Cooking in the Cumberland

The options for cooking in the Cumberland are portable electric and gas stoves / cooktops.

Electric:

If you are in a site that has a 110V 30 amp hookup, the best way for cooking inside is with a portable electric cooktop that plugs into one of the 110V 15 amp outlets in the Cumberland. We keep a single burner 1500 Watt electric cooktop in the Cumberland that is small enough to slide into one of the cabinet drawers (let it cool first). It does a great job. It is preferable to a portable gas stove because there is no flame and no possibility of hazardous by-products like carbon monoxide and are less likely to cause any heat damage. It also does not use any of your propane.

Gas:

The Cumberland is made to be used both in developed sites with utility connections and in the wilderness. In the wilderness, you may be able to make a wood or charcoal fire for cooking - the best kind of camping. Cooking over a bed of coals when a campfire is dying down is a fine art. We did that one night boondocking in Colorado on a recent field test. But you will also want to cook when electricity is not available and an open fire is not allowed.

In good weather, cook outside using a portable gas stove. We used our Camp Chef propane stove outside recently to simmer a nice beef stew. At times, weather conditions will chase you inside or you'd just rather cook inside. In which case you must be careful in your choice of a stove and how it is used.

For the Cumberland, there seemed to be no advantage to installing a built-in cooktop over the right choice of a portable stove which can be stowed inside a cabinet when not in use and can be used outside as well. However, choosing a portable stove for inside use, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Portable stoves are available for propane and butane fuel. The tradeoffs appear to favor propane stoves by a small margin with one big exception. Butane stoves are typically rated for indoor use while propane stoves are not. A stove rated for indoor use has to meet a set of safety factors that do not apply to portable propane stoves for outside use.

Built in RV cooktops are usually fueled with propane from a bulk propane tank installed in the camper. Since they are built in, they must meet the safety standards for indoor use - which is good. They usually have burners that produce less heat than most portable camp stoves. A typical built-in two burner propane cooktop will produce 5200 BTUs from one burner and 7200 BTUs from the other. They run on the RV regulated gas pressure of 11" of water column which is about .4 psi - a low pressure meant for inside use. Most portable camp stoves have burners of 10,000 BTUs and up, though a few produce less than that - and they operate at around 12 psi. We are guessing that the reason for the relatively low built-in burner heat and the low gas pressure has to do with the safety standards that must be met for inside use. There is at least one portable butane stove with burners that produce up to 15,000 BTUs that will run on a pressure of .4 psi and can be plugged into the Cumberland's inside quick connects. We do not recommend using it in the Cumberland.

Nor is that much heat needed. In our experience, 1500 Watts is sufficient for indoor cooking. For comparison, 5200 BTUs is equivalent to 1500 Watts. A medium size burner on the electric stove in your kitchen will range between 1000 to 2000 Watts or from 3,142 to 6,284 BTUs. A burner on a typical electric stove for your home produces less heat than a burner on most portable gas camp stoves.

Part of the safety standard has to do with the amount of carbon monoxide a stove produces. Both propane and butane stoves can produce carbon monoxide. With the right fuel/oxygen mix available at the burner, both produce very low levels of carbon monoxide. Without sufficient oxygen, stoves will produce more carbon monoxide which is dangerous.  Adequate ventilation provides sufficient oxygen to keep carbon monoxide at a minimum.

The design of a stove will also determine how much carbon monoxide is produced. Most portable stoves that use butane are rated for indoor use. We do not know of any portable propane stove that is rated for indoor use.

For more than one reason, should you choose to use a portable stove inside, do not use the hottest stove you can find.

A stove with a burner rated at 8K BTU (2550 Watts) or less is more than enough for cooking inside. We have a 7K BTU (2230 Watts) single burner butane stove that produces more heat that we ever use. 7K BTUs is 36% hotter than a 1500 watt electric burner which is about the same as a medium size burner on an electric stove in your kitchen.

Beside the risk of carbon monoxide, the reason to avoid high heat stoves inside the Cumberland is the risk of heat damage to the tent fabric. It is possible to damage the water resistant coating with heat. (The fabric is flame retardant and will not ignite.) We do not know how much heat is needed to damage the material, but following our recommended precautions should prevent reaching that number. We have cooked with both butane and propane portable stoves inside the Cumberland and have never needed heat high enough to come close to damaging the fabric. In any case, no part of the camper is warranted against heat damage.

We measured the temperature above a 7K BTU butane stove by placing a temperature probe 42" above the burner with the burner set to maximum heat and without a pot or pan on the burner. (There is ample counter and table top space over which the tent surface would have more clearance than 42" above a typical stove burner.) It recorded a temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit which will not damage the tent fabric. We were holding the probe with a bare hand and felt heat but no discomfort. (Disclaimer: It was a simple experiment with a single stove. The temperature above your stove might produce higher temperatures.)

We recommend taking simple precautions no matter what size burner you use.

If you choose to use a portable gas stove in the Cumberland, take these precautions.

• Use a stove that is approved for inside use.

• Follow the manufacturer's warnings and precautions.

• Use a stove with a burner of no more than 8K BTUs, which is still more than a built-in cooktop would provide.

• Have a pot or pan on the burner whenever the burner is lit including when lighting it. It will absorb and dissipate heat.

• Use only as much heat as is needed at any time whatever the size of the burner.

• Disconnect the fuel from the stove when not in use. (i.e., if using 1 lb. propane cans, unscrew the can from the regulator. If using a butane can, remove the can from the stove.)

• Make sure there is no flammable material within 1 ft horizontally of the stove.

• Use the stove where there is at least 42" of vertical distance between the burner and the tent. (The tent over most of the counter space and table is 42" or more above our butane stove top.)

• If using a propane stove inside the Cumberland, ensure there is sufficient ventilation through the windows and/or door.

• If the stove has 2 burners, do not use them both at maximum heat. Keep at least one of them at a low setting such as for a low simmer or to keep something warm. We have discovered that cooking bacon and eggs requires a low setting when using any of our portable stoves.

We recommend using a single burner stove vs. a two burner stove to avoid the risk of having too much heat rising from the stove, but it is simply a matter of wisely managing the total heat the stove is making at any time.

As is the case with any camper or RV, if you want high heat, cook outside. Propane stoves and grills can be connected directly to the camper's outside propane tank. Most people prefer to cook outside when camping and only cook inside when weather chases them in.

Propane:

Manufacturers of portable propane stoves always state that their products are for outside use because of the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning (though there may be other indoor use safety measures they do not meet). In keeping with those warnings, always ensure that such a stove is used with adequate ventilation. Knowing what is "adequate" can be helped by using a carbon monoxide detector. In the Cumberland you will find that you do not need to keep all the windows open, but verify with a working detector. If using propane we recommend using a device that monitors the presence of combustible gas as well as carbon monoxide. Since combustible gas detectors deplete batteries quickly, they are sold as plug in devices so, a source of electricity is needed.

Portable propane stoves that use 1 lb. propane bottles have regulators that provide propane to the stove at 10 to 12 psi - well above the .4 psi provided by an RV or camper low pressure regulator.

The low 4/10 psi gas pressure used in an RV makes a gas leak less likely and is part of the reason it is used.

We read on the internet that it is possible to connect a camp stove designed for using 1 lb. propane cans to the 1/4" propane quick connects on an RV by eliminating the regulator provided with the stove and substituting the right connector hose. If true, that would eliminate the need for 1 lb. cans so, we decided to see for ourselves. We built a hose with a fitting for a portable camp stove at one end and a quick connect plug at the other. We knew that the output of the Cumberland's regulator was lower pressure than the stove's regulator (.4psi vs. 12 psi) which meant that the burners would have a lower, cooler flame and wanted to know if it would be hot enough to cook with. It wasn't even close. With the burner control knob turned completely open, there was barely enough gas flow to keep it lit. It would not be sufficient for any cooking.

We had a Camp Chef Ranger camp stove that could use RV regulated low pressure propane but it has two 17K BTU burners. That's too much for use inside the camper.

Butane:

Butane stoves have the advantage that they are rated for indoor use - they comply with the ANSI Z21.1 safety standard. They have low emissions of hazardous byproducts like carbon monoxide plus a few safety features like anti-tip shutoffs and an inaccessible regulator that can't be tampered with. When buying a portable gas stove, butane stoves are the only ones rated for use inside. For that reason, we use a 7K BTU single burner stainless steel butane stove made by Sterno (there are others).

It is more than sufficient. It will boil about 1 1/2 pints of water in less than 4 minutes at a setting that is somewhere around 50% of the available heat. 7K BTUs is equivalent to 2050 Watts.

On our first trip with the Cumberland, we had a 1500 Watt electric burner for use inside and an old 2 burner Coleman stove with a pump up tank we used outside only. Now, we take the electric burner, a 7000 BTU butane stove (see Butane vs. Propane below), and a Camp Chef Everest 2 that we use outside connected to the Cumberland's propane tank.

boiling water with a butane stove

Butane vs. Propane:

Propane and butane produce an almost identical amount of heat per pound of fuel - propane: 19,834 BTUs/lb.; butane: 19,976 BTUs/lb.

1 lb. propane cans can be refilled. The typical 8 oz butane can is not refillable. If you refill your propane cans, propane is less expensive per BTU, but the difference won't be large.

Propane will work down to minus 42 Fahrenheit. Butane will not work if the temperature of the fuel is below 31 degrees Fahrenheit. We are able to keep the temperature above freezing in the Cumberland by using the propane catalytic heater. A thing we discovered on Field Test 4 is that even at temperatures a little above 31 degrees, the spark ignition on our Butane stove would not light it. We could light it with a match, but had to use the burner at medium settings - which was sufficient for cooking. The flame would go out if the control knob was turned to high. This happened at 9300' and 6850' elevations.

Portable butane stoves are usually certified for inside use. Portable propane stoves are not.

There are stoves that use either propane or butane. They are butane stoves that have an adapter hose for propane. They are not approved for indoor use.

The only current use of the Cumberland propane quick connects is heating with a catalytic propane heater like a Camco Olympian Wave heater during cold weather. Each quick connect has a safety valve that must be in the off position to insert or remove a quick connect plug.

It is possible to connect stoves designed for 1 lb. cans directly to the camper's bulk propane tank (carried on the trailer tongue outside the trailer box) with a hose that connects to the bulk tank at one end (without a regulator between the hose and tank) and an adapter that fits the stove's regulator at the other. Since the hose is connected directly to the bulk tank, the stove's regulator is used rather than the camper's. We do this with a Camp Chef Everest 2 for cooking out. We have done the same with propane grills belonging to friends.

We put a metal mat under any stove in use, which acts as a scuff guard and heat shield for the countertop. The burners are designed to sit on a countertop without doing any damage, but the mats are an easy guard against long term wear and tear and grime.

We also use a rubber backed metal countertop heat protector mat on which to place hot pans. We use 2mm silicone mats as place mats on the table. Two of each of these are standard equipment in the Cumberland.

For safety we recommend

monitoring for carbon monoxide when using a propane appliance inside the Cumberland. We also recommend using a combustible gas detector, when heating with propane, however there are no battery-only powered units on the market because they consume batteries quickly. One approach is to use a plug-in detector whenever electricity is available which provides detection part of the time.

The precautions we recommend is to shut the valve on the propane tank when not in use, turning it on only when it will be used. The Cumberland's propane line is 3/8" stainless steel NPT pipe. The line has been leak tested above minimum requirements before delivery, but is not warranted against a leak developing.