Petromax Teakettle TK2 Review – A Great Campfire Kettle

 
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With summer coming to an end and autumn starting to set in, the evenings are drawing in and for me this is a great time of year for campfires and bonfires. Now I don’t want to sound like a pyromaniac but I love everything about campfires, the smell, the sounds of the wood crackling, the colours of the flames and watching the swirl of the smoke. Campfires are awesome. The great thing about them is you don’t even really need to cook a proper meal to get the best out of a campfire – a toasted marshmallow and a hot drink is just about is good as it gets.

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This week we did just that and it was an awesome opportunity to review my new Petromax TK2 Teakettle. You might not think something as simple as a kettle needs a review, you’ve not seen the beauty of the Petromax Teakettle. I never thought I’d describe a kettle as beautiful, but this one truly is. It’s such a high quality item; it’s the only one you’ll probably ever have to buy. In fact, when reading up about it, I found out that these are used by Ray Mears at his survival and bushcraft school – which is pretty much as big an endorsement and you can get!

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The construction of the Petromax is fantastic, being made of high-quality stainless steel. It isn’t just for campfires as you can boil water quickly and easily on an open fire, electric and gas or induction hob. So far I’ve only used it on a fire, but compared to that boiling on a hob is a lot easier and I’m sure it works even better.

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I was very impressed with the high quality design and materials in this kettle. It certainly isn’t something light weight or for backpacking; it’s a big, butch kettle that’s made from thick stainless steel and is going to last years! The thick bottom of the kettle is multi-layered and ensures a perfect distribution of the heat. Petromax has still managed to design a kettle which looks awesome and has some really nice little design features.

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On the sides of lid are three little notches which hold the lid firmly in place when on the kettle. To remove the lid, the easiest way I have found is with a strong stick which can be placed in the small ring on top of the lid. Another way is with a thick glove as, like you can imagine, the lid can get very hot. No part of the Petromax Teakettle is made from anything other than stainless steel; there is not a bit of weak plastic or fragile wood to be seen. This is going to make the kettle very long lasting and ensure that it’s going to be able to boil a lot of water for you over the years.

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The kettle is fitted with a threefold bent handle which is adjustable and movable, making the kettle very versatile. This means it can be hung over a fire whilst keeping the handle out of the direct heat. This does keep the handle a bit cool but I would definitely recommend using a stick or wearing a gauntlet when handling it.

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One of the most frustrating things about using a kettle is when they don’t pour well and you get boiling water everywhere. This is even more frustrating when you’re out in the wild and you’ve been having to burn precious wood to get that water hot! Fortunately, they’ve put a slight bend on the bottom edge of the spout this means the water flows out really smoothly and without a drop being wasted and going down the sides.

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Once finished, I found the kettle easy to clean as it has a highly polished surface which the black soot just scrubs straight off of with a couple wipes. I really do love this kettle. It’s great knowing that I wont ever need to buy another campfire kettle again. The design of it is simple yet perfect and Petromax have clearly refined it so that it works as well as a kettle possibly can.

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