Turns out many newer cast iron plans, like Lodge in particilar, come with unpolished, rough inner surface, unlike old pans. May be thats why so sticky. But anyway all that burned stuff on them can’t be healthy, that pan just stays covered in thin layer of blackish grease (cancerogens!) the only way to get it off is good soaping and scrub but this makes it super sticky, apparently I am supposed to constantly do 1000 of things to keep it seasoned, according to their (very rude) customer support, inclyding regularly frying meat and just using it a lot, frying meat isnt healthy, once you find out how they make cancer causing substances for lab mice you never go back. Not worth my time. Especially being on the road with limited water and fuel. And just to cook two eggs, Im supposed to clean it with salt,rinse, dry with napkins or it gets rusty, dry more, reapply oil later. I’d rather boil eggs now, no cleanup and healthier. Not sure if I will throw the pan out in the garbage now, can’t haul dead weight in my rig, may be will keep it to make pancakes once in a blue moon.
Greetings!
hehe “New & Improved”. Yeah, right…
Cheers!
VanDweller, what are you using as a griddle for oil cook stoves?
Since I need my setup to be small and outdoors, a compact sturdy metal steaming rack might work for that, I think.
On Amazon they cost $11+. Craft foam around here costs $6 a pack, unless I manage to find single sheet for cheap.
No cheap mop heads here but I think synthetic rope pieces should work (?)
Meanwhile I got suckered into buying new 2 burner propane stove in Walmart because $40 stove sold for $15 on sale, its bulky but perfect for Coleman oven (my current stoves are tiny backpacking types)
Greetings!
I generally buy all my heater/cooker parts at a Dollar Tree, they have the string mops, craft foam sheets, aluminum foil, cookie tins, and the cake/pie cooling racks for the top grill. I think you want cotton for the wicks.
I don’t know what brand my griddle is, it doesn’t seem to say, and I probably got it at a thrift store or garage sale. It’s about the size of a cookie sheet, and has a gutter for grease all the way around it. It’s reversible with a flat surface on one side, and ridges on the other. It has some sort of durable non-stick coating, that is still in perfect shape after many years of use, but I make a point of trying to use only plastic utensils with it. It’s big enough that I use 2 burners under it.
I also have a cast iron one that’s about half the size, and has a frying pan style handle. It is also double sided, and somewhere along the line, I acquired a square domed & vented lid that fits it. I think the lid may have originally been from an electric frying pan.
I tend to buy many things used because of the better quality than much of the newer stuff. Thrift stores, flea markets, and garage sales are kind of hobby of mine. Free entertainment when I find nothing to buy.
I enjoy cooking & eating my own food, so I probably have more cookware than most, plus at gatherings I’m frequently the cook. With my traveling companions, the older lady commented that she’d never a guy with such a complete cooking setup. Plus now I get to enjoy their cooking as well as my own.
Cheers!
Oh by griddle I mean what you call a cooking rack! Dollar Trees dont seem to have mops here in AZ now, no craft foam was found either. The only cooling rack there was a white painted one, dont think it can handle direct flames. They got unpained metal grid small storage crates which cam be used as cooking rack when flipped over but I think metal is too thin. I’ll keep looking out for cheap stuff. Thirft stores these days often sell stuff for higher than new in Walmart! For now that cheap 2-burner propane stove is pretty good stuff
Greetings!
Maybe Dollar Tree is just out of them… I know Walmart also has cheap craft foam, but not sure who else has cheap string mops. Walmart might have cheap cooking/cooling racks too.
Cheers!
Dollar Trees here just dont carry string mops, they carry other types of mops, synthetic. You are right by the way looks like it needs to be natural fiber for the burners.
One can buy string mop in Walmart for $6.
Walmart doesnt really have cooking racks, and their craft foam is $6 a package, I mean its not that expensive but with me scoring that folding 2 burner cheap propane stove it’d cost me twice more to construct an oil stove. Since most of my rig is propane based anyway propane is something I already have on hand at all times
Greetings!
Many people like propane, but I’ve had friends both hurt and killed because of it, and when I was in cold winters, I knew people burning $300 a week running their furnaces on propane to keep warm. At that time, I was running a kerosene heater 24/7 for under $20 a month. (Farm kerosene was only about 35¢ per gallon at the time, before it got outrageously expensive. At about the cost of diesel today, it would be really expensive too.)
Cheers!
I dont like kerosene, a lot of people use Monitor type kerosene heaters in cold regions, these are vented heaters. One time I rented airbnb with one and there was kerosene leak. What a nightmare. I had to leave because toxic smell was unbearable and persisted even after everything was fixed,very hard to remove. Lots of rural homes got those old kerosene tanks which are unused and they leak, real homeowners land contamination nightmare. My propane expense in the coldest month is $20 and this includes refrigerator and water heater that run off it. Propane, got to avoid rusted tanks but most places wont even fill them now. I grew up with natural gas and feel comfortable with propane too, and got propane leak monitor, also I watch attendants when they fill to ensure that pressure relief valves are used to prevent overfilling. Once I had gasoline leak from my generator fuel pump while crossing the country, all fuels can be dangerous
Greetings!
I always used portable, unvented kerosene heaters, stoves, & lanterns with their own fuel tank. In 50+ years never a leak or spill, just a slight odor when extinguishing them, kind of like if you blow out a candle. Of course I always kept windows cracked for ventilation.
I kept 2x 7 gallon jugs of kerosene jugs inside, about 2 months worth, and I used a manual pump to fill things with. Each had a gauge, so over filling was never a problem.
I loved their simplicity and reliability. When campfires were banned, we could gather around my kerosene heater, and enjoy the warmth and glow it radiated. Unlike an actual campfire, it was also safe to use inside a tent or screen room, making it truly versatile.
Cheers!
They make tent-safe portable propane heaters now, they can be used outdoors too instead of a campfire, I have one, I got older Coleman catalytic type which burns at low temps, Mt Heater makes them too but they are non CAT. There are some tiny ones on the market too that go onto butane bottles, but these are crappy.
Burning fuel unvented for heat is really last resort emergency in my view, its always harmful. I keep this heater as a back up.
I’ve beem to Appalachia where its common to heat houses with unvented propane wall-mounted units, and this causes atrocious air quality, even if you keep the window cracked for ventilation, gave me horrendous headaches, then they wonder why cancer rates are so high there. I never smoked cigarettes, people who smoke tend to notice air quality less.
I find smell of kerosene to be very sickening, personally, just the same way I can’t stand diesel. Propane seems to produce milder fumes than liquid fuels when burned, also. I can not tolerate being within 200 ft of gas burning generator but when the generator is burning propane (outdoors) it doesnt even bother me. When there was kerosene leak residue in airbnb, the owner, who is a smoker and a contractor whose sense of smell got killed by all the paint, could not smell anything or understand why I had to spend the night sleeping outside in 25F temps
Speaking of cooking oil I wonder whats the best way to build vented cooking oil heater. May be one of those portable wood stoves for tents?
Greetings!
Personally, I don’t like holes in my roof, not even vent fans.
I’ve made some for others that look like this:
Inside, I would use these on mason jars, to make the amount of heat totally adjustable:
Cheers!
I see, and the body of the stove, what did you use for that? Seems like small lightweight woodstoves they sell for tents should work well with that.
Greetings!
Each of them was different, according to what was easily available. One I built from scratch, using sheet aluminum and crimping the joints. One started out life as a military ammo can (?). Another started out as a jerry can, and still another started out as an old medicine cabinet.
In two I mounted woodstove glass in the doors, one was eisenglass, and another was the glass out of an old oven door.
I use simple drop bar gate latches to hold the door closed like this:
Cheers!
Look up how to “season” a cast iron pan. They are not ready to use upon purchase. Cast iron pans are fantastic and there’s a reason why they are still coveted for hundreds of years. You have to learn how to care for them, but they’ll last longer than your van. You can also reconditioned old ones that were not taken care of properly. Oven, campfire, cooktops, they are awesome.
If you can’t get power to display the screen controller, and you didn’t have any error codes (previously), you have a power issue. Check all your connections. Are any loose? Did you use properly sized wire. Is there continuity on the wire from the battery to the CDH? Is your battery bank fully charged. Are you running a breaker or fuse on the wire, is it tripped or broken?
The CDH is 12v, and I’ve heard others report using a voltage regulator from the power supply to the CDH prevents issues.
Here is a good summary explanation on CDH errors. https://youtu.be/5QlvhMD_pQM?si=q_scbRgYJ8Iqkd-w
I wont waste my time on that substandard new cast iron junk anymore.
I’m living on the road and can’t waste time and propane on reseasoning them, neither interested in providing excessive care these modern pans with non-smooth cooking surface require. Like I said, manufacturer’s (Lodge) official statement to me is to fry meat in them or they will not be properly seasoned, well I do not eat fried meat. I grew up around cast iron pans and know how they should perform. And anyway dont want to get cancer from all that fried stuff, good riddance basically my food cooks much better in other types of cookware