After a bit of research, me and my girlfriend wanted a camp stove with all the bells and whistles. High output and the grill feature was key. We've had this for over 6-months camping/tailgating all over California and Oregon. Hopefully, this review will help fellow fence-sitters like us:
1) if you're more of a grill person (like me) but need a stove, I suggest the bigger grill and single burner option ('Rainier) is better. This 'Denali' configuration is much better suited for families and larger groups, it's actually near-perfect. When we camped with 8+ people in Big Sur, our stove was the fave to cook with. All three can be churning and burning at the same time,no sweat.
Unfortunately, the center grill is on the small side. So if you plan to grill a quantity of food, this will be very limiting. After some usage, we wished for a larger grill as the two of us rarely used both burners at the same time.
2) the high-output is fantastic. A pot of water boils faster than our home stove. Just in case, bring an extra canister of fuel if you're camping for more than 2.5 days or plan to cook a bunch.
3) overall, this unit has served us very well and we've been mostly satisfied. So to recap the pluses:
(+) better for families / larger camp groups
(+) great feature set with 2 burners / small grill
(+) high output
(+) decent product design & retro-look/color
Now the minuses-- as mentioned earlier, get the bigger grill/single-burner if you want to grill in quantity or larger portions.
-The small grill is also uneven in heat distribution-- there's a big hot spot towards the back which quickly burns food. No problems to move the food around while grilling, but just be aware of it.
-Because of the high-output, the shiny chrome on the stove burners, the grill floor, and burner grate became heat-discolored on the first use. (My designer gripe is why they used shiny chrome on a stove-- it's not durable at all. Brushed metal/aluminum or wrought-iron are better choices.)
-The ignition slowly died on us -- it only works on the right burner. =(
-The flimsy grill surface overheats and loses it's non-stick powers. So you know, it doesn't clean off very easily as advertised. This will likely happen on the bigger grill unit as well, so don't let the non-stick fool ya. (I wish I could find a heavy-duty iron replacement.) =(
Overall it's a very decent camp stove but it has its weak points. Despite the minuses, we love the stove. Good luck and happy camping! =)
p.s.- if you plan to purchase this, definitely get a carry bag. Very convenient and prevents any excess drippings from ruining your auto's interior. Camp Chef Denali 3 Burner Camping Stove
I have to say, all in all, this is a great stove!!! I've owned a coleman two burner that I had to retire and wanted something a little sleeker with more bells and whistles. Voila! Camp chef takes the stage. The outer burners are great, but I kind of wish that the center grill had just a little more BTU output. It made it slightly difficult to cook shish kebabs properly. I'm sure if I was cooking hot dogs or hamburgers, the center grill would have done fine otherwise.
At first glance, the only thing flimsy about this product is the gauge of the hood/door and the side wind reflectors, but it does make the stove a little lighter and honestly, how stiff do you really need them to be. As long as they get the job done and it doesn't fall apart, I'm happy. The hardware and the latches seemed to be of good construction and quality and the main portion/body of the stove is built quite well. I would DEFINITELY recommend this product and have already!
My girlfriend and I are going to be doing a 6 month overland expedition with our toyota truck and needed a great way to cook food. Originally we purchased the Expedition 2 burner stove by Camp Chef. After our first "outing" to test our equipment we found that it was just to big (60lbs), to awkward, and way to powerful. All the food burned on low! So then we went with a coleman 2 burner stove, but found that it burned fuel and had too many little quirks we did not enjoy. So enter the Denali stove. The priority for us was ease of use, cleaning, cooking, and weight. This stove not only hit the nail on the head but it packs in a few extra features as well. The stove heating / ignition system is top notch. However we had some labels made up so we could easily tell the level of the flame for exact cooking. Its not difficult to tell the temp level but by labeling the nob we found cooking much more consistent and the use of fuel was greatly reduced. Next up we loved how the stove literally packed in to itself and had a lid that was secure and everything. It made putting in the back of our vehicle easy and worry free. The grill worked great, and everything was super easy to clean. The windscreen "lid" set up is the second reason why I gate this 4/5 stars. All thought its functional, if your cooking with a 10" pan or larger it causes the burner to be just slightly out of center on the pan. If you were able to put down the side screens then this would be much easier but by doing so you loose the wind protection. Not a big deal, just being picky really. Overall this stove is great for the size and cooking ability. We are usually able to cook a veggie, a side like mashed potatoes, and a protein like meat or fish all at the same time and can usually get 3 meals a day for 4 days out of a single propane (1lb) bottle. We did however upgrade to the 10lb bottle due to the length of our trip.
Tips : Buy the "burner" plates. These little plates are a solid round plate that goes over the burner to more evenly distribute the heat. It creates faster cook times and way way more controlled outcomes. We were amazed at the fuel savings and the outcome of the food. I found some at REI made by backpackers pantry that also had the pot elevators. By using these we were able to put them under the grill when not in use so the whole unit is still self contained. This also helped for spills and clean ups.
Tips: Next I would suggest that if your going to store this item near metal and other items you buy a carry case. The outside of my lid and the sides got completely trashed from bumping in to other items. Not that it hurt anything or caused any dents but the scratches are annoying.
Tips: Lastly I found that the pretty stainless steel shiny look came off really really fast ( using the stove 3 times a day ) so we purchased a little amount of brillo and just used that to clean the stuff off. Kept it much cleaner and looking fine.
I had no rust issues, no ignitor issues, and this stove is working great! - Camp Stoves - Camping - Great Camp Stove - Brunton'
Detail Products
Detail Reviews
Click here for more information
