INSANITY Anyone bought a Coleman Camp stove recently? CRAZY but true story alert

F

foreverkeeps

Veteran Member
I have just had a really bad experience with Coleman stoves.

I received reward points at work and I used it to buy a new camping stove from their catalog. When it arrived, I kept it in the box until we needed it last weekend; only to find out it didn't work!
The gas wasn't getting to the burner, so it would never light.
It's too expensive to ship it to return, because I'd have to pay return shipping to Utah.

So I started looking at other solutions, including picking up another stove locally and exchanging them out. I bought a second Coleman stove at Target. ... same problem. ,,, gas wouldn't get from the regulator to the burner.

Now, we're not idiots, we've had propane stoves for decades. including Coleman.

I was just trying to upgrade to get a stove that was wide enough for two frying pans.

I reached out to Coleman via their online form, and still haven't heard back from them.

I decided to buy a third one through walmart.com. Got it yesterday. guess what? same problem! regulator does not get gas to the burners!

Reviews everywhere say many people are having the same problem! Coleman has replied to some reviews saying "they are so sorry, thanks for letting us know, we will look into the problem." some of these reviews were 2 years ago, and the problem is still there!

Yesterday, I decided I was gonna get everything right. I returned the stove I got with my reward points With the receipt from walmart.com. No problem.

I returned the stove from target, no problem.

The stove that initially came from walmart.com I took to a second Walmart to return with no receipt.

They told me they couldn't give me a gift card for more than $50; to come back up to customer service with about $30 in product.

I went back up after picking out some things, and she ran everything through again. But this time, when she put my drivers license in, it spit out a decline saying I had already returned too many items without a receipt in 90 days, and I couldn't return anything else! what? we know this wasn't true because the last transaction was voided. A manager came over and tried to help, but now the stove wasn't even recognized!

I called the number on the decline receipt. She told me to hold on and she would see what she could do... then she hung up on me. I called back, was put on hold for a long time again, and she came back on and said I couldn't return anything without a receipt for $80 something dollars. what? Really?

Finally, an hour plus into this ordeal, someone else came to work customer service. She put my drivers license in a different way, turned the key on the register to get it accepted, and THEN gave me a gift card for the entire $86! Wow! I definitely needed a drink after all this!

I then went to Dunham Sports and bought a more expensive Coleman combo stove/grill... stood out in the breezeway, hooked up a propane bottle I brought with me... AND HEARD THE GLORIOUS SOUND OF GAS! WAHOO, I'm ready to go camping again! (In 3 weeks!)
 
F

foreverkeeps

Veteran Member
Chicken Mama said:
Are you SURE this isn't all operator error? Just kidding.
Click to expand...
Exactly! It’s not hard to screw in a regulator to a stove and into a propane bottle. I saw some YouTube videos on how to get a regulator to work and I’m sorry I was not going to do it on a brand new stove. The regulator on the more expensive stove, grill combination is a totally different regulator and the whole stove is a much better quality!
 
West

West

Senior
I've had the same problems. Not that I would recommend this work around because it's not safe, legal and bla,bla...

Simply ditch the regulator and get a good old needle valve that's rated for lp gas, like this one

HongBoW Hardware Instrument Brass Needle Valve Propane Gas Needle Valve Wheel Handle 600 Psi(WOG) (1/4 NPT Female x 1/4 NPT Female): Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

HongBoW Hardware Instrument Brass Needle Valve Propane Gas Needle Valve Wheel Handle 600 Psi(WOG) (1/4 NPT Female x 1/4 NPT Female): Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific
www.amazon.com

And adjust till the flames look right.

But again this is not safe and just because I do it, does it not make it safe. Have a few small lp heaters and stoves that simply work off of needle valves and the correct sized orifices with the correct air mix to combustion, blueish green flames with little yellow. And only on small 5kbtu appliances.
 
W

willowlady

Veteran Member
Wow! We have a 30 yr old Coleman two burner camp stove. It sometimes (most times starts right up) requires a little tweaking, a swear word or two and patience testing to get it going, but no way are we going to upgrade after reading this. We keep it clean, store it property, etc.
 
F

Faroe

Un-spun
Freeholder said:
The last Coleman camp stove I had also had a problem -- the one time I tried to use it, it had flames coming out of places where there shouldn't have been flames coming out. I'm also an experienced camp stove operator. I'll never buy one of their stoves again.

Kathleen
Click to expand...
Same thing has happened to me.
 
subnet

subnet

Boot
foreverkeeps said:
I have just had a really bad experience with Coleman stoves.

I received reward points at work and I used it to buy a new camping stove from their catalog. When it arrived, I kept it in the box until we needed it last weekend; only to find out it didn't work!
The gas wasn't getting to the burner, so it would never light.
It's too expensive to ship it to return, because I'd have to pay return shipping to Utah.

So I started looking at other solutions, including picking up another stove locally and exchanging them out. I bought a second Coleman stove at Target. ... same problem. ,,, gas wouldn't get from the regulator to the burner.

Now, we're not idiots, we've had propane stoves for decades. including Coleman.

I was just trying to upgrade to get a stove that was wide enough for two frying pans.

I reached out to Coleman via their online form, and still haven't heard back from them.

I decided to buy a third one through walmart.com. Got it yesterday. guess what? same problem! regulator does not get gas to the burners!

Reviews everywhere say many people are having the same problem! Coleman has replied to some reviews saying "they are so sorry, thanks for letting us know, we will look into the problem." some of these reviews were 2 years ago, and the problem is still there!

Yesterday, I decided I was gonna get everything right. I returned the stove I got with my reward points With the receipt from walmart.com. No problem.

I returned the stove from target, no problem.

The stove that initially came from walmart.com I took to a second Walmart to return with no receipt.

They told me they couldn't give me a gift card for more than $50; to come back up to customer service with about $30 in product.

I went back up after picking out some things, and she ran everything through again. But this time, when she put my drivers license in, it spit out a decline saying I had already returned too many items without a receipt in 90 days, and I couldn't return anything else! what? we know this wasn't true because the last transaction was voided. A manager came over and tried to help, but now the stove wasn't even recognized!

I called the number on the decline receipt. She told me to hold on and she would see what she could do... then she hung up on me. I called back, was put on hold for a long time again, and she came back on and said I couldn't return anything without a receipt for $80 something dollars. what? Really?

Finally, an hour plus into this ordeal, someone else came to work customer service. She put my drivers license in a different way, turned the key on the register to get it accepted, and THEN gave me a gift card for the entire $86! Wow! I definitely needed a drink after all this!

I then went to Dunham Sports and bought a more expensive Coleman combo stove/grill... stood out in the breezeway, hooked up a propane bottle I brought with me... AND HEARD THE GLORIOUS SOUND OF GAS! WAHOO, I'm ready to go camping again! (In 3 weeks!)
Click to expand...
Keep an eye on the grill side ...the grill is aluminum and people are saying it melts.
I picked it from my works reward point catalog...lol
So far so good on my end.
 
Sportsman

Sportsman

Veteran Member
I quit buying new Coleman products years ago due to price and quailty issues. If you have enough time, you can get the old, higher quality Coleman products from Fakebook, Graig's List, and garage sales.
It's always good to have a couple of those handy. I really like having one of the old white gas models stored away.
 
LoupGarou

LoupGarou

Ancient Fuzzball
I gave up on coleman stoves when I had two go completely deviant on me. The propane one would stop regulating and the above fix in post 4 is about what I did to get it (temporarily) working again. My white gas/gasoline one developed leaks where it would have more than a few areas "cooking" at once. Demolished both and recycled them at the local dump. Went back to my tried and true MSR stoves and have never changed. The Isobutane/propane ones that I have work great for smaller meals, and my Dragonfly (DragonRoar!) or my XGK for the larger ones (or if I want to wake up the neighbors). I bought my wife one of the MSR Windburner sets and during the last power outage she got a change to use it, and loved it. And they work great with the adapters to let you use the isobutane stoves with the small propane tanks (which are refillable by the way).

And if you don't want to go for the MSR ones, I have found a few on Amazon and other places that are under $30 for a good isobutane/propane stove set (comes with adapters). So you don't have to spend a lot to get a good portable fuel stove.

Loup
 
nomifyle

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
We have two, mine is at least 12 years old and has never been used, it talks the one pound green bottle. No telling how old the one dh has and it’s dual fuel and it’s probably been used many times and the camped out a lot.

we’ll have to dig them out and see if they work.

God is good all the time

judy
 
Teeja

Teeja

On the Beach
W

workhorse

Veteran Member
For what it’s worth we bought the wal mart ozark trail knock off and have never had a problem. Have 2 1 over 25 years old and the garage sale find for $5 two years ago and both work fine.
 
adgal

adgal

Veteran Member
This is so sad. Coleman used to be the name you could trust for camping gear. I was a contractor for Honeywell when they were moving their switch manufacturing from Mars Hills, NC to China. I remember that the testing for switches in Mar Hills was somewhere in the 90+ reliability range - but the China reliability was closer to 50%. They chose China because it was cheaper. So much for the Honeywell brand of reliability.
 
Smoke

Smoke

Veteran Member
i buy coleman gas stoves at gara,ge sales, pay no more than $5, usually just need the pump leather oiled and it works, you can buy a attachment that will allow the gas stove to accept propane. Works great. Like I said, I buy them cheap, give them a a go over and then pass them out to friends and relatives so they have a stove to use if power goes out like during a bad storm. Also those 1 lb, propane tanks cost about $15 for 4 of them at Walmart, also you can buy an adapter and refill them from a larger tank, there fore bringing the cost down of gas even more. I also buy white gas from Walmart for about $8 a gallon compared to colemans price of $15. Now I haven't bought any for over a year so the price may be up. I also do the same with gas lanterns. If the globe breaks, it is cheaper to buy a replacement at a yard sale, dam globes are over $10, so if you buy a lantern at a yard sale, you get several spare parts for a few dollars.
 
Cardinal

Cardinal

Chickministrator
_______________
Smoke said:
i buy coleman gas stoves at gara,ge sales, pay no more than $5, usually just need the pump leather oiled and it works, you can buy a attachment that will allow the gas stove to accept propane. Works great. Like I said, I buy them cheap, give them a a go over and then pass them out to friends and relatives so they have a stove to use if power goes out like during a bad storm. Also those 1 lb, propane tanks cost about $15 for 4 of them at Walmart, also you can buy an adapter and refill them from a larger tank, there fore bringing the cost down of gas even more. I also buy white gas from Walmart for about $8 a gallon compared to colemans price of $15. Now I haven't bought any for over a year so the price may be up. I also do the same with gas lanterns. If the globe breaks, it is cheaper to buy a replacement at a yard sale, dam globes are over $10, so if you buy a lantern at a yard sale, you get several spare parts for a few dollars.
Click to expand...
What kind of adapter and where do I get one?
 
biere

biere

Veteran Member
Run a search on youtube or someplace about refilling the little 1lb propane bottles using the 5 gallon sized bottles. Lot of folks have some tips and tricks in there.

The 1 lb bottles all say 1 time use and you want to watch em to make sure they don't slowly leak out propane once you refill them. A lot of people just refill them right before they will use them.

If you are car camping or using this stuff at the house you can buy an adapter to run the 5 gallon tank on stuff that uses the little bottles. I have a hose for my buddy heaters and a couple spares around as well.

I know I am evil for not just posting links, but there are all kinds of adapters and stuff out there and it would be good for you to research em and consider uses.

When using the adapter hose on the buddy heaters I add in a filter because it seemed like over time the buddy heater clogged up using the bigger tanks. Tractor supply and many places have the hoses and filters all right next to each other.
 
Millwright

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
_______________
There's some oil in LP.

When you turn the tank upside down to fill a small bottle, the oil gets pushed out.
 
FaithfulSkeptic

FaithfulSkeptic

Carrying the mantle of doubt
Backtracking from my previous comment, there's plenty of quality items that can come out of China. Chinese manufacturing is like a bullet: how well it works depends on where you point it. In the case of the bad regulator, the problem lies more with the designer and who at Coleman is following up on product issues.

Since this Covid bullsh*t took off, we've tried to pull some of our electronic manufacturing back local, and I can tell you with certainty that local electronic CMs ( contract manufacturers ) on average hold nothing over China, certainly not cost.
 
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