Vango Atom Stove £20 & Ultralight Heat Exchanger Cook Kit £45

This kit offers similar convenience as a personal cooking system as the Jetboil, but without the hefty price tag. Bundling the popular Atom stove with a cooking pot and various accessories, it has all you need to knock up a basic meal for two hungry campers.

The ultralight 66g stove is a simple design but has a decent power output of 3000W. The Vango pot is larger than the Jetboil MiniMo’s (with a genuine capacity of 1 litre) and has a similar heat exchanger base for improved fuel efficiency. It also has a sturdy folding handle and a chunky clear plastic lid with an easy-grab silicon tab. So, it’s easy to remove the lid and just as simple to take the pot off the heat without burning your fingers. Not rocket science, but plenty of other more expensive systems get this wrong.

The Vango cook kit also includes two small plastic bowls and folding sporks, plus a gas canister stand. It all packs away neatly into the pot, with room to spare for a 230g gas

“All you need to cook a basic meal for two”

canister. It’s a tidy system that comes in at a similar weight to the Jetboil MiniMo and is only slightly heavier than the MSR WindBurner, though it is marginally bulkier than both.

IF WE’RE BEING FUSSY

It can be a bit unstable, because the pot simply sits on top rather than locking to the stove, as with true all-in-one systems. The stove also lacks a regulator and has no built-in igniter. It isn’t great in the wind either.

■ BOIL TIME 2min 38sec

■ POWER 3000W / 10,236 BTU/hr

■ POT SUPPORT DIAMETER 11.4cm

■ ASSEMBLED HEIGHT 16.2cm (with 227g gas canister)

■ PACKED SIZE (HxWxD) 17x12x 11cm

■ PACKED WEIGHT 507g

Verdict

A convenient stove and pot combo at a competitive price, ideally suited for DofE, weekend campers and first time wild camp adventurers.