Reviews > Cook Gear > Cook Sets > LuxuryLite Koozy Kitchen > Test Report by Kathryn Doiron

LuxuryLite Koozy Kitchen stove system

Product Information:

The LuxuryLite Koozy Kitchen is marketed as a light weight, easy to use stove that is durable and aimed for hikers who like to rehydrate meals. The whole setup comes with a stainless steel cup which acts as a pot, the stove which uses a canister, a plastic cup and a neoprene coozy. The stove has a diameter of 4.5 in. (11.3 cm) and the cup has a diameter of 3.75 in. (9.5 cm) with the handle sticking out 1.25 in. (3.2 cm) from the cup. The neoprene coozy fits over the plastic cup and can alternatively be rolled down in half and fit over the canister to keep it warm in cool weather. For storage, the plastic cup with coozy fits inside the metal cup and the stove with attached fuel canister fits inside both cups. The stove is as tall as the plastic cup is deep so this is a nice snug fit. Filled to the top, the SS cup holds 26 oz (0.77 L) and the plastic cup holds 32 oz (0.95 L) according to the line markings.


From LuxuryLite website

This is a compact stove setup. With the stove nestled inside the nested cups, there is seems to be enough protection for the stove to leave the canister attached to the stove. This is one of the selling points that LuxuryLite makes. In order to prevent loss of gas incurred from screwing the stove on and off the canister, why not just leave it on. The cups nest together and the neoprene makes for a somewhat snug fit. They can be pulled apart with a little effort. The neoprene is more difficult to pull off the plastic cup. According to the website, the stove is best used for heating MREs (meals ready to eat) or rehydrating backpacking foods. The metal cup is used as a pot to boil water and either an MRE is placed in the water or a resealable bag is draped over the plastic cup ready to receive water. With the MRE ready, the hot water can be used to make a hot beverage. For rehydrating, water is poured into the resealable bag and the bag closed for the food to rehydrate. The cup coozy keeps the meal warm and allows for the cup to be handled without burning fingers while eating from the bag. Waste is kept contained and there is virtually no clean up.


From LuxuryLite website

This is an interesting system. I have never used a canister-based stove. I like the fact that this stove comes with an integrated lighter so I don't have to fiddle with child-proof lighters. I also like that I can just leave the canister attached and not worry about accidentally cross-threading the canister at night. The stove's pot base is large enough to hold the provided cup although the cup handles seem a little short. I will be looking into how hot the handles on the cup get when heating water in the cup. As I sometimes backpack with a partner, I will be looking into how well the stove deals with a small pot to heat water for two people. My typical cooking style when hiking is to keep it simple and to minimize clean up and waste. I generally do freezer bag cooking and will sometimes scald my fingers on the hot freezer bag. I don't normally eat MREs or backpacking dinners but have been known to on occasion.

Having never used a canister stove before, I found this one was easy to use. The fuel controller is folded out of the way, after straightening it and turning on the fuel flow, I pressed the piezo lighter twice before getting flame. I didn't know how high I should put the fuel flow to get maximum efficiency without wasting gas so the first boil time was about 3 minutes for 1 cup of water. The second time I tried to boil one cup of water, I opened up the throttle and let it rip. I had sufficiently hot water in 1 min 45 sec. By 2 min 6 seconds I had a full rolling boil. This was water that had started at 77 F (25 C). The handles to the stainless steel cup were quite hot though. Almost too hot to handle comfortable. The plastic cup has measurement markings on the outside that are just barely visible through the opaque plastic. As the neoprene koozy can be a little hard to pull on and off, this might be a bit of an impediment to measuring out specific quantities of water.

My test plan over the next couple of months will be to use this stove on all my outdoor activities. This will include backpacking, car camping and overnight kayaking trips. I will be looking into how well the stove stands up to wind, rain and pack abuse. I will be checking out how efficiently the stove heats water and how well the neoprene coozy keeps my food warm and my hands unburnt. I will be bringing this stove with me on my upcoming new moon hike to make hot chocolate and two upcoming backpacking trips and possibly a car camping trip. All these trips will be happening in the Virginia area.

I have taken the LuxuryLite Koozy kitchen on one overnight trip and two full moon hiking trips for a total of 4 days of use. The big overnight trip I took this on was a three day two night trip up into the George Washington National Forest in Virginia. The elevation gain was at most 3000 ft (914 m) and we camped at about 2000 ft (609 m). I used the stove on this trip to mostly boil water for oatmeal and tea for breakfast, as well as to boil water to rehydrate in the bag meals. I was cooking for two people on this trip with two breakfasts, and two suppers. Temperatures were in the high 80's F (about 30 C) during the day and at night they would drop to about 50 F (10 C).

The two moon hikes were a relatively easy 2 mi (3.2 km) hike in to a large field to lay down and watch the moon rise. I prepared hot chocolate for several people using this stove. Both hikes had about 4 people on the trip. Temperatures dropped to about 65 F (18 C) from a starting temperature of about 75 F (24 C).

I find that I don't always crank the heat up all the way when heating water. Generally I am not in a hurry for hot water as I am setting up for the meal. I seem to average about 3 minutes to boil about 2 cups of water. The first meal with the LuxuryLite was a rehydrate in the bag meal. The second meal was a Lipton Rice Side. For this meal, I boiled the water in the stainless steel cup, I poured the Lipton Side in a zippered topped bag draped over the neoprene covered plastic cup. I then added the water to the bag and sealed it up to 'cook' for 10 minutes. This would have worked out better if I had used a sturdier bag with a better zippered top. The neoprene cup did work well to catch the extra juice that leaked from the zippered top and to keep the meal hot over the 10 minute cook time. I let the rice go another 5 minutes and found it was still quite hot. In fact, the meal was still hot enough to burn my mouth.

As I have no feed back for when the fuel starts coming out, I think I might be hitting the lighter a little later then I need to. But this does mean that I get the stove to light in one shot of the lighter. The stove set is very easy to set up and work and I have had no difficulties with using it yet. I have not noticed any stability issues and the cup seems to sit well on the support. So far, I have been careful to make sure the stove is level and have not had any issues with the cup sliding. I like that the set nests together and I don't have to worry about removing the canister from the stove. The nested stove and cups fit nicely in my pack, better than my pot normally fits.

I have had fun using the stove over the last two months and look forward to the next two months. I will be looking into using this stove for more than simply boiling water with. I will see how well it works to cook meals directly on the burner and if it can simmer. I will also look into how well the pot supports grip a pan when I need to stir as I have not yet had to stir boiling water. The more ways I can cook on this the more useful a stove it is to me overall.

Pros so far are ease of use and compact nature. Cons are that the cup handle gets very hot.

This concludes my field report on the LuxuryLite Koozy Kitchen. The long term report will be appended onto this report in two months time (around Sept) and will include more field testing and any long term use issues. Please check back then for further information on the LuxuryLite Koozy Kitchen.


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Reviews > Cook Gear > Cook Sets > LuxuryLite Koozy Kitchen > Test Report by Kathryn Doiron