Why I choose butane stove as my main cooking source/ Van life cooking stove options

Good morning everyone. I hope you're having a great day so far. Today I want to talk about something that a lot of you ask me questions. So I've done a little test for you. Yesterday I ran out of butane. The light isn't the best. Sorry. Yeah, yesterday I ran out of butane and I calculated the amount of time it took me to run out of one can of butane, and I want to Just talk about why I cook. My main source of cooking is my little butane stove. Choose that and all those questions. So first of all, I have this butane stove for probably I've had it for four years now. I bought this butane stove before I started sleeping in my car. It was just my camping stove. I chose that because I thought, oh, that would be so easy. Just to put a can and you know, one burner. It's fine, it's just for camping. And the stove is quite cheap too. It's around $30–35 at Walmart, if I remember correctly. Canadian. So really cheap, especially when you consider something like a propane stove—it's almost like you know $60 to $100, depending on the brand you choose. So yeah, I went with that, and when I Start sleeping in your car if you don't know that I slept in my car for a year before I bought this van. That's what I've been keeping from you, you know. It's incredibly small, just like you saw this morning. And I wasn't cooking much when I was in my car. I'm going to make a video about a couple. recipe ideas if you don't have a stove or fridge or cooler because I had like Nothing in that. I had a stove like this, but I wasn't using it much because it was just, you know... It was a lot of hassle if you wanted to put it in the car and cook on it. So I kind of got used to like fine recipes that didn't involve any cooking, and I still eat those recipes now summer when it gets hot. I don't want to turn on the stove because it's just going to heat up the whole place. the whole place. So we're going to talk about all those things today regarding propane, butane—sorry if I like it if I'm going to keep it and all that good stuff. So first of all, I need a cup of tea. So I did a Test, so I'm cooking right now. In the morning I make my cup of tea, that's usually the only thing. I do, and in the afternoon I'm going to have one meal that I'm going to cook. The rest is just no cooking. involved. So you could say I use my stove twice a day and one small butane tank Lasts me exactly 10 days. So yesterday I ran out completely. So for 10 days I never did it. the test. So it was quite interesting to do it, and where's my phone? One second. So one can So I bought those in a pack of four at Walmart here in Canada, and also at Canyon Tire. Not sure if Canyon Tire is a pack of four or three; I don't remember. But at Walmart, it's a pack of four. Was $12.99, so pretty much $13. Divide by four, so one can is $3.25, and for 10 days, 32 cents or 33 cents. That cost me every day to cook with my stove. I don't know how much that will be if I was to cook on propane. I'm sure, obviously, a big big propane tank would cost me more. The little I don't know how many pounds, but the little green tank, I'm not sure if that would be so much cheaper. The price doesn't bother me. The reason why I keep it and why I cook on it a propane stove just feels safer to me, to be honest with you. You just put it in and you're good. Clip and that's it. The connection is done; the connections would be, you know, fine. I don't feel very safe having that green tank, and I just have this feeling that maybe it's going to A leak and all that, and I didn't want, not at all, any large propane tank inside my van. I know you'd feel it if something happened—I'd just explode, okay? I'm really scared of those. things, so that was a big no for me. So I really like it for that. I don't mind the price. As I said, that's a price I'm not reluctant to pay to feel safer. So the downside of cooking with the stove, the butane stove. First of all, the big one that I ran it was during the COVID. So when a year ago the entire pandemic happened, people, I guess I don't know if people start by buying butane like crazy, or if you just didn't have enough supply. I'm not quite Sure, but when I was in Squamish, I couldn't find any butane for weeks and weeks. And I was worried at that time, you know, you can probably relate to how you felt a year ago. But I was worried that you know, big chains like Walmart, Canadian Tire, would close down and The only thing that would be open is the grocery store, and most of them do not. Carry butane. Some people do, but I was worried about that, so I was concerned about running out. out of butane. So I ended up buying a propane stove because I thought I was like, oh that's What I'm gonna do eventually is buy a two-burner propane stove and put it in here, and I was like Oh my god, this thing was huge, and I never cook on it because I always end up finding some more butane. and I gave that stove to my friend Jeffy Bear because he kind of wanted to change. By the way I'm preparing a full meal this morning. So yeah, the last time I ran out, it was pretty much the same. I ran out; it was in a small town. I was waiting for the road to improve so I could tackle the mountain pass. and I realized oh no I don't I almost don't have any butane left and I ended up going to every store In town, I found one store that had some, and they were quite expensive. So they were, I don't remember. How much for a little can? But I ended up buying only one because I was like, all right, I'm gonna Wait, that I find a Walmart. So now I always carry like two or three extra so I don't have some in hand. So this is probably the only downside I feel like sometimes can be a little a bit harder to find butane, especially if you're in a small town, so yeah, you have to carry it a little bit to be prepared. The other thing I don't like is that you can't refill them, so It's a huge waste. I wish they had some option to refill them or, better yet, to recycle them. I'm not entirely sure, but yes, this is one of my major issues—if you don't like that part of it. and the only other part that could be a problem, but for me it isn't It's a single-burner stove. For me, as I said, it's not a problem—I've gotten used to it, and I don't plan to change. on having two burners. I think they take up way too much space—like, I never even use them at home. When I had a big cooking stove with four burners, I was always cooking using only one of them. Maybe a head full of recipes, I was cooking with two, but yeah, very rare, so. For me, it's not a problem, but I just wanted to mention that it could be one. They have an online version. some butane, and also butane and propane, so I think I don't know them exactly, but I think It's just an adapter that allows you to attach a small green propane tank, so that could be a good option. option because if you arrive in a town where you can't find any butane and you've just run out Just put on the adapter and go buy a green propane tank, which is usually quite easy to find. Let me finish the rest of my oatmeal and probably tackle the last big issue for me. It's at zero degrees and below freezing level, so this thing here doesn't work very well. So you have to warm it up with your hand, or if it's really cold, I don't even bother, to be honest. I just go to a store to get my cup of tea because, yeah, this is quite annoying. In Squamish, when I was living when I usually spent most of the winter, and in the mornings it was kind of close. to freezing level or below, and in the afternoons get above freezing level, so yeah, so that was my The only issue was occasionally in the morning, but other than that, you just have to be somewhat creative. Next winter I'm going to have a heater, so it shouldn't be a problem anymore, hopefully. All that being said, if you ask me, I'm still going to change it, that's what I'm going to do. I want a propane tank; if this one breaks down, I'm going to buy another one—the answer to all of this. If this stove breaks down, I'll get exactly the same one—this thing has been lasting. for four years, almost two years in this van, cooking every day and a little bit on my um when I was in my car too, and you know it's under my bed, as you saw— that's where I keep it. It never broke down. At one point, I was like, maybe I should get a new one, you know. because it's so cheap, like only $30, you think it would break down right away, you know but no, uh, it's been very good, doesn't have any problem. The only thing that doesn't work is the the ignition, so this is the starter, but um, are you foggy? Let me sorry, uh Yeah, it's the ignition, but uh, that never worked from the first day I got it—it didn't work, so Um, this is why I always start with a lighter. All right, this is pretty much it. Done now, let's remove that. I should try it, so good. All right, so I'm gonna eat this, and I'm gonna Let you with this, um, if you do have any questions, if anything I didn't answer in this little video about butane and cooking, let me know and I'll do my best to answer you, and yeah, if you do have any uh Fan life question—also put them in the comment section below; I'll pretty much always read all. My comments, so, uh, if you do have any, you know, sometime if I don't answer them and just have a Plan for the video: So, um, yeah, uh, have a beautiful day, guys, and I will see you soon.