What's the advantage of this kettle compared to a usual pot with bail?
Is it mainly that you don't need to make a tripod?
It's an easy to use all in one set up. It doesn't need any fussing.
The kettle itself is easy to carry, it's clean because all the soot (not that there's a lot, it kind of burns itself pretty clean, is inside the central column and not where you'll touch it or brush it agin any other bit of kit..
It boils up water really quickly, and cleanly. It'll do it on one newspaper's worth of fuel.
It can also be used to safely carry the water too. No slopping around, no need for plastic carrier bottles.
Mine will make a brew up for eight folks
The base creates an entire other cooking set up, or just a warm heat for folks to huddle around while drinking their tea when it's perishing cold.
The base means that the ground is clean after I'm done, no fire scar, if I set up properly.
It will also easily take a frying pan, for the fry up to go inside the rolls that we had with our tea/coffee. Or it'll quietly sit there hot enough to toast the bread/whatever, or even just simmer soup.
I have fishing friends who take one with them, and they fry up brown trout from the loch or fresh mackeral from the sea on the grill over the base. Spatchcocked 'roadkill' pheasant works too that way.
I don't have the fitting that goes into the top of the chimney, but folks who do think it excellent to be able to use the 'waste' heat to boil up something else while it's heating the water.....boil in the bag meals for instance.
It's a practical bit of kit for folks who are working outdoors, or for those like the fishermen who want an easy option to use on the river bank or foreshore.
I was told that the old navvies used them, thought them pretty much essential, but then those men lived on tea.....and bacon rolls
Either way, it's a good thing, learn to use it, don't abuse it, and it'll last for years. Mine's now near twenty years old, and looking used, but still very sound
