Coleman Apollo Dual Fuel Stove

A fire bomb that will soot up your pots and drain your fuel bottles.

I bought one of these several years ago in the hopes of getting something quieter with a higher heat output than my MSR WhisperLite. It is both of those. But that is all.

Because of its faults, I have never bothered to take it on a wilderness trip. It inevitably floods with liquid fuel every time, producing a large yellow flame. The flame eventually reduces to a hot blue flame, but only after 10-15 minutes.

You have a choice: put the pot on with a big yellow flame and scrub the soot off the pot afterwards, or just waste all the fuel and heat waiting for the stove to start performing as it should.

It also requires an inordinate amount of pumping. Per the instructions, with a full tank, over 100 strokes are needed. I shudder to think what it would take to get a partially full tank to work. By comparison, 1-2 dozen strokes and my MSR stoves are good for an entire meal.

The Coleman pump seems to be very inefficient: I can feel it injecting air into the tank for only the last ~1/2" or so of stroke.

Bottom line: don't waste your money on this Coleman product.

I bought this stove last year, but just used it for the first time in the field recently.

I spent 10 days backpacking around the Yucatan peninsula down in Mexico and used the stove to cook several meals. It is dependable, requires no priming, is efficient and best of all simmers better than any remote/separate bottle liquid fuel stove I have ever used. It also boils water extremely fast.

It is a little loud but not nearly as noisy as the trusty old MSR Whisperlight International I sold after 11 years a few months ago (great stove but does not simmer). I also own a Primus Omni-fuel which was my stove of choice for international travel until I got the Coleman.

The Coleman is lighter, has all of the same liquid fuel options, and I could never quite get the Primus to simmer. The simmering problem seems to be related to the little cup that the flame comes out of. On the Coleman it is a little perforated mesh screen. On the Primus it is a metal ring. The mesh seems to give a much more refined and controllable flame.

The pot legs are serrated and grip even un-grooved pot bottoms well. The package comes with the bottle, wind screen, protective plate, a repair kit and detailed instructions which are also listed in brief form on the fuel bottom. It is a little heavy but otherwise is an excellent purchase.

I actually look forward to using it on future trips. One more note. White gas can be bought at many paint stores all over Latin America for about $2 US per liter. Just ask for gas blanco.