Coleman Unleaded 533 camping stove
The Coleman Unleaded 533 camping stove is a portable camping stove that runs on unleaded petrol or Coleman's own brand fuel. To use it, fill with fuel, pump it about 20 times (as you used to do with the old Primus stoves and lamps), hold a lighted match to the edge of the burner and turn the red valve on. It will splutter for a few minutes until it reaches optimum temperature.
It packs away into its own square plastic case, which, if you are tight for space, has enough extra room to store a few odds and ends around the stove. From first impressions, the build quality seems to be excellent.
Efficiency
It purports to burn for 8 hours on one fill (0.5 litres) and that seems entirely possible as when I first used it, for more than an hour, it appeared to have the same amount of fuel as it did at the start.
At maximum heat, it outputs 2500 watts, enough to set the biggest wok smoking. After 5 minutes on maximum, the metal around the heating element is glowing red-hot. It will boil a small cup of water in 1 minute.
Shutting it down
When you turn the valve to 'off', the stove continues to burn for up to a minute or so. Just leave it and it will go out. Never, ever try to release the pressure by opening the filler cap while it is still burning. It will almost certainly explode.
Portability
While people may be concerned about carrying this stove when full of fuel and under pressure, it keeps its pressure even after many days, which means it does not leak at all.
Disadvantages
When it is first lit, before it really gets going, it does have a petrol smell about it, though as you should only ever be using this item outdoors, it should not be too much of a problem.
Low flame / reduced power / blocked vaporizer pipe
After a lot of use it seems the pipe that carries the fuel over the heating element becomes blocked and reduces the output power of the stove. I dismantled the unit and cleaned out the pipe which rectified the problem§, however it may not have been necessary as there is a thin wire connected to the control valve which is probably designed to try to clean the pipe as the valve is activated. It is pulled through the pipe as it the valve is opened and retracts into the pipe as the valve is closed. Repeated opening and closing of the valve may be another way to clean the pipe without dismantling the stove. Reassembly is tricky so don't attempt to do this yourself unless you are fully competent.
§ Flushed through with various tricoethylene-type degreasers and blew through with an air-line.
Spare parts for Coleman petrol stoves (U.k.)
I have found a supplier of spare parts for Coleman stoves as the US company does not ship parts outside of America.
Base-camp.co.uk and the specific Coleman page is here. please note the space before .htm!
Update
I notice on some recently purchased camping equipment labelled 'Camping Gaz', the contents, an air-bed were printed "Coleman CampingGaz", so it's fair to assume the companies have been amalgamated.
See also
- http://www.coleman.com/ Worldwide
- http://www.coleman.eu/ All European countries
- http://www.coleman.eu/UK/default.aspx United Kingdom
Why I added this item to Cookipedia
Before I purchased this stove, I struggled to find any information about it so thought it may be useful to others if I added my thoughts. It then serves as a spring-board for others to add any other useful information.
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