I've been wondering, before i go.. couldnt find much on the search, but has anyone used a stove in the vestibule of their tent? more specifically, the MSR Hubba tent? I'd really like to stay in the tent as much as i can after dark with the upper single digits apporaching, if possilbe, but if it comes down to it, i'll get out.

If i opened up the vestibule and rolled up the side, i think i'd be okay, but i'd be more scared of melting something, and or the fumes. Any personal experience?
Thanks,
Scott

I have used a stove to boil water under my tarp, pitched six feet over the ground (and my hammock). But I would not use any stove in a tent vestibule. Too close for comfort. Nylon melts like butter.

You're gonna die!!!!!

It depends on the stove.

A white gas stove can be moved into the vestibule after priming if you have enough overhead, but this is dangerous and I do not do it.

A sit on top canister stove is too tall and unstable to operate in a vesitbule.

MSR actually sells hanging stove kits so that you can cook inside a tent.

I have never had good luck with the cooking and eating in the tent. I spill food on my bag and the floor of the tent. It makes for too much clean up when I get home.

If you have a small alcohol stove and want to make a cuppa before going to sleep and before getting up in the morning then have at it.

This is one of those things that we all do but never advise anyone else to do.

I have never used a stove inside a tent. Cooking in a tent will increase dramatically the risk of spilling and the ensuing onslaught of wild animals. Thus, I do not cook in or near my sleeping area as I do not want an unwelcome visit from some hungry critters in the middle of the night.

thanks guys. what do yall carry your alcohol in?

A hip flask, of course. Wait, what kind of alcohol are you asking about????

I keep my alcy in one of these containers depending on my trip and mood:
1. http://www.rei.com/product/402026 with a flip top cover for easy squirting
2. http://www.rei.com/product/605499 already comes with flip-top.
3. http://www.moontrail.com/platypus-platy-bottle-0.5L.php (0.7oz) but I don’t use the push-pull cap. It’s hard to use in cold weather. I just use the regular closure cap.
4. On longer trips I’ll take the 1L platy (0.8oz).

-Barry

alright i'll grab some from the CVS after work, and carry my alky stove for hot chocolate.

i carry mine in an empty proactive bottle i fished out of the trash after my roommate finished with it.

You really don't want to cook and eat in your tent if there's any chance you might use the tent or the gear inside it in bear country at some point in the future. You (or even your dog) might not smell the residual food smell, but a bear certainly can next summer! And, as mentioned, there's the fire hazard problem.

As Food says, this rule is often more honored in the breach than in the observance. But I would keep the cooking part well outside the tent.

Alcohol can be carried in any plastic bottle with a tight cap--empty soda bottles, you name it. I'd be careful to label it with big black X's or get some Mr. Yuck stickers from the pharmacy. Unless it's Everclear, you definitely don't want to risk drinking the stuff by mistake! White gas should be carried in a metal container.

Don't do it, not even with an alcohol stove. There's too big a risk of melting a hole in the vestibule, even if the stove doesn't flare. A hot pot accidentally touching the nylon, a hot stove doing the same, and you end up with a hole to patch - or, even worse, a melted zipper which is far harder to fix and more critical since, if it happens during a trip, you won't be able to close your vestibule.

I don't cook in a vestibule, period, even in the rain. It's just not worth it.

It is really hard to wipe out the food smell from a tent. The people that ate food are in the tent they smell like food.
Bears should never find food in a tent and if they do you should be with it to use bear spray on them. So never leave food in a tent unattended. If a bear does get a meal from you inside or outside, you or the next guy is going to have trouble.

Use snow to make a "kitchen" area, with a stove platform and windbreak behind it, curving around to block the prevailing wind.

Also make (stomp out) a seat where you can place your sleeping pad to sit on.

But don't cook in yer vestibule.

Good idea when the sun is shining and the wind is calm.

When the weather is worse its no fun.

I have a Bilber hanging stove that I have used inside the tent - its a compressed gas stove designed for the purpose. I also often cook in the vestibule using my coleman xtreme stove. You can dig a pit inside the vestibule - foot hole if you like, and put the stove in there to give more separation from the nylon above, and I've melted snow with the roof vents open and the front vents open and the stove on high and my down bag pulled well back from the stove, while sitting in my long underwear enjoying a warm steam bath inside the single wall toddtex (fuzzy goretex) tent. It was really quite nice. AND DRY BTW. Heat inside a goretex tent is the ideal situation, it pushes the moisture out. Have sil nylon do you? Too bad.

One morning in a freak snow storm at -5F with 50 mph winds, I did this. I put on my down bibs and winter down coat and left the tent, zipping it up with my buddy inside in his sleeping bag. I unzipped the vestibule and came out into an unbelievable laminar flow of snow such that if I stood up I could see clearly and if I sat down I was in a horizontal blizzard. I used my shovel to bury the sides of the vestibule and packed it to make a dead air space inside. Then I lit my stove in the vestibule with a pan of water and zipped up. I would open the vestibule just enough to add more snow until I had a pan of boiling water, then I turned the stove off, got into the vestibule and zipped it, then got into the tent and made us two cups of hot coffee and instant oatmeal. The tent was thrashing us and I asked my buddy how the weather compared to Mt Everest and he said that this was typical for camp three. I would never use a white gas stove in a tent, because of flare up lighting them, and when you shut them off they give off toxic fumes. With a compressed gas stove there is no priming and they shut off instantly.
I have been to a site used by climbers and they point out that if a flame is not intercepted before it has a chance to burn it will burn hot enough to not make much carbon monoxide, but most current stove have the pot too close to the flame. By changing the pot supports so the flame does not touch the pot, there is little carbon monoxide generated. Also carbon monoxide poisoning is cumulative, one small dose is no problem, nor is two, but do it every day and suddenly you have no hemoglobin in your blood and it takes about two weeks to replace itself, so if you cannot hold your breath for two weeks it is advisable to use caution. Also CO is heavier than air and settles (collects in low spots), so be sure that you not only have good ventilation, but you also give it a path to flow out. Note in 50 mph winds this isn't a problemo.
Be careful, but its not as dangerous as people make it sound and it is VERY common for climbers to cook inside the tent.
The was a hollywood movie showing a nylon tent burning in two seconds, but it was faked. I have seen tents burned on pupose and even nonflame treated nylon burns very slowly and required a sustained flame on it to get it lit, not something that happens in a wind.
Jim

i'm now fully packed. no extra clothes. just gonna wear synthetic pants, with a liner in them [ like windsuit pants] with long johns, and then a long sleved shirt over, and summer BDU's over. I'm considering wearing my under armor compression shirt too. and i'll have my northface fleece on later in the day and early in the morning

I've got the pack on and been wearing it a few minutes now and boy do the gear loading straps make a difference. thats what we call the straps that pull the top of the pack to the frame. got the hip belt comfortable, and its like its floating on my back.


I'm taking my stove, and esbit tabs. the stove to do the actual cooking on and esbit to warm water with later in the night for hot chocolate. I repacked the food in my quick one. i'm now carrying 2 granolas, 4 packs of oatmeal and 4 packs of chocolate and i'm still ligher than the potted meat.

Got a coozie with the exbit tabs and the little esbit stove and pot rack in it. i'll hold the mug from the quick 1 nicely.

Then the rest of my 18 lbs is rain gear, tent, sleeping pad, my 5.5 lb sleeping bag, and some other stuff. the only thing i lack is the water, i'm packing in 40 oz and plan to filter more into my dromdary once i set up camp.
i'll give a report on sunday how it went.

I have cooked in both tents and vestibules with white gas, butane and butane/propane mix. I would do all again with caution. White gas defintely requires the most caution, and unless you have LOTS of experience with your particular stove I wouldn't suggest white gas in a tent or vestibule. What I would not do is use an alcohol stove in a tent - too easy to spill while lit. I would not use an Esbit in either stove or vestibule - too stinky and possibly toxic. Would use an alcohol stove in a vestibule (with the ground carefully cleared of leaves or other flammables if on dirt). I would not cook inside a tent or vestibule in summer in bear country due to food odors getting on the tent and making it interesting to bears or other critters.

the esbit is just gonna be sitting over to the side, heating my water.. the propane stove would be easier, but might as well get rid of the esbit.

Photo guy
Take some paper and a pencil and take notes while you are out there about what worked and what you would do differently next time and REPORT BACK. oh yeh - have a good time.
Jim