "needed" today is because food is more abundant (so people eat more, so they need to cook a greater volume of it), and they want it faster.
Time is money and gas is easier to deal with than solid fuels. I think it's probably as simple as that. Generally speaking, due to culture change and social media, people are also more discerning about their food.
I grew up going to roadside stalls (warung) and these days all of them use gas, unless it's meat that benefits from being cooked directly over charcoal.
Oh and I've heard some Asian cooks mention "wok hei" but heard of other people talking to Asian folks about it, and receiving a blank stare not knowing what they were on about. ;-)
None of my Indonesian/Javanese relatives would know that phrase unless they've watched Uncle Roger.
I want this now. Stir frying on my mega flame
My campsite is going to bring all the boys to the yard
Great buy if it drops to $150 again
does anyone know how to convert the BTU to W? i thought there was a time factor…
I'm looking at this one from amazon, but I know i can get it from aliexpress for cheaper
oh i didn't realise the BTU was measured per hour, makes sense. thanks!
might buy this el cheapo chinese one then.
I have one of these and it's shiet. I'd say my bunnings $20 butane stove is definitely a lot hotter.
This little one is absolutely trash in even a slight breeze, and you have to position the butane can perfectly or it flares up 30cm+ (not great when you accidently bump it).
Silly question. Would this work better than standard gas kitchen stove for Japanese sukiyaki or shabu shabu style cooking?
Have a look at Adam Liaw on the 'The Cookup' and look at the burners on his stoves. Mucho expensive! This seems a cheap alternative if you're not cooking stirfry more than once a week.
If you don't need it to be portable just get something that hooks up to propane.
Yep. Using a BBQ bottle will roughly halve the gas cost. https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/13261662/redir
I own one of these. most powerful butane burner on the market. Highly recommend