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The best camping stoves allow you to enjoy the great outdoors without losing the convenience of cooking at home.
That's why our tests focus on finding the easiest to use, the quickest to heat and the most versatile on the market. Camping stoves that are awkward to use and take a long time to heat can really put a dampener on your camping trip even before the rain starts – and we've found some.
We test popular camping stoves from Campingaz, Vango, Coleman and more, to see which ones you should take on your next camping trip.
Our rigorous tests have revealed two camping stoves good enough to get our recommendation.
Only logged-in Which? members can view the camping stove test results below.
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Camping stove | Ease of use | Heat up speed | Portability | Number of burners | Where to buy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Excellent | Average | Good | |||
Good | Good | Excellent | |||
Excellent | Average | Average | |||
Average | Average | Excellent | |||
Excellent | Poor | Average | |||
Poor | Average | Very poor |
Date tested: May 2021. We are not able to show every retailer and cheaper prices may be available.
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All the camping stoves we tested are listed in alphabetical order below.
Only logged-in Which? members can view the best camping stoves from our tests.
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Number of burners 1
Dimensions 12 x 34 x 28cm (H x W x D)
Carry weight 2.3kg
Recommended fuel(s) Isobutane/butane/propane gas cartridges
Need to know Piezo ignition, carry case included
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Number of burners 1
Dimensions 42 x 39 x 34cm (H x W x D) assembled; 25 x 39 x 34cm (H x W x d) packed
Carry weight 4.66kg
Recommended fuel(s) Butane/propane mini gas canisters
Need to know Piezo ignition, carry bag included, barbecue, pan, griddle, grill and wok cooking accessories included
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Number of burners 1
Dimensions 22.6 x 14 x 14cm (H x W x D) assembled; 16.2 x 14 x 14cm (H x W x D) packed
Carry weight 0.63kg
Recommended fuel(s) Butane/propane mini gas canisters
Need to know Piezo ignition, cooking pot with sleeve/carry handle and wind shield included, hose and gas regulator included
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Number of burners 1
Dimensions 11.1 x 34 x 28cm (H x W x D)
Carry weight 1.99kg
Recommended fuel(s) Isobutane/butane/propane gas cartridges
Need to know Piezo ignition, carry case included
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Number of burners 2
Dimensions 38 x 56 x 32.5cm (H x W x D) assembled; 13 x 56 x 32.5cm (H x W x D) packed
Carry weight 4.83kg
Recommended fuel(s) 37mbar butane/propane gas canisters
Need to know Piezo ignition, grill tray included
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Number of burners 1
Dimensions 6.2 x 12 x 12cm (H x W x D) assembled; 11 x 9.3 x 6.3cm (H x W x D) packed
Carry weight 0.23kg
Recommended fuel(s) Butane/propane mini gas canisters
Need to know Carry box included, gas hose and regulator included
We select the UK's most popular camping stoves, available from major retailers such as Amazon, Blacks and Decathlon.
We buyt each stove for testing, so you can be confident that our reviews are completely independent.
We cook eggs and sausages using the same pan on every stove we test, scoring each on how user-friendly and comfortable they are to use.
We time how long it takes each stove to do the following:
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Camping stoves come in all shapes and sizes and can have a variety of features, making it tricky to decide which one to buy.
They mostly fall into two types:
There are exceptions, however. The Campingaz Camp Bistro 2 and the Kemper Camping Stove Xtra Smart are medium-sized but only have a single burner – so they're a compromise between the portability of the compact stove and the familiar cooking experience of a larger one.
Ask yourself these questions before you shop to work out which camping stove is best for you:
Need somewhere to keep your food and drink cool? Check out the best cool boxes and the best cooler bags.
You can, but as you're dealing with an open gas-powered flame, you should ensure there's a good amount of ventilation before you use one to cook.
Using a camping stove instead of your main gas cooker to save money isn't a good idea, as a camping stove is highly unlikely to be cheaper.
Advice varies on how much gas hobs cost to use, and it does depend on the size hob ring you use and the heat level you set your hob to. We've seen prices ranging from 20p per hour to 66p per hour. At the time of publishing, a typical 250ml gas bottle for a portable gas stove will cost around 95p per hour to use, and only last three hours.
Read our handy comparison of how much it costs to use different kitchen appliances to cook your food.
Although you can get standard gas hob-style flames, there are camping stoves available that have welding-style flames with intense heat and an audible roar.
The stoves we tested with this type of flame burnt the hottest, were great at heating up pans and proved much more resistant to wind interference than standard burners.
However, they also concentrate their heat on a much smaller point, so if you've got a wide pan, you might find the food in the centre cooks more quickly.
The smaller camping stoves we tested packed plenty of punch in the heat they gave out, which is useful for boiling a kettle but might be problematic for more precise cooking.
The gas regulators on these stoves were small and didn't take much turning to adjust the power of the stove significantly. A slight touch made the flame go from powerful to very powerful.
This makes it difficult to cook on a low heat with stoves of this size, and being precise with the heat settings is particularly tricky.
In our tests, we lit each camping stove several times and found plenty of variation in how quickly they ignited.
On some tries, the stoves lit with the first click of the piezo ignition; on others, it took quite a few goes before it lit up.
In case there's a lot of wind on your camping trip, or if the piezo ignition simply won't play ball, it's worth having a box of matches on standby so you can light your stove manually.
Although it's convenient to have a speedy stove, you'll likely find most camping stoves heat at a similar pace once the flames get going.
We put 500ml water in our camping kettle and timed how long it took each camping stove to boil it. We found that there wasn't much difference in most of the times we recorded.
There were one or two slow models, but most of the stoves got the kettle whistling after around five minutes.
There was also a trend in how long it took the stoves to heat our pan to 200°C. Although there were a couple of rapid outliers that heated the pan in a minute or less, most took around two minutes to heat.
On your cooker at home, you'll usually have a selection of different-sized burners, and you'll select the one best suited to the size of your cooking pot.
Choosing a small burner for a large pot runs the risk of the heat being concentrated in the centre, leaving the edges of your food undercooked.
This applies to camping stoves, too, although you're unlikely to find many stoves that have different-sized burners.
To cook food evenly in a larger pot, you may have to exercise some patience and gradually build up the heat of your stove. If you blast too much heat too quickly, you're likely to find well-done food in the middle and raw food around the edges.
Pick the perfect pan for your camping trip with our picks of the best non-stick frying pans.