I find myself in a hotel wanting to cook with my hiking stove (Butane Mix).
Anyone know if it would set off a smoke alarm?
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I find myself in a hotel wanting to cook with my hiking stove (Butane Mix).
Anyone know if it would set off a smoke alarm?
The butane itself won't, no.
I have used my jetboil while in a hotel room.
I usually fire up my butane stove in the bathroom and turn on the fan. No smoke detectors in here. I've never had a problem.
Most hotels/motels forbid use of open flame cooking (only allowing their own microwaves to be used), so there is an insurance and legal aspect that may want to be considered. I have seen hotels charge people for cleaning up following over cooking French fries (for anyone who has seen this happen, that creates a huge amount of smoke) that required bed linens, curtains, and carpeting to be replaced.
With my luck, if I tried this a cobweb would gently float into the burner, sending a teeny tiny wisp of smoke directly into the smoke detector causing massive mayhem, destruction, and panic. So, I would recommend engaging the Captain Blue solution, if doing this outside on a table is not going to work, set up on the bathtub or shower floor with the fan going and door closed just in case.
While you might not see signs, most hotels don't even allow candles.
And I'm sure management would have a conniption if they found out someone was using a stove with an open flame in their rooms.
And please consider this... four collage students were killed here in Birmingham, AL back in 2010 in a hotel fire that started from someone burning incense in another room.
So I would ask that you be considerate... if you have to crank up a stove, do so somewhere outside.
Yeah I'm not a very good example I'd be the first to admit.
Probably is against hotel regulations and is dangerous.
But then again there's folks out there falling asleep with a cigarette in their mouth and burning up. That's why they had to add an extra 1,000 chemicals so they burn.
People catch woods on fire, catch themselves on fire by using a gallon of gas to start a fire.
Just saying.
1,000 chemicals so they burn out . (Oops).
It's one of those things that has the potential added downside of the establishment choosing to no longer accept hikers as guests.
A box of Oreos will cure your desire for fire.
What exactly are you looking to cook? No microwave? Usually at least one in the lobby. Try Doordash or UberEats.
A small electric kettle can be had for around $25. I use one to make instant coffee. Mine has automatic shutoff but I never leave it unattended.
i use my stove in hotels all the time....
if i cant think it can be done in the room, i just step outside...
most hotels have at least one sorta flat concrete surface that is perfectly usable....
and i cook soup in it....
anything else i can do in a microwave-----which im about to walk to the lobby of the hotel im at tonight
and reheat some pulled pork....
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What exactly are you looking to cook? No microwave? Usually at least one in the lobby. Try Doordash or UberEats.
easier to save money by not using those services along with them not really delivering around
1 am, or 2 am, or 3 am.....
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Soup cooks in a microwave too by the way.
not the way i like it......
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Cheaper to not stay in the hotel in the first place.
at this stage of what i have been doing for the last few years, hotels are the convenient necessity....
eat cheap to keep going....
they don't need to know what's happening behind my closed door.....
i have yet to set off the smoke alarm, burn the place down, get hit with an additional "smoking" charge, or
get kick outta a hotel.....
i'm the least of their worries.......
[QUOTE=stephanD;2284113]With that attitude, I suppose one should never admit to driving a car, turning right on a red light, using a camping stove in the wilderness when there weather is dry, opening a tube of glue indoors, testing your camping stove in your kitchen at home, etc. There may be 100 reasons not to cook with your camping stove in a motel room, but not admitting to doing so out of fear that someone else with less "luck" than you will copy you and cause problems is a level of hypocrisy that I sure don't want to see accepted as the norm in an information sharing platform like these forums.Quote:
The problem with that statement is
the dude (and it's always a dude) who will read this will think
"hey, if he can do it, why not me".
And he may not be as lucky as you
and he will bring down the motel
along with some other people
[QUOTE=nsherry61;2284119] You may be right in theory. In real life, stupid copy stupid, and that is how bad things happen to good people. In your own home, do as you please. You have no right to risk others in other's people property. Besides, turning right on a red light is legal in NY state (unless otherwise indicated).
During our Camino which every night is a town night, I brought a immersion heater which I could heat water for morning coffee (we often left before the owner cared to get up to provide coffee and usually some light breakfast). It seemed to work good, but IDK if I would do it on mostly a tenting backpack trip.
I wouldn’t. Just feels janky
HOW TO COOK IN A HOTEL ROOM WITHOUT A KITCHEN
August 17, 2019
https://wheretheroadforks.com/how-to...out-a-kitchen/
Yes! and Yes!
This whole discussion about danger cooking in hotel rooms seems stupid to me! We all put a lot more people and property in danger cooking in the woods and risking massive wildfires than we do cooking in a hotel room. In a hotel, we're not surrounded by dry tinder, and we are "surrounded" by smoke detectors and sprinkler systems. And, just like our community is okay with people cooking at their tent-site or shelter using responsible choices (and accepting the risk of a few idiots), I've got no problem whatsoever with responsibly cooking in my hotel room when appropriate and desired.
And yes, of course hotel rooms, being enclosed spaces, have different risks than the backcountry that need to be considered. But, I question the suggestion that cooking in your hotel room is inherently more dangerous or more irresponsible that cooking anywhere else that is not a engineered kitchen.
Not to be busting anybody balls I was just quoting FlyPaper the thread starter. And was just curious after reading all these responses what would they do now?
You could be right that a sober thru hiker is highly unlikely to start a fire with their camp stove.
That said, so long as motel policy or law is in place, other guests have (IMHO) an absolute right to expect nobody will cooking over an open flame in an adjacent room — whether they be responsible hikers or tweakers.
My guess is that such policies and/or laws exist almost everywhere— but that is just a guess.
There's nothing wrong with cooking in towns, but why not just find a park picnic table and cook there? Or a bench? Or just go into the parking lot. I don't see a need to cook inside a motel room.
Just ask management if it is ok then and if they are cool with it no problem. Usually they a put a kitchenette in though. Plus it's something you could do outside in a much safer manner with much less risk to the property.
A stick built hotel is surrounded by kiln dried lumber. It's also a lot drier than many outdoor environments. So what if it has sprinklers, the property damage will be expensive regardless, environmental cleanup charges aren't cheap. The property owner will loose a source of income. May see their insurance go up.
I personally wouldn't want guests deciding they needed hot soup in the middle of the night and running their backpacking stoves in the guest bedroom. Take a look at any picnic table on the AT and you'll see that's a bad idea.
If you are using a stove in a backpacking environment, you ought to be doing it with appropriate permission--no fire restrictions. Should be the same in a hotel.
A hotel has a limited number of exit points. Most people don't even read the fire escape routes on the door. They are mandated though because it is critical when every second may count and people may get trapped. Lots of noxious fumes from burning who knows what industrial materials. Multiple floors, windows that don't open all the way.
I was going to add some more controversy to this threat with some actual research and facts, but instead I found THIS.
Cheers.
I challenge anyone to show us real numbers that can indicate that there is anywhere near as much damage done to property or human life by camp stoves in motels compared to camp stoves in the wild. It may be out there, but, I sure can't find much, whereas there is plenty on wildfire damage.
To suggest that canister stoves should not be used in motels for safety reasons just doesn't hold up if you are okay with using the same stoves in the wilderness. If you suggest canister stoves shouldn't be used because they are not as safe as a stove in a kitchen, then sure. Make that suggestion, but, I'm not sure how that pertains to a backpacking forum.
And, if you obey the law just because it is the law, go for it. In my home town it was against the law to carry a metal lunch box after 5 pm. Nobody knew that was the law until the town started removing stupid laws from its books. But, it was the law. Somewhere in here there is surely a healthy balance. Clearly, my perception of that balance is different than some others here.
To me it’s not the stove it’s the hotel room. They’re not built for cooking.
On the safety issue, I’m not sure what the odds of an incident in room vs on trail, but sure as hell the likely magnitude of impact is higher. Far more likely to take a human life in a hotel fire.
Wanna cook something cuz you’re cold? You’re in a motel—take a long ass shower.
Wanna cook something cuz you’re hungry? Eat all the rest of your snacks or go out.
Whole question seems weird ass bat **** to me.
False equivalency. It's got nothing to do with whether they are safe in outdoor recreation. It's whether it is safe indoors to do so and permitted by the property owner.
The manufacturers say not to use them indoors.
Pocketrocket
Jetboil
Here's a hotel not far from the trail saying no cooking per fire code. Lots of hotels state outright no cooking in rooms.
I can't help you that you don't understand that placing a tippy open flame source into a room with no design space to safely operate it is unsafe. I guess it's not enough that hotel owners, fire marshals, and the stove manufacturers say not to do it. You don't see people burning down hotels with backpacking stoves because the vast majority know better. It's not whether this is regulated, it's just common sense.
Ask it it is allowed when checking in. If they say no, don’t do it. It’s common curtesy.
From my perspective the issue is who gets to decide the risk that one’s fellow hotel guests must tolerate.
Best practices, common policies (and perhaps the law) say those other hotel guests should not be required to accept any risk from your stove
You say they should.
Such is the way of the world.
Here is some info, but it only speaks to fire statistics — not to who has the right to act upon their interpretation of them.
https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/...tics/v19i4.pdf