Just What We Needed Dept.: A Propane Powered Coffee Maker

By
Lloyd Alter
Lloyd Alter
Design Editor
  • University of Toronto
Lloyd Alter is Design Editor for Treehugger and teaches Sustainable Design at Ryerson University in Toronto.
our editorial process
Lloyd Alter
Updated October 11, 2018
A mug full of steaming hot coffee at a campsite.

StephanieFrey / Getty Images

Coffee is a conundrum when camping; you want to travel light, but you want your morning java, which pretty much requires a single-function device. So imagine your next ascent of El Capitan, the party on the portaledge when you pull this out of your backpack in the morning.

It is a propane-powered coffee maker that delivers a pot of coffee in just eighteen minutes and runs for four and a half hours on a standard one pound disposable propane bottle.

It costs around $100 bucks and is available at Bass Pro Shops, Bed Bath and Beyond, Book of Joe, and on Amazon. You may also be able to buy the handy carrying case. There are no specifications stating what it weighs, a pretty serious issue for most people when camping. Coleman says it runs 4.4 hours on a pound of propane; one reviewer estimates that you can get about sixteen pots of coffee out of one bottle of gas. So now you can take disposable propane cylinders, throwaway filters, and a big chunk of coffee maker wherever you go. Fun!


Smaller, lighter coffee while camping:
Handpresso: Get Your Java And Better Biceps, Too
How to Go Green: Coffee & Tea