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Hi there, first post so please be gentle! 

We've just bought a Vango Diablo 600 and been reading the messages on this forum - inparticular one about not being able to cook in tents with sewn in groundsheets.  Our Vango has a sewn in groundsheet so we won't be able to cook in the main living area, but will it be safe to do so in the porch area?

No tent should ever be considered 'safe' to cook in, methinks.

I personally wouldn't cook in a synthetic tent, or even in the porchway (esp if people are inside!), but I know some folk do.

Fire risk is the immediate danger, of course, then there's the business of people knocking you or the cooker as they go in and out, lastly you could ruin your nice new tent with splashes and spills.

Better safe than sorry, I reckon, and we have a kitchen tent. It also serves to keep all the clart out of the tent, and let us think we are nice and tidy campers!

The only exception to this is when we use one of our frame tents, which has a designated kitchen area (ventilated window with outside flap), since cotton canvas is not quite so risky as synthetic tent fabrics.

Best of luck, whatever you decide!

Thanks for the replies - i grew up in tents, going camping practically every weekend with my family, but other than Glastonbury festival and a couple of one nighter's I i haven't camped properly for about 20 years.  I just remember my mum always cooking in our tent - but we always had the big frame tents so that'll be why!

we have a diablo and the large canopy we put a windbreak across the open end of the canopy and cook there, the cooker is in the open but i am sheltered from the weather. we use the side door to the tent so that the kids can wander freely in and out without having to come anywhere near the kitchen area, when we are not using the cooker we just move it back under the canopy. the canopy is great both for storage and it protects the sloping front door when its raining,

hope this helps

A few years ago I was leaving a site in France and happened to have a full 2 gallon water container in the boot (for stops etc) when we saw a tent on fire 'cos someone had been cooking in their tent and, boy, did it catch quickly. By the time I'd stopped, opened the boot and got the water, half of one wall (it was a frame tent) had gone up. The occupants (a young couple with a small child) were struggling (in a panic) to undo the zips and get out. When they did, they were it a right state of shock!! I chucked water all over it and ripped off some of the smouldering fabric with another bloke and put it out.

I never have cooked in a tent; seeing that reinforced that I never will.

tv 

That would depend on whether you are using a BBQ or not !!! LOL

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