The best camping stoves you can buy
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A reliable camp stove is a great way to enjoy a warm meal and a hot cup of coffee when you're out in the field. It can also be must-have for purifying water and safely cooking food. The Snow Peak LiteMax Titanium Camp Stove is our top pick because it's reliable, easy to use, and weighs less than two ounces.
There really is nothing like a hot cup of coffee on a cold mountain morning. Except maybe a hot meal on a cold mountain evening. Or some fresh fish cooked up minutes after it was pulled from the stream. Or a mug of hot cocoa sipped by the campfire as snowflakes dance beneath the winter stars.
With a good camp stove, you can enjoy a bit of creature comfort even when you're a multi-day hike away from the comforts of home. In my woodland wanderings, I've used three or four stoves of my own and I've cooked and/or boiled water using easily a dozen stoves owned by fellow mountaineers. I've used camp stoves to cook up multiple course meals during leisurely afternoons at well-established campsites and I've used them to melt snow and ice just so I had enough water to drink in order to rehydrate after an exhausting climb. Mostly, though, like all campers, I've used them to boil water.
In fact, it's worth noting that, more than any other use, a camp stove will be used to boil water, not for actual cooking, per say. This is so both for purifying water and because so many ready-made camp meals simply require the addition of heated H2O. So along with that camp stove, make sure you also get a decent pot for boiling.
Any decent stove will produce plenty of heat and will resist the elements, but beyond that, there are all sorts of differences between various brands and models of stove that make a given unit ideal for one user but a poor choice for others. In discussing the five camp stoves on this list, I'll cover not only each option's inherent qualities but will also talk through why each model is well suited to specific activities, as well as why a given stove may be a poor choice for other scenarios.
Each of these camp stoves is unique in several ways, but a few factors must be universally considered with backpacking stoves. These are weight, fuel source, and boil time, which is tantamount to considering BTU output. Beyond that, go ahead and let personal preference help inform your choice of the best camp stove. After all, you're the chef who'll be using it out there in the field.
Although the Snow Peak LiteMax Titanium Stove is our top pick, for the reasons laid out in the slides below, you should also consider the Coleman Bottle Top Propane Stove, the Camp Chef Everest High Output 2 Burner Stove, the Ohuhu Portable Wood Burning Camping Stove, and the Sunflair Mini Portable Solar Oven.
The best camp stove overall
Why you'll love it: The Snow Peak LiteMax Titanium stove achieves a maximum heat output rated at more than 11,000 BTUs, but the stove weighs only 1.9 ounces and folds down smaller than a pack of playing cards.
Full disclosure: I own and use a Snow Peak LiteMax Titanium stove. Don't worry, they're not paying me to write about it nor am I expecting any free canisters of fuel to arrive wrapped up with a bow. Rather my top choice for best camp stove is also the camp stove I primarily use because I've been through enough other stoves to know when I've found a good one.
Folded up, the LiteMax Titanium is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. It tucks away into a pack without taking up any space worth noting, and the stove adds a mere 1.9 ounces to your overall gear weight. The standard canister of fuel used with a Snow Peak stove weighs only a little more than half a pound and is smaller than a softball, so no concerns over weight or size there, either.
Setting up this diminutive little stove takes about five seconds. You flip open its three legs, fold down the valve control rod, screw it onto the fuel canister, and you're ready to cook.
In most conditions, the Snow Peak LiteMax Titanium stove can bring a smaller pot of water to boil in about 50 minutes, and with its standard fuel canister it should offer up to 50 minutes of burn time. The only real complaint I have about this stove is one to be expected from such a small device: It's rather unstable. You need to be sure you center a pot or pan on those three little legs and make sure to place the fuel canister on as flat and solid a surface as possible. If you're not careful, you will end up with spilled water or, worse, a spilled dinner.
The Snow Peak LiteMax Titanium is a favorite of many Amazon customers, with average ratings above four stars. A LiteMax owner named Robert put it best when he said it's "small and compact, lightweight, [and] high build-quality. What's not to like?"
A writer with Trailspace Outdoor Gear Reviews notes how the stove "sets up in seconds" and praises its "excellent flame control." And like we've done here, the folks at Backpacker.com also called the LiteMax Titanium the Best All-Around camp stove, calling it the "lightest of lightweights."
Pros: Very lightweight, excellent flame intensity control, easy setup
Cons: Not very stable, can be extinguished by gusty wind
Buy the Snow Peak LiteMax Titanium Stove on Amazon for $59.95
The best affordable camp stove
Why you'll love it: The Coleman Bottle Top Propane Stove acts like a standard stovetop burner, and it's powerful, rugged, and well priced.
You know how the razor companies get you by selling the handles cheap but then pricing the blade cartridges at astronomical rates? It can be like that with camp stove fuel, too. But the best field stove in the world is just a paperweight without fuel, so buy it you will, regardless of the price. With the Coleman Bottle Top Propane Stove, those canisters of propane fuel are surprisingly low-priced — you can often get a 16-ounce fuel cylinder for just ten bucks, in fact, and one such tank will burn for two hours at full blast and as long as eight or nine hours on a low setting. So if you want to make campsite risotto, go for it. Oh, and the stove itself is affordable, too.
Flame control is remarkably easy with this stove, just twist that large plastic knob all the way open for a roaring 10,000 BTU output or dial it back for hours of simmering. And thanks to the deep bowl shape and generous wind baffles, this stove will maintain a consistent burn in all but the most powerful gusts of wind. The burner is large and stable enough to accommodate an 8-inch pan or pot, so you really can almost treat it like a standard stovetop.
I used one of these stoves for several years and still keep one on hand in case the stove in my house ever has a problem or for some sort of apocalyptic nightmare during which I still wanted to cook pasta. But you'll probably never see me bringing this stove along for another hike or climb. Why? Weight and size. This stove weighs more than two pounds, with the canister adding another three pounds or more when filled. That's heavier than some tents and sleeping pads combined. So while I highly recommend this stove for car campers or emergency preparedness, it's a poor choice for climbers or trekkers.
That said, the Coleman Bottle Top Propane Stove currently enjoys a 4.6 out of five-star rating on Amazon. If there's one thing many people singled out about their Coleman stove, it's reliability. The best evidence of that comes from a reviewer who bought her stove years before Amazon even existed! She says: "I purchased this [stove] in 1992 and use it regularly while camping today." 25 years and still going strong!
Video reviewer Brandon Boss noted the stove's ease of start-up and flame control, while a writer at Anne's Travels called the Coleman stove "great for a large pot" and "fuel efficient."
Pros: Low price point, long burn time, easy flame output adjustment
Cons: Very heavy and bulky
Buy the Coleman Bottle Top Propane Stove on Amazon for $33.33
The best high-powered camp stove
Why you'll love it: The Camp Chef Everest High Output Stove is compact enough to bring along on a car camping trip or even for a short hike into your campsite, yet it creates an astonishing 40,000 BTU total output thanks to twin 20,000 BTU burners.
If you want to cook an honest to goodness gourmet meal while you're out in the woods (or in the park at a picnic, for that matter), then the Camp Chef Everest High Output Stove is a great choice. This stove measures only 23 by 13 by 4-inches when folded down for transport or storage, but when set up, it can accommodate full sized pots and pans and can put off as much as 20,000 BTUs per burner. For reference, the average stove burner in a residence is rated at just 7,000 BTUs, with the largest residential burners usually topping out at 12,000.
The Camp Chef Everest can help you bring water to a boil in just a couple of minutes, and it can also be used to keep a soup or stew at an even simmer for hours on end. It has a built-in drip tray that makes post-cooking cleanup easy and a handle on the side for easy carrying.
The stove works with various sources of propane and comes with an adapter that makes connecting various fuel cylinders easy and safe. Starting it up is a snap thanks to a Piezo ignition system that requires no matches or lighters.
Now, here's the problem: This thing weighs twelve pounds. If that doesn't sound like much weight, grab a twelve-pound dumbbell and toss it in a backpack, then go hike for a few miles. Now add an additional thirty or forty pounds of gear weight and do it again. Yeah, it's heavy for a camp stove and has no business on a mountaineering expedition. But for more casual camping or for tailgating, it's a winner.
Out of several hundred reviews, most owners give their Camp Chef Everest five stars, with a number of four-star reviews logged as well. One owner notes that the stove is big enough for two "full-size pots or pans simultaneously," while another happy customer says the stove is "easy to clean and maintain."
The pros are almost unanimously fans of the Camp Chef Everest stove as well: A writer with Outdoor Gear Lab is effusive in his review, saying: "The Camp Chef Everest towers above the competition, as its namesake implies. A real powerhouse, this stove is serious about cooking performance." A reviewer with Switch Back Travel was more guarded with the language, but no less impressed, saying the stove's "superior reliability [makes] it a standout in the market."
Pros: Amazing heat output, generous stovetop size, easy ignition
Cons: Too heavy and cumbersome for hikers or climbers
Buy the Camp Chef Everest High Output Stove on Amazon for $85.51 (originally $120.84)
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