Camping Stove Performance: Ease of Use & What to Avoid

Important information about camping stoves...

What type of camping, hiking, or backpacking do you do? Do you camp at parks, out of your car, or do you carry everything on your back? Do you camp only in North America?

Do you need a camping burner for winter camping or do you mostly camp during the summer when it's warm out?

Will you be carrying it for long distances? What type of fuel do you want to use?

How many people will you be cooking for?

If you don't know the answers to some of these questions this camping stoves guide will help.

In general camping stoves that are easy to set-up and take up as little room as possible when you break them down are better. Fuel supplies that can be disconnected from camping stoves also make life easier. Good camping stoves should have a good base-of-support and avoid ones that tip on less-than-ideal surfaces or when they have a big pot on top of them.

You want the most reliable, durable, compact, light, easy-to-use, camping stove that performs well in all the conditions you encounter. For example if you travel outside the U.S. take a look at multi-fuel camping stoves because white gas is hard to find. If you cook for your family then you'll want at least two burners.

Two burner camping stoves, for families and groups, are bigger so you can heat more than one pot at a time making meal preparation much easier. They're great for camping at campgrounds or whenever you don't need to move them around much. If you're hiking or backpacking though you'll want to avoid dual burners and look at lighter camping stoves.

Light-weight camping stoves can weigh less than 4 ounces, not including the fuel and container. Better camping stoves are designed to fit inside other equipment used for camping, like cookware or even part of itself. This makes packing and carrying easier and less time consuming. Both two burner and light-weight stoves are divided into two types, liquid fuel or canister.

Types of Camping Stoves

Liquid fuels require pumping to pressurize the fuel tank and priming (lighting fuel or another substance to warm the liquid fuel so it vaporizes and ignites) to help them light off. They can take longer to start and bring to full temperature.

Once they're going, liquid fuels usually burn hotter, but they also require more attention when you're trying to gently warm food. Some liquid fuel camp stoves offer adjustability while some don't, if you're looking to gently simmer something gourmet in the woods then you may want to look at...

If you'd like to learn more about camping stoves please click here for the entire article. If you're interested in some related information about camping food please click here.

Marc Wiltse learned how important good quality hiking equipment and camping gear were after his pup tent flooded with over 3 inches of water forcing him to sleep in the front seat of his 2-seat Honda CRX (translation: research is a good thing). His hiking equipment & camping gear guides & reviews save you time & money. Subscribe to his camping & hiking newsletter & get the most usable information FREE!

© Marc Wiltse. Reprint permission if author, copyright, links & this notice are intact.

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