A good grill/griddle can run anywhere from $25 to $100. (Don’t forget to treat your cast iron!) If you know you’ll use this stove and the cast iron grill and griddles, then it’s still a great buy. I used this stove once with a dwindling (less than half-full) canister of fuel and then once again with a full canister. You don’t need to buy a separate grill or griddle top for camping with this stove. When you click on links to buy products we may earn money to support our work.
The Coleman Classic, which was second to last, had the temperature up to 184. In less ideal conditions, or when you’re still learning to use it, it can be a frustrating 15- to 20-minute ordeal before you’re ready to start cooking. This stove is also guaranteed to turn the bottom of any pot black with soot.
It’s better if you can set this stove on a table or some kind of camp stand. At one point I had to use the handle of a spoon to pry the case open again. You could fix the problem using a Dremel tool and a grinder, if you have one.
We wouldn’t choose it as our main stove or rely on it as our main source of power, but it’s not a bad addition to your camping gear. A wood-burning camping stove is not as fast or convenient as gas-fueled stoves. That being said, we were impressed with how well the BioLite CampStove worked and how fun it was to use. We omitted this stove from our simmer test because it was impossible to have any real temperature control or simmer function.
The TemboTusk Adjustable Leg Skottle Grill Kit has the lightweight, cobbled-together charm of good adventure gear. However, for the price ($395), we’ve concluded that most people are better served by our discada-style pick, the FireDisc. The TemboTusk—with three legs instead of the four of the FireDisc and a smaller overall cooking area—seems unstable and limited for family cooking.
These may not be appropriate in certain situations, such as during high fire risk, in sensitive desert, or in high-elevation areas where collecting wood is prohibited. Despite its modest 9,000 BTU output, it still brought a liter of water to a boil in just under five minutes. The Triton’s sleek profile.Unfortunately, it was by far the worst in our test when it came to wind resistance. After 15 minutes, it had only brought water up to 155 degrees.
(Please note that some 5 lb. propane tanks will need an adapter to connect to stove regulators.) Refillable tanks are more affordable and eco-friendly in the long run if you camp a lot. FUEL – All of the camping stoves on this list run on propane, aside from the Solo Stove Campfire, which burns wood. PACKABILITY – Size and weight aren’t as much of a concern for car camping as they are for backpacking, but it’s still smart to consider how much space you have for storage and transportation. Small, lightweight stoves are easier to carry, while heavy-duty stoves are more appropriate for big jobs.
We used these camp stoves in the field during numerous camping trips as well as some backyard cookouts, testing how they handled cooking a variety of meals. When it came to any serious cooking, though, we preferred the functionality and control of traditional camping stoves. If you’re looking for a cheap camping stove that has all the features you need for camp cooking, it’s hard to find a better value than this. First, the plastic latches seem flimsy and didn’t always feel like they were holding the stove shut as securely as other latches. Second, the carrying handle is awkwardly shaped and uncomfortable to use.
Without any kind of windscreen, the Gas One struggled with our wind test. Surprisingly though, it still beat out both of the Coleman camping stoves, bringing water to just a few degrees below boiling in 15 minutes of high wind. The wind screens are virtually identical to the Classic, so we think its poor performance in wind is due to its slim design, which leaves the burners sitting higher and more exposed to the wind. The poor wind resistance also negated its faster boil time and exceptional simmer function, unless we were cooking in extremely calm weather. The lack of an auto ignition was a minor drawback, especially because the design makes this stove difficult to light without a long grill lighter. It was also prone to shutting off while on its lowest setting, and we had a hard time controlling the temperature with anywhere near the precision of our other award winners.
If you want to save money in the long run, the inexpensive coleman stove Classic performed almost as well as other tabletop models, and it is much less expensive than many of the other stoves in our review. With an average boil time of 4 minutes 25 seconds, the Camp Chef Mountaineer also boasted noteworthy performance for a stove with 20,000 BTU burners. In the windy test, it took 4 minutes 46 seconds, and in the windless test, it took 4 minutes 4 seconds. Camp Chef truly dominates in this category, with their Pro 60X coming in fourth place with an average score of 4 minutes 46 seconds, with two 30,000 BTU burners. One thing to note is that the Pro 60X boiled water significantly slower in the windy test — taking 5 minutes 40 seconds — whereas it took 3 minutes 53 seconds in the windless test.