10 Best Camping Stoves

The 10 Best Camping Stoves

Coleman Gas Camping Stove

From Coleman, this is a great and very basic stove with a grill. You can cook meat directly on the grill, or you can place a pot or pan on the burner to heat up liquids and soups. It has two burners, and each one can be independently adjusted. It runs off propane, which is sold separately. You can expect around an hour of cook time per tank.

This stove has a pretty simple design, with a black lid featuring two fold out little wings to guard the burners against the wind. It can cook with up to 20,000 BTUs of power and features pressure-control technology that works to heat food more evenly, even in high altitudes. This is a simple, small, and easy to use portable gas grilling stove that campers will likely get a lot of use out of.

If you're looking for a stove set-up with multiple burners, this might be the one for you. While it doesn't boast many fancy features, and you'll have to constantly refill the propane, it will always work when you need it to, with or without electricity. If you just need a portable camping stove that you can rely on to cook your meal, you might not need to look much farther than this.

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‍uberleben Stoker Flatpack Stove

This unique stove from uberleben functions off of organic matter instead of traditional fuel, meaning you can cook using sticks and leaves found around the campsite instead of having to carry around a bunch of fuel canisters. While this is a novel concept, and does work fairly well out in the wild, it's not quite as simple as a traditional gas stove, which may put off some potential buyers.

Besides the novelty of being able to cook without traditional fuel, this thing is also one of the most truly portable stoves you can buy. The stove is essentially four flat metal pieces stuck together and formed into a box. The metal piece can be disassembled and carried in an included canvas bag that will likely not even be noticed when packed into your luggage.

For survival campers, this stove may be one of the only stoves that you can rationalize taking along with you. It's small enough that it could almost fit in a large pack, and shouldn't make a huge dent in your survival bag. As well, the fact that you can find your own fuel to use essentially makes this just an easily-manageable portable fireplace. If you don't mind having to do a little work, this is a great portable stove that could prove incredibly useful on long trips.

Camp Chef Explorer w/ Grill/Griddle

This gas-powered stove from Camp Chef is pretty heavy-duty, featuring two burners with a power output of up to 30,000 BTUs each. As compared to some other portable stoves, this stove stands on four legs, meaning it won't be quite as awkward to cook your food over it. However, there is no lid and there are no wings to guard the wind, so you might have to make sure to keep this stove in a sheltered area, otherwise the flame might go out.

While there is a basic stove option that doesn't come with a grill/griddle for about $40 less, at $124.99, the interchangeable grill/griddle really helps set this stove apart from other comparable portable stoves on the market. While without the grill/griddle the stove is essentially just two open propane burners that you could put a pan or pot on, when you add the grill/griddle it turns into a complete grill with everything you need included. Just bring a spatula!

The grill/griddle is only big enough to cover one of the burners, so you will always have the other burner open for a pot, pan, or whatever you need. Both burners are independently adjustable, and you can always just run one burner if you wish. Overall, this is a great portable stove for camping, with the interchangeable grill/griddle making it one of the most well-rounded cooking set-ups a camper can have.

GasOne Propane or Butane Stove

Here's a cheap and simple single-burner stove that can run off either propane or butane. This thing is pretty small and doesn't generate too much power with it's single burner, going up to only 8,000 BTUs. However, at the price, and for it's small and portable size, you are getting the ability to cook hot meals on-the-go without too much hassle, burden, or need for an extra storage room.

While this certainly isn't the fanciest portable stove on the market, it can be pretty useful if you just want a quick and easy hot meal with minimal clean-up. The stove itself is very small and self-contained, without a lot of moving parts. Everything stays solid on the unit, which can easily be packed up and placed into any medium-sized bag.

This stove also features easy electrical ignition, so you don't have to hassle with extra lighters to try and get it to turn on. As far as self-contained units go, this thing is pretty simple to use and doesn't require a lot of planning or preparation. This would be a perfect portable stove to have just in case of emergencies, such as your fireplace getting soaked from rain and you needing an alternative method to cook your dinner.

Terra Hiker 3500

With the Terra Hiker 3500 we get into the truly portable stoves, meaning the stoves that aren't even complete and solid units. With the Terra Hiker 3500, you get a simple single burner that is not attached to any grill or stove, and a single connection for propane. While you won't be able to cook a steak directly on it, you can place a small or medium-sized pot or pan on the single burner and cook things just like you would on any other portable stove.

This stove features electrical ignition, so once you've hooked up your propane you will have everything you need to cook your meal, minus a pot or pan. Due to its extreme portability, this might be the ideal portable stove for backpackers and other campers who are trying to pack as lightly as possible yet prefer gas-powered stoves to wood-burning ones, such as the uberleben Stoker Flatpack Stove. You get everything you need to cook a hot meal with just this simple stove and a single pot, which would be perfect for minimalist campers.

It is made of high-quality aluminum, so you won't have to worry about the loose burner getting banged up in your backpack. The legs of the burner are strong enough to support some pretty larger pots and pans, although tipping may be an issue if you try to use a pot or pan that's too big. Overall, this is a great and incredibly portable little stove that is both very affordable and fairly versatile.

Jetboil MiniMo

The MiniMo from Jetboil is a portable stove with a unique selling point, that being it's FluxRing cooking cup. This cooking cup will serve as both a pot and a bowl, allowing you to cook food in it and then eat that food directly out of it. The cup includes a handle and a cloth cover for easy handling of your hot meal.

While, in effect, the MiniMo doesn't offer much more than the Terra Hiker 3500 besides it's own easy-to-handle cooking pot/bowl, that little addition may make this the preferred portable stove for many backpackers and minimalist campers. The Terra Hiker 3500 includes everything you need but the pot, while the Jetboil MiniMo includes the pot, as well, plus its own bowl. And, to top it all off, it only has one extra part, meaning it will be just as easy to transport and clean as the Terra Hiker 3500.

The one thing that might make the MiniMo a hard sell is it's fairly high price point, especially given that you are essentially getting just one burner that doesn't have all that much versatility of use right out of the box. You can purchase additional add-ons that will increase the versatility of the stove, such as adapters for other pots or pans or a larger cooking cup, but those things will simply add to the already exuberant price. Still, the MiniMo offers a lot of power, cooks fast, and keeps things incredibly simple for campers who like to stay on-the-go.

Solo Stove Campfire

Here is another stove that eschews traditional fuel canisters for organic matter, meaning you can cook your food using just dry twigs, pinecones, and leaves found around the campground. While this once again may prove a nuisance to campers, particularly during the rainy season, others may find this to be the perfect stove for their specific brand of camping readiness. Compared to the uberleben Stoker Flatpack Stove, however, this thing isn't nearly as portable, but that does mean it's a little more heavy-duty.

With the Solo Stove Campfire, you don't just get the stove, but also 2 pots that fit perfectly on the top of the burner. Like the uberleben Stoker Flatpack Stove, there is only one burner, so you'll have to plan your cooking out fairly carefully if you've got a big meal you need to make. For those campers with simple needs, this is another great portable stove that doesn't require any gas.

Although it isn't quite as portable as the reconstructible uberleben Stoker Flatpack Stove, it is very small and shouldn't be too much of a burden to carry. If you were trying to get all your supplies down into a single backpack, though, that might prove to be a bit of a challenge. Still, if you prefer the use of organic matter to fuel and want something a little bigger than the uberleben Stoker Flatpack Stove, this might be a good option for you.

Jetboil MightyMo

Despite the name, the MightyMo from Jetboil is a more sparse version of the MiniMo that doesn't include the FluxRing cooking cup, or anything really that you could cook on. What you get is just a simple burner, and if you want to cook food on it you'll either have to purchase a FluxRing cooking cup or other JetBoil pot separately, or purchase the adaptable pot supports so you can use your own pots and pans. As well, you're getting a little bit less overall power than the MiniMo at a greatly reduced price.

Although it's not as powerful as the MiniMo, the MightyMo is still more powerful than most other single-burner portable stoves you'll find on the market. However, it's also a little bit more expensive than the rest of them, especially when factoring in the need for additional parts just to use your own pots and pans. Still, though, the MightyMo will appeal to certain demographics given its power, potential versatility with all the add-ons, and it's portability and ease-of-use.

If you aren't sure about springing for the MiniMo but you are attracted to some of its features, the MightyMo serves as an easy compromise that will give you a similar amount of power to the MiniMo at a greatly reduced price point. It's not the biggest, and it's not the best, but it doesn't have to be.

Coleman Portable Bottletop Propane Gas Stove

Here we have the most portable option available from Coleman, which may or may not be the most portable option available from any manufacturer. This is simply just a stand for a small 16 oz Coleman propane tank plus a burner that screws on to the top of the tank. Two small pieces plus one single 16 oz propane tank and you've got a complete single-burner stove that you can do whatever you want with.

The burner is adjustable and the supports are strong enough to hold most medium-sized pans, though nothing too extravagant. This is definitely a pared down option for those who like to travel light and don't mind only having a small single-burner set-up. If that's what you're looking for, this portable stove from Coleman may be the one for you.

This thing offers a lot of cooking power, with up to 10,000 BTUs generated from the single burner. You'll be able to cook whatever you need, so long as you can balance it on top of the fairly small pot supports. For single campers especially, this is a great portable stove and one that you will likely forget about until you need it. It is so small and portable that it can be tucked away into any corner or pocket.

Lixada Camping Stove

From Lixada, here's another portable stove that eschews traditional fuel for organic matter. As far as portability goes, this one falls somewhere between the uberleben Stoker Flatpack Stove and the Solo Stove Campfire, being definitely small and portable enough to carry around but not as small and portable as the reconstructible uberleben Stoker Flatpack Stove. However, this stove's solid design and support frame may make this the preferred option for campers who are going to be cooking with large pots and pans.

This stove doesn't just run off dry wood and twigs, but it also has a few alcohol burners that will pass gasified alcohol into the flames in order to keep them strong. This enables stronger cooking temperatures than on the two other wood-burning stoves. However, it also makes set-up a bit more complicated.

The biggest selling points for this stove are it's portability, innovative support frame for pots and pans, and it's incredibly reasonable price. Being the most affordable portable stove on this entire list, you would be hard-pressed to find a more affordable stove anywhere. And, if you're into the non-gas-powered portable stoves, you aren't really sacrificing much by buying this one instead of the two other wood-burning stoves we looked at on this list.