Camp Stoves

Some handy hits and tips on Camping Stoves to help you out!

Yeah it’s just a camping stove, it "don’t do much" other than simply heat water or cook or burn your food right? Depends on your outdoor cooking skillz we guess!

But is it “just” a stove? Isn’t it a lifeline out in wilderness areas at least? Isn’t it a source of motivation when the going gets tough (nothing like a hot cup of tea up a steep mountain in awful weather, trust us we’ve done that!)

So a camping stove – its something important – so important in fact this little piece below is worth reading – if only to make sure you consider some brief points to help you make sure you get the RIGHT stove. It’s too late to find out you picked up the wrong stove because you took advice from an inexperienced member of staff who knew very little, at a massive camping chain store, who was there for their derisory hourly rate and nothing else!

Get the basics right first by asking yourself these two questions:


1)      What conditions will your stove be used in?

Using it in a campsite in Cornwall and storing in the back of your car is a world away from carrying and using it in the mountains of Peru – your altitude and the temperature will make very different demands on the type of stove you should consider, so too will its weight and how small it packs down to.

2)      What fuels are available locally?

Remote area’s of the world just don’t give you full access to gas canisters or white gas so that’s important to consider if you’re far off the beaten path. If that is the case then you’ll very likely want to take a multi fuel stove with you.

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1. Fuels: gas is clean and easy to use however airlines won't let you carry gas so you’ll need to get hold of some once in-country and that could be difficult and time consuming to find. Kerosene (paraffin) and gasoline (petrol) are always obtainable even in the most unlikely of places (did you know there’s a petrol station in the middle of the Death Valley?!)

2. Maintenance: gas stoves need little in the way of cleaning, the same is true of Coleman Fuel stoves, but petrol can be poor quality and potentially dirty - this can clog a burner rapidly mostly because petrol does not burn at a high enough temperature to really get rid of all the additives. MSR's stoves are usually best to use with petrol as you can strip them down quite easily in the field giving them an advantage over other stoves.

3. Burn Strength: we admit the majority of our reviews are carried out at sea level and mostly in the UK so any results we give shows how long it takes to boil one litre of water in temperate conditions. At mid to high altitudes pressurised stoves and propane perform far better. Propane though needs big, heavy canisters and we can’t see them being popular enough that you’ll want to carry them up steep hills or mountains anytime soon!

4. Carrying Spares: Trust us your stove will at one day not light when you most want it to (so it’ll be cold food that night or if you’re lucky a trip down the pub). But if you're off on an expedition out in the wild, you'll certainly need a spares kit to keep your stove in "tippetty-top" (our favourite word right now!) condition. If you take an MSR stove with you we reckon you’d better count on carrying a spare pressure pump as well – they’ve been known to break on the very rare occasion.


5. Carrying Your Stove: We always recommend you store your stove in a thick plastic bag ensuring you keep any fuel and stoves away from your clothes and/or sleeping bag unless you want to be reek of fuel – trust us from experience you won’t have many friends till the smell goes away (plus you’re a fire risk!). We recommend you use proper fuel bottles to eliminate leaks and make sure all fuel is drained from any stove before you pack it away.

6. Lighting your Stove (aka Igniting!):  We don’t know why so many people bother with matches – we always tell customers to take  two or three disposable lighters instead (though watch yourself if you have to point the flame end into fuel like meths, probably not that recommended).

7. The Campers Kitchen: Unless it’s raining cook outside of your tent, if it is raining then use the bell end or porch if you really must but please, please try not to set fire to the fly sheet (we’ve seen this happen, its rather scary!)

8. Protection from Wind: an exposed stove loses more heat (just like your body) in windy conditions so try to keep it out of an exposed position wherever possible. We advise its a good idea to consider a wind shield and placing a lid on top your pot – this really will make a big difference to reducing boiling times.

9. Solid Fuel: Hexamine Stoves - from our cadet days we avoid these types of stove like the plague! There will be likely loads of you who disagree (harcore mountain racers probably) but its all or nothing with these so you never have the opportunity to simmer when needed.

10. Useful tip on melting Snow (who knows it might just come in handy!): If you have to melt snow, always keep a little water in the bottom of the pan thus allowing new snow to melt more quickly. Well this must be true - our mothers told us and they’d know wouldn’t they?  ;)


Our Preferences on Types of Fuel for Camping
When camping in the UK (or Western Europe) we’d definitely say that gas is the obvious choice to go for, as its clean, easily obtainable and pretty much maintenance free too. Coleman's gas fuel canisters work very well, but the cartridges look pricey and maybe less readily available (you’ll probably want to ring around a few stores to check if they have them). In our opinion they do last for ages so end up being very good value.

When travelling abroad we think you really can’t go wrong with multi fuel. If you’re going to be using petrol then we really suggest you consider MSR’s range of expedition stoves – they’re light, reliable and burn well even at a reasonable attitude.

Well thats it from us - any comments please feel free to leave below, we love to hear from our blog readers so comment away!