Camping and food go hand in hand, especially when car camping affords you the luxury of a two-burner stove. And when good grub is on the line, not just any stove will do. That’s why we’ve been testing this camp cookware for multiple seasons, and to date have fired up nearly 25 different stoves in order to sniff out the best for your next camping trip.
A good camp stove should fire up quickly, provide a steady stream of heat to get things rolling and be able to dial it back for precision work like simmering or sauteing. There are other details about your camp cuisine to consider as well, such as the number of hungry hikers you’re looking to feed, and whether you’ll only need a raw flame or the sizzle of a griddle to whip up some chow.
With years of combined experience with camp cooking, we used our collective knowledge to narrow down the best camping stoves available today. For each stove in this comprehensive review, we considered design, ease of use, BTUs, windy weather performance, simmer control, weight, cost, and boil time. On the surface, these stoves all have a lot in common, but each has unique features that stand out for specific uses.
Scroll through to see all of our recommended buys that we’d suggest to anyone looking to get into a camp stove for the first time. At the end of our list, be sure to check out our comprehensive Buyer’s Guide. We have also assembled a section on Price & Value and a Comparison Chart that can help guide your decision. If you’re still not sure which kind of camping stove is right for you, check out our Explainer Series article: How to Choose a Camp Stove.
Editor’s Note: We updated our Camping Stoves guide on August 26, 2024, to add our new top pick for a stove to feed the masses, the Camp Chef Pro 16, as well as a new Price & Value section.
The Best Camping Stoves of 2024
- Best Overall Camping Stove: Camp Chef Everest 2X
- Best Budget Camping Stove: Coleman Cascade Classic Camp Stove
- Best Compact Camping Stove: Primus Kinjia Camping Stove
- Best Grill/Griddle for Camping: Coleman 3-in-1 Stove
- Best Overlanding Stove: iKamper Disco Series Camping Grill
- Best One-Burner Camping Stove: Eureka SPRK+ Camp Stove
- Best Large Group Camping Stove: Camp Chef Pro 16
Camping Stove Comparison Chart
How We Tested the Best Camping Stoves
You wouldn’t head out into the backcountry with an untested backpacking stove, and while the stakes might not be as high while camping, it’ll certainly put a damper on the evening should things fizzle out. Luckily, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you, and thanks to our crew of outdoors enthusiasts, we’ve field-tested the entire spectrum of camp stoves, from compact single burners to brew up your coffee to full-blown mobile kitchens that’ll feed 10 people with ease.
Guide author Mary Murphy is a multisport athlete, and it wouldn’t be off-base to claim that camp cooking is also one of those sports. From her outpost in Denver, she assembled our initial slate of 12 camp stoves in 2021 and dreamed up our boiling and simmering testing regimen to ensure each stove was tested on an even playing field.
Senior Editor Nick Belcaster has experienced the entire backcountry culinary spectrum, from cold-soaking ramen noodles on months-long thru-hikes to whipping up full-course meals for groups of friends while car camping, and his time on the hot side has earned him the title of honorary grill master among his camping compadres. Based in Washington State, Belcaster continues to test the latest and greatest in camp stoves on forays into the mountains and out to the coast — typically in something a bit more casual than chef’s whites.
Besides just boiling water, we cooked meals on each of the camp stoves for this review (including mac and cheese, sautéed veggies, meats, rice, and more). We also conducted boil and simmer tests — both with and without a manufactured wind blowing — which are a consistent way of comparing stove performance. We believe this provides a good understanding of each stove’s technical cooking capabilities. And finally, as the green canisters started to pile up, we tallied our fuel consumption to figure out the relative efficiency of each stove.
When we test a camp stove, we’re also looking at the big picture, and we pay special attention to functional differences in ease of use, packability, weight, and availability of fueling. All told, we’ve put close to 25 different stove systems through our ringer, and have come up with a pretty good understanding of what makes a great camp stove the center of your outdoor kitchen.
Boil and Simmer Tests
We subjected each propane stove to a substantial boil test. We boiled 1 L of water with the same GSI pot and lid on each stove. Before each test, we made sure the pot and water were at the same temperatures as in prior tests. We also checked the water occasionally to note when it began to boil.
Different air temperatures and altitudes will boil water differently, so we tested all of these stoves at the same altitude. Don’t buy one of these stoves and expect it to boil water at these specific times; instead, use this as a rough guide as to which stove heats the most effectively and gets the hottest. Some stoves might have faster boiling times, and others might have better simmer capabilities.
Simmer Test
To test how well a stove could simmer, we tested the knobs and saw how low the flame could go while still remaining active. We also placed a hand above the flame and lowered it to see how close we could get before it got uncomfortable.
The closer the hand could comfortably get (measured in inches), the lower we found a burner could go. Why does this matter? You don’t just want a stove to have hot and very hot settings; sometimes you need less flame to cook on a low simmer.
We also tested each of the dials to see the range of control they allowed. The higher the degrees of rotation, the more you can turn the dial and change the heat output.
Generally, the higher, the better, as this lets you clearly know if you’re cooking on low, medium, or high. Some knobs are also marked with high and low settings to indicate the range.
Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose a Camping Stove
This list is for car camping stoves. If you want to eat hot food while hiking or backpacking, check out our review of the best backpacking stoves. Or, if a good char is your thing, take a look at our gear guide of the best portable grills. Otherwise, read on as we break down the nitty-gritty details of camping stoves.
While the camp stove might be the centerpiece of your camp kitchen, its not alone, and building out your perfect camp kitchen will require assembling the proper cook and tableware, utensils, furniture, and organizers. Check out our article on Dialing in Your Camp Kitchen for more details.
Types of Camping Stoves: Standalone Remote Fuel or Freestanding
Camping stoves can be broken down into two main groups, and deciding what kind of camp cooking you’re aiming to do will help you narrow in on which stove is better for you. The vast majority of camp stoves are stand-alone remote fuel stoves, which differentiate themselves from backpacking stoves by not relying on the canister to support the stove. Weighing right around 10 pounds and packing down efficiently to be stowed away, these stoves are best placed on a camp or picnic table, with their outboard fuel canisters supported.
Freestanding stoves, on the other hand, are large group cookers and totally self-supporting. They have adjustable legs that make them easier to stand at while using but also bulkier and harder to move around. These models typically have higher outputs to handle boiling large pots for things like crab boils or stews, and the 30,000 BTU Camp Chef Pro 16 is an excellent example. Freestanding stoves typically are fueled by the larger 20-pound propane canisters or can be used with smaller refillable canisters like the Ignik 5-pound Gas Growler.
Number of Burners
If you spend more than 2-3 months out of the year camping — even if you are a single household — we’d recommend going for a two-burner camping stove. Two burners mean you always have the option of cooking with a pot and pan or, for instance, making one entrée alongside a vegetarian or kid-friendly option, and you avoid the musical chairs of attempting to have everything hot at the same time.
Not to mention, two-burner stoves are the standard. However, for those wanting something different, there are now many single-burner (and even a few three-burner) options on the market. For larger groups, consider a three-burner such as the Coleman Cascade 328, which sports 28,000 BTUs across the cooking surface.
Also, remember that not all two burners are built the same. The 30,000 BTU output of the Camp Chef Explorer 14 is a one-way ticket to boiling large stock pots, while the lighter-duty 10,000 BTU stoves that are more common will struggle to accomplish this quickly.
Another easy way to augment the number of burners available is to add a single-burner type stove, like the Eureka SPRK+ or Snow Peak Home & Camp Burner, into the mix. We’ve often utilized combos like this to churn out pasta and sauce, while our sous chef whips up a hot side.
Chainable stove systems like the Jetboil Genesis Basecamp or Eureka Ignite are another excellent way to add additional cooking surfaces, and cut down on the number of propane bottles you need to lug around. Compared to bigger three-burner units, the beauty of a chainable system is that you can leave components behind if you’re going solo or don’t need to cook that much.
BTUs Explained
BTU stands for British Thermal Unit. Basically, it’s a measurement of energy and, in the case of camp stoves, heat. A gas range stove you’d find in a home has about 6,000-8,000 BTUs per burner (on average), and for the curious, a single BTU is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit.
Lower BTUs generally mean lower-heat cooking (good for simmering and light cooking uses). While higher BTUs (anything above 10,000) indicate high-heat cooking (great for meals with longer cook times and essential for being able to boil lots of water quickly). The flame pattern that a burner head puts out will also have an effect on heat transfer, but BTUs are a relatively clean way to compare stoves to one another.
Most camp stoves today hover around the 10,000 BTU mark, which for almost all cooking purposes is a perfectly functional amount of heat. It balances the fuel efficiency well, and will still boil a pot of water in a reasonable amount of time. Stoves like the Coleman Cascade Classic, Primus Kinjia, and Eureka Ingite all put out around this amount, and all worked admirably in our testing.
Bumping up the BTUs can certainly speed up the cooking process, especially when it comes to bringing water to a boil. The GSI Selkirk 540+ and Coleman 3-in-1 both pump out around 12-14,000 BTU, and were able to bring a liter of water to a boil in less than 4 minutes 30 seconds. This increase in performance does come with a cost, however, and in high-performance 20,000 BTU stoves like the Camp Chef Everest 2X, fuel consumption will take a hit. Consider bringing along multiple gas canisters when cooking with these higher-power options.
Time to Boil
Usually, when you go camping, you’re there to enjoy the outdoors. And yes, that also means enjoying hanging around camp and eating good camp food. One of the most essential criteria for a camp stove is its ability to boil water.
Some stoves can boil in 3 minutes, while others take as long as 10 minutes. The stove that boils the fastest marks a great stove, but doesn’t necessarily make it the best. If you are looking for certain features, say a lightweight stove or one with an igniter, you may have to sacrifice some boil time.
In our testing, it was no surprise that the 30,000 BTU powerhouse Camp Chef Pro 16 was hot to trot right out of the gate and boiled a liter of water in less than 3 minutes. Following that were the higher-end BTU stoves, including the Camp Chef Everest 2X, the Camp Chef Mountaineer, and the Coleman 3-in-1. Interestingly, the glut of stoves with around 10-12,000 BTU shook out with a wide variance of times, and can likely be attributed to their burner size and shape. Bringing up the rear was the budget Coleman Cascade Classic, which took a full 7 minutes to boil.
All the stoves we reviewed were able to efficiently light/start, heat, and reach a rolling boil in 8 minutes or less.
Simmer Control and Flame Pattern
We did a whole test on simmer control because, as we’ve mentioned, boiling water isn’t everything. In order to enjoy a good chef-quality camp meal, you want to be able to boil, but also bake, sauté, fry, simmer, grill, and more. We measured the simmering range on the flame of each burner/stove to see how they stacked up.
The pattern of the flame that the burner head puts out also has a good bit to do with how well a stove will simmer. Small burners like those present on the Primus Kinjia concentrate the heat in one area, and you’ll need to continue stirring to keep food from burning, or use cookware that dissipates heat, such as cast iron. This was one of the reasons we loved the Camp Chef Everest 2X so much, which has broad burner heads that distribute heat evenly and make for fuss-free simmering.
Performance in Wind
Think about how often and under what conditions (such as in cold weather) you’ll be using your stove. The more you expand your horizons to travel, the chances of harsh weather and wind will increase. Knowing whether or not your stove can hold up in windy weather isn’t something you want to learn on a 10-day camping trip on the blustery New England coast.
Camp stoves aim to protect themselves from the wind in three ways. The first is windscreens, which typically are attached to the lid of the stove and are deployed by folding them out. This creates a three-sided barrier from gusts that might otherwise attempt to snuff out your flame. Windscreens aren’t often very adjustable, so you’ll want to aim your stove with the lid pointing into the wind.
The second method to block wind is by recessing the burners into the stove pan. This is fairly prominent on stoves like the Primus Kinjia or Coleman Cascade Classic, but noticeably absent on the GSI Selkirk 540+, which likely contributed to that stove’s lesser ability to avoid being blown out. The final barrier against wind is only seen on the Camp Chef Everest 2X, and those are small metal dishes that surround each burner. These made the Everest extremely resistant to being blown out.
If you live somewhere windy, you can also ensure better stove performance in wind and cold by investing in more BTUs.
Fuel Types, Capacities, and Efficiency
The majority of stoves on this list (as you can tell by the images) use 1-pound propane canisters. However, a few, like the Snow Peak Home & Camp, use butane fuel. While it varies based on how long you take to cook your meals and what setting your burner is on, a 1-pound propane canister generally lasts about three or four meals, or about 1 hour of cooking time. If you’re headed out for a weekend, we recommend packing a few canisters, as multiple meals can start to chew through them.
Propane is generally considered an all-weather cooking fuel, but will start to get finicky as the temperatures drop. You can help safeguard against this by keeping your canisters in a warm place before cooking, and tucking them back away when you’re done. Butane, on the other hand, doesn’t do so hot in the cold, and we don’t generally recommend it for shoulder season cooking.
In our testing, we timed each stove for how long it would run on a single 16-ounce propane canister and found that, in general, the higher the BTUs, the thirstier the stove and the quicker it would burn fuel. At full-blast, the Camp Chef Everest 2X will always find the bottom of a canister before the 10,000 BTU stoves, and because of this we always recommend only running your stove as hot as you need to cook on.
While traditional 1-pound propane canisters are single-use, you may consider investing in a refillable propane tank like the Gas Growler from Ignik ($150), which will allow you to refill your camp canister from 20-pound propane tanks. This can greatly simplify your camp cooking needs and keep disposable tanks out of the landfill.
Or, if space is at a premium, the Flame King 1-pound refillable bottles offer the same convenience, at the same size as the single-use tanks. Take note that generally all camp stoves use a screw-on adapter that accepts 16-ounce canisters, but adapters can be purchased for running off bigger tanks.
Weight and Packed Size
Weight is one of the biggest differentiators between the stoves on this list. However, these stoves are built for car camping, so you won’t really be carrying them too far. If you know you want a capable and strong two-burner, weight might not matter as much as other features.
What matters more is the packed size. There’s only so much space in your car or truck or at your campsite, so compact stoves like the Jetboil Genesis Basecamp Stove or the Primus Kinjia can make a difference.
Check to see if the stove packs down into a case, has a cover, and how the fuel line and grill can be stored. Is it all stored together? Do accessories take up more space? These are all factors to consider for your unique preferences and needs.
Ignition: Strikers vs. Matches
Strikers, also sometimes known as auto-igniters or piezo igniters, are buttons that expel a spark using electricity to ignite a stove. (It’s a process similar to the button that ignites the pilot light on your stove at home.) Over the years we’ve had the pleasure of using some high-quality piezo igniters, and seen the sadness of realizing that your built-in striker has bit the dust. Know that different qualities of piezo igniters exist, and that generally you get what you pay for.
Other strikers that provide a spark can be flint or metal. We always opt for a camp stove that has an integrated igniter — as long as the igniter works consistently, this is the best option.
The last option for lighting your camp stove is the good ol’-fashioned match. However, matches can be wasteful and fragile, and not all are waterproof or can stand up to harsh weather. You can always bring flint or some matches as a backup method.
Extra Features: Griddles, Grates, Pots, and More
Think about who you’re cooking for. Is your group size usually one to two people, three to four, or a larger family? Also, consider what you’re cooking.
Do you make a lot of one-pot meals, or do you like sautéing, simmering, slicing, dicing, and baking when outdoors? Do you want to invest in these features down the road? Or do you want a stove with a compatible grill top, or a stove big enough for say, a dutch oven?
Finally, consider your budget. If you see a stove on sale for less than the others, we recommend jumping on it.
If you need a little more information before making your decision, take a look through our Explainer Series article How to Choose a Camp Stove.
Price & Value
Buy the right one, and a good camping stove can be a bit of a legacy item. But knowing which one is right more often comes down to how often you’ll be using it, and what you’re looking to cook on it. With a range of $100 budget burners to $500 specialist units with built-in cast iron, there’s a pretty wide range of options out there.
Budget
If camping is an on-again, off-again endeavor for you (or maybe you just backpack more than you car camp), there are not many reasons to splurge on the nicest stovetop in the campsite. Budget camp stoves will certainly get the job done, and even these options will come with two burners as standard. 10,000 BTUs is common in these frugal units, and you may have to give up the ease of a piezo ignitor. Expect to pay under $100 for these burners.
For a C-note, the Coleman Cascade Classic Camp Stove ($100) is a dual-burner that just doesn’t quit in our experience. Yes, the build uses a bit thinner material than other stoves (and it weighs a bit more, somehow), but it’s proven to be a dependable cooker, even despite the budget price. If your cooking is more often solo, the single-burner Eureka SPRK+ ($70) can be had for even less, but it doesn’t fair as well in the wind.
Mid-Tier
For between $100 and $200, you can get into a camp stove that’ll go the distance and bump up the firepower a bit for dishes that might require shallow frying. Burners of between 15 and 20K BTUs will get you there and are often shielded by better windscreens and set below larger cooking surfaces that can accommodate big frying pans. This is also where some more specialist stoves reside, such as 3-in-1 options with different cooking surfaces.
The Camp Chef Everest 2X ($190) has been our top pick for almost five years now, and we’re sticking with it. No other stove has the rugged build quality, 20,000 BTU burners, and reliable piezo ignitor as it does. There are a number of reliable dual-burners that perform just slightly less, however, such as the GSI Outdoors Selkirk 540+ ($150), Eureka Ignite ($125), and Primus Profile ($140).
Premium
North of $200 is where you’ll find the premium options, which include both large camp stoves with integrated legs as well as dual-burners with novel designs such as all-aluminum constructions or collapsible configurations. These stoves are certainly investment pieces, but our testing has shown that they’re built to last.
The Camp Chef Pro 16 ($350) is our new stove of choice for feeding large groups, and the three 30,000 BTU burners have more than enough to do it with. The Camp Chef Mountaineer ($390) is everything we love about the Everest 2X — just lightweight aluminum — and if you’ve got the extra dough, we highly recommend it. At the very end of the spectrum, the nearly $500 iKamper Disco costs a pretty penny but jams in so much cooking ability that its tough to use it all in a weekend.
