Camp Cooking Review: Camp Chef – Explorer Two Burner

My wife is one of those people who would open every single present early if you let her. Christmas, birthday, Mothers Day you name it and she wants to open it early. She also likes to give her presents early, which is why I got my Fathers Day present, a Camp Chef camping stove, a couple weeks early this year.

Kelly took our three youngest kids to Cabelas during the day last week and hunted for a great Fathers Day Present.

That night I was given my gift (amazing patience on her part!). She actually got me a Camp Chef Explorer Two Burner along with a Double Steel Griddle to go along with it. Camp Chef also makes a half griddle for the stove as well as a grilling attachment (maybe Christmas).

Set Up

I set the stove up on our first afternoon of camping this last weekend. Isaiah helped me and together we had the stove un-packaged and set up in less than 5 minutes. Set up consists of attaching the legs to the stove, putting on the windscreen and attaching the gas hose. Really, no instructions or cussing needed on this set up.

Specs

• The Camp Chef Explorer Two Burner is a two burner propane stove.
• It has a 30,000 BTU output which is perfect for nearly any camping cooking you can imagine.
• It has aluminum burners so your burners won’t rust as well as adjustable legs to accommodate uneven ground.
• Burns up to 15 hours on one propane tank.
• All Steel Range.
• 40 lbs. weight.

The 30,000 BTU output is actually pretty huge. If you are thinking about using a stove like this for brewing beer, the output will not be an issue although you could look at upgrading to one of their 60,000 BTU burners, but this will make using it for cooking a bit more difficult.

How Does It Compare To Other Options?

I really enjoyed using this stove while camping. We have a camping trailer and I also have a Coleman camping stove but the Camp Chef had major benefits over both of these options. Cooking in the trailer works, but is not always fun when cooking for a family of 7. It gets the camper hot, splashes grease (when doing bacon or similar) and can be crowded and dangerous with kids moving through. Also, cooking outside when camping is the best. Compared to the Coleman, the Camp Chef is just a much bigger and more versatile camping stove. If you needed to pack light, then the Coleman could be your winner, but for those situations, there are even better stoves.

My Meals

I started off by doing a simple spaghetti dinner on the stove the first night. I fried up some hamburger and cooked a large pot of spaghetti for 9 people. Boiling the large spaghetti pot of water was a quick task for the Camp Chef. I had the water boiling in just a couple of minutes. This meal went great and quick. Cleanup also was a breeze. After the stove had cooled, I simply removed the legs and put the stove into its case.

The next morning I did a large breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage with my 14″ x 32″ steel griddle attachment. This attachment sets easily onto the top of the stove. I liked that I was able to get higher heat on one side and lower on the other compared to our plugin griddles we have used in the past. The griddle had plenty of room to knock out our large breakfast for 8 people.

My Thoughts

I really loved using the Camp Chef. It was easy, stores nice and is quite versatile. The only downside would be that the Camp Chef Explorer weighs in at 40 lbs. If you have the room and weight is not an issue, it is the perfect camping stove.

You can purchase the Camp Chef 2 Burner Stove on Amazon