I've owned this stove for many years. It is very reliable and and easy to use. It heats water and food very quickly, while going through fuel slowly. A single tank of fuel will typically last me 3-5 days of camping. Coleman 1-Burner Dual Fuel Sporter II Liquid Fuel Stove
Have used these little stoves for backpacking and camping for many years. Have never had any problem with one, but I keep giving them to friends. This is the first multifuel one for me, am using it on unleaded gasoline with no problems. Nobody gets this one.
This stove is a real powerhouse we use it to boil large pots of crab(3 at a time). We bring it with us in our westfalia as a third burner or a fast water boiler. This stove will not let you down in almost any weather conditions. Coleman makes a very solid well made unit that can take a beating and keep on heating. This stove can use coleman,white gas or unleaded fuel. Bring one on your next outing and be amazed.
I am a stove collector as well as a car camper. I have many stoves and use them all on occasion. I almost always bring the 533 along because it just works well. It burns hot with Coleman fuel but I usually don't actually cook on it, I boil water on it. The simmer function is marginal until it heats up and can sustain low fuel flow and vaporize it effectively. As for those of you who chose to use unleaded fuel and clogged your generator tubes, please send them to me, I will pay the postage. As soon as I take them apart, soak them in carburator cleaner and flush them clean, I will sell them back to you. :-) For those of you who want to backpack, this stove is probably a bit heavy. Check out an MSR or an antique Svea 123 but be ready for sticker shock.
I needed a one burner stove for car camping, and debated on this liquid fuel stove versus the Coleman propane single burner. Ended up buying both stoves just to test them out. I'm very impressed with the Sportster stove and it will be my choice for car camping. Convenient to operate, warms up quickly with a minimum of flaming, runs very hot compared to propane, and simmers reasonably well. Thee have been reports of problems getting it to simmer, but it simmered well for me after some experimentation. I think the secret is using reasonably fresh Coleman fuel (less than a year old), but mainly try approaching the simmer setting from the the "OFF" direction and not from the full on direction. Hard to explain, but when you turn the control lever fully to off and quickly back to on it will simmer very stably, but will flame out if you approach simmer from the full on direction.
Bottom line, a good price from Amazon, and no disappointments with this stove.
If you buy this stove, please stick with Coleman fuel. If you use gasoline, plan on the generator tube clogging up in a VERY short time, leaving you with an expensive paperweight.
Yes, it's dual fuel, as long as you don't really expect it to operate very long before dying.
I see a lot of reviews stating that the generator clogged up when using gasoline and I see a lot of others saying that they can't run the stove on any setting but full blast. I can only guess those users are using gasoline as well. If the generator gets clogged then the stove or lantern won't dial down much. I have a lantern that I used gasoline in that I can't run on much below high.
To get on with the review of this stove, I bought it somewhere else and not at Amazon. I filled it up with Coleman fuel, fired it up following the instructions and it worked great. With an adjustment to the knob and the pressure in the tank I can run this thing on extremely low to full blast no problem. I fired it up this morning to make my coffee and oatmeal as a test before I take it camping and it worked great. It will boil 2 cups of water very quickly. I was able to dial the flame way down to simmer the oatmeal for a couple minutes as well.
My advice, get this stove, use only Coleman fuel and enjoy many days and nights in the field.
This is a great little stove, I have 2, they make a great accessory to the 2 the burner stoves (425 or 413). While car camping I can make coffee on this 533 while the rest of breakfast cooks on the 2 burner one.
I have never cooked food with Regular Unleaded Gas (RUG) but I have used one of these stoves with RUG to melt wax for making candles it seemed to burn just as well as the camp fuel (aka white gas) .
This stove cranks out a lot of heat on high, too much really for the smaller pots that will fit on this stove. So I use it on medium to low mostly. Since this is a single burner it probably isn't to wise to use a big pot and have it tip over. I rigged up a home made device, from an old barbeque grate, to hold larger pots, but it is not foldable. I wish Coleman would design and make an accessory stand or stove grate for the Sportster II with collapsible legs that the stove could be placed under and a larger pot safely on top. Hey, Coleman I would be willing to test market such a device!
This is a great stove, not quite as well made as the old 502's but still very good. I have had one since '99 and the other since '05 w/ no problems and use them frequently. It is indeed a bit tricky to get this stove to simmer and it doesn't simmer very well, but it will simmer. Trick is is to get it hot first, then turn it down to a simmer, the generator (tube across burner) must be hot to vaporize the liquid. If the simmer does start to go out remove the pot turn it back to high for minute or so and then back down to simmer and repalce the pot or pan.
BTW if using unleaded gas in this or any Coleman Dual Fuel appliance use regular 87 octane or less b/c it has less addidtives than premium or super grade gasoline. Also buy the gasoline from generic stations that don't offer the additive packages like the name brand stations. You're operating a stove not a car. Think about it, Coleman fuel (a.k.a. white gas) is basiacly a pure unleaded gasoline (naptha) with out all the additives designed for automotove gasoline. These additives are what plug up the generators so the less additives the better. Coleman fuel only has an octane rating of 55, there is no need to use high octane gas. Besides do you really want to cook food with fuel that has more toxic chemicals than needed? Some reviewers that gave this stove low marks said they used 93 high octane and then complained when it clogged up! If the generator does clog it can be user serviced and cleaned or new ones are of course available. It's your choice.'
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