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Best SHTF indoor cooker/burner

14K views 54 replies 35 participants last post by  bulrush 
#1 ·
I dont have a way to cook my food independent of electricity. What is the best indoor (i live in apartments, no land) way of cooking. Is there a particular brand or device you like best, or do you have a favorite form of fuel - propane, kerosine, gas, etc.
 
#5 · (Edited)
FBK, I don't think his apartment manager would appreciate him cutting a hole in the roof and stockpiling a couple cord of wood in his front yard.
That being said, I heated my lunch today (chicken noodle soup) and hot water for tea and cocoa today on my woodstove.:thumb:

In fact, it is -7 degrees outside right now, and it's 82 degrees in here. Just about burning me up.
 
#6 ·
If you live in an apartment, you can't put a wood stove in, probably, unless you vented the pipe out a window. Propane works well, but you might want to stock up mostly on foods that don't require a lot of cooking, because propane tanks won't last that long. A larger tank (20 pounds or more) requires the tank to be outside for safety, but the small canisters are okay inside.

If you stocked up on freeze dried or dehydrated foods, you could heat water on the grill from the patio and bring it in, then mix it with your food inside. This would prevent food smells from attracting others. Otherwise, the less cooking you do, the better, even inside.

You can boil water using very little fuel, propane inside or hobo stove or something outside. You can also boil water in a solar cooker using no fuel at all outside the sun. But actually cooking outside beyond boiling water brings that unwanted attention. On the other hand, if you are on a top floor and had a patio, the cooking smells would mostly rise up and might not be noticed. Others would notice smoke but maybe not smells.

Apartment living will be more complicated in SHTF for a lot of reasons, including this.
 
#16 ·
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#18 ·
Houdini I have one similar very useful



so many questions ..
-how long can you hold out in an apartment ?
-what are you cooking?

At some point in a SHTF you might need to bug out with that in mind i'd consider
a backpack stove just some food for though

I have the MSR multi-fuel stove (expedition) it burns almost anything but it's kind of messy and not suited for indoor cooking the MSR canister stoves are nice

http://cascadedesigns.com/msr/stoves/category
 
#19 ·
if you have a fire place a real one id say get a wood stove we have two in our house for when the power sometimes goes out in the winter and they heat a good bit and you can cook on and in them have a lil magnetic thermomiter got from tractor supply helps with cooking a ton

if you dont have a fire place id say get a coleman propane stove
 
#24 ·
MRE cost way too much unless you live near a military base and get them on the low under the table way. houdini would be better off buying prepared canned foods that can be eaten cold like canned meats and beans and the such for right now. then compare the costs of that kind of food to the price of MRE. The savings could be put towards something better. Like a different place to live that will afford him more liberties then living in an apartment complex.
 
#39 ·
I was in the Peace Corps back in the early 1980's and lived for 2 years in a very remote area of western Nepal. Very primitive conditions - no running water, no electricity, no plumbing, etc. I had a small kerosene stove like this: http://www.harvestoutfitters.com/products/detail/6 and a small kerosene lamp. Worked great!

Kerosene is stable, relatively safe to store, and generates good heat in stoves like this. I recall I could heat a one-liter kettle of water to near boiling (at about 3,000 feet elevation) in just a few minutes. Five liters of kerosene lasted me several months if I was careful not to stay up too late reading by lamp light :).

I hope this helps!

Jeff
 
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