It can be hard to estimate how much fuel your Coleman Stove will use. The amount of fuel you run through will depend on the stove you use, how many burners are one, and the temperature setting. Let’s start off by going over the fuel use of a the classic Coleman’s Liquid Fuel Double Burner stove and their Double Burner Propane Stove, because those units have been around for decades and thoroughly tested.
How much fuel does a Coleman Stove use? You can expect just under 2 hours of burn time out of both Colemans Liquid Fuel and Propane double burner stoves. The liquid fuel stove has a 2.5 pint fuel reservoir and will go through a full tank in 1hr 45 minutes. Their double burner propane stove goes through a 1lb disposable tank in that same time period. That’s with both burners turned on at the maximum temperature setting. Expect at least 3-4 hours of cook time with regular cooking temperatures and up to 6 hours if you’re only using a single burner.
Coleman camping stoves are surprisingly efficient! Looking at those numbers above you can expect to go through 1-2 propane tanks or 20oz fuel bottles on a weeklong camping trip. You rarely cook on high, unless your boiling water or want to scorch your dinner, so a 3-4 hour estimate with both burners on is very realistic.
All of Coleman’s camping stoves use the same components so you can take the data above to make comparisons of similar stoves and smaller single burners. Let’s go over burn rates for a bit so you can get a better idea of how much fuel you’ll need to pack.
In the rest of this post I’ll explain how much fuel Coleman Stoves use and give you an idea of how much fuel you’ll need to pack. It’s always better to carry more fuel than you think you’ll need since most of Coleman’s stove lineup are meant for general camping/tailgating use rather than backpacking.
How Much Fuel does A Coleman Stove Use?
It’s not easy to answer how much fuel your Coleman stove will use, but I can give you a general idea. There are a lot of factors that go into play. How many burners will you be using? What kind of stove do you own? Which type of fuel are you using? What temperature settings are you cooking with? What’s the outside temperature/wind like (cold windy weather takes longer)?
I will have to make some assumptions on most of these items, but let’s assume you’re cooking with Coleman’s most popular stoves in mild weather. Coleman’s two most popular camping stoves are the 2 Burner Dual Fuel Stove and 2 Burner Propane Stove.
- Coleman Double Burner Liquid Fuel Stove: Coleman’s double burner liquid fuel stove has a 2.5 pint fuel reservoir and will burn through a tank in 1hr 45 minutes to 2 hours with both burners turned to high heat. So you burn through about 1.25 pints (20oz) of Coleman Fuel (aka white gas) per hour. When you drop down to normal cooking temperatures you get better fuel consumption rates making extending your tank to 3-4 hours . Double the cooking time if you’re using a single burner.
- Coleman Double Burner Propane Stove: Coleman’s 2 burner propane stoves have similar cook times. You will go through a standard 1lb disposable propane bottle in 1hr 45 minutes to 2 hours with both burners at the maximum setting. Once again with regular cooking temperatures you can expect 3-4 hours with both burners on. Double the cooking times if you’re only using a single burner or a compact single burner propane stove.
All of their smaller single burner stoves and portable stoves use the same components so they should have similar burn rates. There might be a slight change of fuel consumption rates in stoves that don’t have wind shields on windy days, but the difference should be negligible.
Here’s a quick table I made so you can visualize average cook times.
| Stove Usage | 1lb Propane Tank or 2.5 Pints Coleman Fuel |
|---|---|
| Maximum Heat Both Burners | 1 Hour 45 Minutes |
| Regular Cooking Temps Both Burners | 3-4 Hours |
| Maximum Heat Single Burner | 3-4 Hours |
| Regular Cooking Temps Single Burner | 6-8 Hours |
Kerosene and Gasoline Will Burn Faster In Dual-Fuel Stoves
White gas is by far the best option for cooking with a Coleman Dual-Fuel stove. It’s clean burning, highly efficient and won’t clog your fuel lines. Plus you won’t have to worry about a funky kerosene or gasoline taste/odor in your food. You can expect to get more than a full season of use out of your stove without performing fuel line maintenance.
White gas is a highly efficient fuel source and it burns hotter than gasoline and kerosene. So you end up using less fuel to maintain consistent temperatures. That means you’ll burn through gasoline/kerosine faster than with regular camping fuel.
Coleman dual-fuel stoves are rated for gasoline or white gas, but I don’t recommend using gasoline. Gasoline will slowly eat away at the seals in your fuel lines and damage your stove over time. It’s great to use in a pinch, but I recommend cleaning the fuel reservoir with soap and water after using gas in the stove. This will clean out the fuel additives that improve engine performance, but are detrimental to a camping stove.
Technically kerosene isn’t one of the fuels recommend by Coleman, but lots of people use it. Kerosene is a cheap highly refined clean fuel so it shouldn’t cause any problems in your stove. It won’t harm your fuel lines, but you’ll end up with soot deposits on the grill grates and burners. That means more maintenance between trips cleaning and scrubbing off your stove.
How Long Will A Gallon Of Coleman Fuel Last?
You can get just over 3 fuel tank refills out of a gallon of Coleman fuel. There are 8 pints in a gallon and Coleman Stove’s have a 2.5 pint reservoir. That gives you 3.2 fill ups out of a gallon of Coleman Fuel!
So at the maximum temperature setting with both burners on you can expect about 6 hours of run time. With regular cooking temperatures you can get between 9-13 hours with both burners running or 18-26 hours using a single burner.
That’s a lot of cooking! A single gallon of Coleman Fuel will last a full camping season for the majority of people. You rarely run through a full fuel reservoir unless you’re cooking for a large group. So a gallon of Coleman full should last anywhere between 3 and 5 camping trips. That obviously depends on how long you’re camping and how much time gets put on the stove.
How Much Propane Does A Coleman Stove Use?
A Coleman Stove will run through a standard 1lb propane tank in just under two hours with both burners turned up to high. You can expect to get 3-4 hours out of a single propane tank with both burners at normal cooking temperatures and double that time with a single burner.
Disposable single use propane tanks can be expensive! So I recommend picking up a 1lb to 20lb standard propane tank adapter so you’re not going through so many disposable tanks. A 20lb tank will last a ridiculously long time 60-80 hours with a Coleman Stove and you can just pull a propane tank off your grill whenever you need it.
Coleman sells their own 1lb to 20lb adapter, but I recommend going with a GASPRO Adapter instead. It’s a little bit cheaper and much higher quality. I also like that it’s encased in stainless steel so it looks nicer and you don’t have to worry about rust.
You can technically refill disposable propane tanks with a refill adapter (like this), but I don’t recommend it. Disposable propane tanks aren’t legally allowed to be refilled since they don’t have a sturdy pressure relief valve. Refilling your disposable tanks can lead to leaks once the pressure relief valve gives out.
There are ways to get around this by following a few steps that I went over in another post. Check out my guide explaining how to refill 1lb propane tanks with a 20lb tank.
