Best Camping Stoves: Which? tests reveal the best stoves for your next camping trip - Which?

The best camping stoves allow you to enjoy the great outdoors without losing the convenience of cooking at home.

That’s why our tests focused 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 tested popular camping stoves from Campingaz, Vango, Coleman and more, to see which ones you should take on your next camping trip.

Our rigorous tests revealed two camping stoves good enough to get our recommendation.

The best camping stoves from our tests

Only logged-in Which? members can view the camping stove test results below.

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Camping stove

Cheapest price

Ease of use

Heat up speed

Portability

Number of burners

Where to buy

Excellent

Average

Good

Excellent

Average

Excellent

Poor

Average

Poor

Average

Very poor

Date tested: May 2021. Pricing and availability last checked: 8 Feb 2023

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The camping stoves we tested

Only logged-in Which? members can view the best camping stoves from our tests

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Campingaz Camp Bistro 2

Only available at Amazon: £33.15

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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

Campingaz Party Grill 400 CV

Cheapest price: £92.66 at Amazon, also available at Decathlon, Argos

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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

Coleman FyreStorm PCS

Cheapest price: £64.74 at Amazon also available at Blacks, Go Outdoors, Millets

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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): buutane/propane mini gas canisters

Need to know: piezo ignition, cooking pot with sleeve/carry handle and wind shield included, hose and gas regulator included

Kemper Camping Stove Xtra Smart

Only available at Decathlon: £29.99

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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

Vango Combi IR Grill Cooker

Cheapest price: £59.99 at Winfields Outdoors, also available at Amazon, Wiggle

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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

Vango Folding Gas Stove

Cheapest price: £28.99 at Amazon, also available at Blacks, Millets

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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

Eggs and sausages cooked on a camping stove

How we tested camping stoves

We selected the UK’s most popular camping stoves, available from major retailers such as Amazon, Blacks and Decathlon.

We bought each stove for testing, so you can be confident that our reviews are completely independent.

Cooking experience

We cooked eggs and sausages using the same pan on every stove we tested, scoring each on how user-friendly and comfortable they were to use.

Heat-up speed

We timed how long it took each stove to do the following:

Boil 500ml water in a camping kettle to find out which one will give you your brew the fastest
Heat a pan to 200°C, to see which one will have you ready to cook the quickest.

Portability and stability

We carried each camping stove around our test site, taking into account the weight, comfort of any handles, and any ways to make the stove more compact.
We set up each stove on a table as well as on grass and looked for any wobbly legs or feet that slide around or topple easily.

Get a tent that’s easy to put up and take down and will stand up to our lovely weather. See our picks of the best tents and best pop-up tents.

Camping stove types: which is best for you?

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:

Lightweight, compact stoves with single burners
Larger, heavier camping stoves with several burners and a design that’s more similar to your home cooker.

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:

How many people will I be cooking for? If you’re a large party and only have one cooker, you’ll probably need more than one burner. This means a compact stove won’t be much use as they rarely have more than one burner. Plus you might struggle to cook using big pots.
Will my meals require more than one burner? Even if you’re camping solo, you should think through the meals you’ll want to cook and how many burners you normally use at home. If you aren’t keen on one-pot meals, you’ll probably need a stove with at least two burners.
What type of outdoor trips am I taking? Backpackers and anyone who likes to camp with minimal gear will be drawn to a single-burner stove that packs up small and weighs very little. However, if you’ll only be taking camping trips with your car and have plenty of room, you could go for a larger model.
Do I have room for a gas canister? It can be easy to only focus on the camping stove itself and forget the fuel you’ll need to burn with it. If you’ve got a larger stove, you’ll probably need a large canister to go with it, which means even more bulk and weight in your vehicle.

Need somewhere to keep your food and drink cool? Check out the best cool boxes and the best cooler bags.

Can you use a camping stove indoors?

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.

Five things you need to know before buying a camping stove

1) Flame types vary

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.

2) Smaller stoves are trickier to control

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.

3) Piezo ignition can be temperamental

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.

4) Heating speeds are similar

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.

5) Burner size matters

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.