Camping stoves have had a long and varied history. Wikipedia has an excellent article about that very history and is worth a read if you are a bit of a history buff. But that is not what we are here to discuss.
A camping stove can be integral to anyone’s camping trip. Sure, many campers cook over an open flame and that is just fine. Food has been and still is cooked that way today with the result being many a fine meal. But for more consistent heat and cooking times, you need what a stove has to offer.
One obvious advantage of cooking over a stove as opposed to an open fire is portability. Where ever you go, you can have access to a ready made heating source. Sorry to say, that isn’t always possible with a wood fire. Often open fires are not permitted. Or firewood simply is not to be had.
Another plus is weather related. You know as well as I, that rain tends to happen on a camping trip. A steady soaking rain will certainly curtail your cooking activities if you don’t have a ready supply of dry wood to build and keep a fire going. Not so with a stove. A camping stove is ready when you are.
Despite that wonderful mix of the smell of a campfire and food cooking that we all love, all too often campfires emit a lot of smoke as is their nature to do. That smoke unfortunately is air pollution. Luckily camp stoves use cleaner burning technologies such as liquid gas or propane so using a camp stove is also much more environmentally friendly.
The wonderful thing about camp stoves, are that there are quite a few varieties available. Everything from small self contained units that are great for backpacking trips and picnics. To simple collapsible single burner units, to bigger two and even three burner models.
One trend is the combination of a camping stove with a portable grill. Really the best of both worlds. You can not only cook your breakfast before going fishing, later you can grill the fish that you caught in the lake that you camped by. All with the same equipment. Life simplified.
So what is out there on the market? What options do I have? Let’s take a look.
The first question is how much camping stove do you think that you will need? If you are the backpacking type of camper, then obviously you will want a stove that is smaller, more compact and light in weight. No sense in carrying around more stove than you need.
Some possible camping stoves that come to mind are the MSR Pocket Rocket stove, MSR Whisperlite Shaker Jet stove, Jet Boil Zip Cooking System and the Coleman Power Pack One Burner Propane Stove. A few among many. Let’s take a look at them.
First up is the MSR Pocket Rocket. The Pocket Rocket is a small,lightweight, liquid fueled stove weighing in at 3 ounces. It can boil water in about 3.5 minutes which is what most of these smaller stoves are designed to do. If weight is a major consideration, this could be the model for you.
You can get the
MSR® PocketRocket? Stove – Ultralight 3 oz – Appliances from Bass Pro right here.
Or
MSR Pocket Rocket Backpacking Stove from REI here.
Also by MSR is their Whisperlite stove. This is an older design of stove that strives to reach a balance between function, weight and cost. While it is heavier than butane fueled stoves, the trade off comes in longer run time, lower cost of fuels, better functionality as you are able to do more than just heat water to rehydrate foods and easy cleaning since it is designed to be “shaken” to clean it.
Check out the
MSR WhisperLite Shaker Jet Backpacking Stove here
Jetboil makes their Zip Cooking system to provide hot food and drinks quickly and conveniently. It is essentially an insulated cup that is used to heat liquids. The Zip system will heat 0.5 liters of water in about 2 minutes give or take a few seconds. Being compact and lightweight yo may just want to keep it handy for day trips and over nights.
Take a look at the
Jetboil Zip Cooking System – Appliances from Bass Pro
Or here
Jetboil Zip Stove at REI
While not as compact as the other models here, the Coleman Powerpack 1 Burner stove is still small enough to carry around but yet large enough to hold a bigger pot or pan for cooking. Something the other models may struggle with.
Also with Coleman’s PerfectFlow pressure-control system, this stove is fuel efficient and reliable even in colder weather, higher altitudes and when the fuel is low. Clean up and storage is a snap.
You can find the
Coleman PowerPack One Burner Propane Stove – Appliances here
Or even here coleman-powerpack-1-burner-propane-stove
Check out this video
2 Burner Camping Stoves
Not everyone is a hardcore ultralight backpacker. Some of us like a little more comfort and modern conveniences when we camp. So the extra weight of larger two burner stoves is a fair trade off for the extra room for cooking as well as other features that can be packed into bigger camping stoves.
Some of my best camping memories revolve around the food that was cooked on an old Coleman white gas powered stove. I can still hear my Dad pumping up the tank to build enough pressure for cooking. I’m sure that many of you have some very similar memories and camping tales revolving around camp stoves.
Since I have already mentioned Coleman, that is an excellent place to start our discovery of some of the two burner stoves on the market.
One advance that Coleman made over the older white gas only stoves is that they make a dual fuel model that runs on the standby white/camping gas as well as unleaded car gas that you can buy at any gas station. This can come in really handy if you find yourself in a pinch for fuel.
One thing that I have always admired with this type of stove is the built in wind guard. With it flipped open, the wind is sufficiently blocked unlike smaller butane single burner models.
With the two burners, cooking more than one thing at a time is obviously easy. This is great if you are trying to time something like soup and grilled cheese sandwiches or if you have a larger crew that you are feeding.
Find the
Coleman Dual-Fuel 2 Burner Stove here at REI
Or find the Coleman Dual Fuel at Camping Gear Outlet here
Or the Coleman Dual Fuel stove
from Buy.com here
Another interesting product by Coleman is their Fold N Go 2 burner stove. This model is designed to be smaller and easier to store as the cooking grates store inside of the stove. It then folds on itself making for a much more compact unit.
What is great about this model is that it is propane powered so no pumping up the tank plus it has an electronic lighting system much like your home grill. Just turn on the gas, click the lighter and within minutes you are cooking dinner.
Get the Coleman Fold N Go at these retailers
Coleman PerfectFlow InstaStart Fold-N-Go Two Burner Propane Stove – Patio at REI
Coleman Fold N Go stove at BUY.com
Or Coleman’s Fold N Go at Camping Gear Outlet
Camp Chef makes an interesting two burner stove. It has both a low and a high output burner to give you more control over the cooking temperature and or speed. A nice feature that the Camp Chef has is legs! With this one if you don’t have a large enough table, the legs allow you to cook without squatting on the ground.
The attached regulator and hose to hook up a bulk propane tank could be invaluable if you are planning on a lot of cooking. Those small bottles tend to run out when you least need it to. With the bigger tank, those worries are over.
Sometimes you just need a stove that is a little bit bigger. That is where a 3 burner stove comes in handy. More room certainly can’t hurt. The Camp Chef Denali 3 Burner Camp stove features two 12000 btu burners as well as one 5000 btu grill/burner. The non-stick aluminum grill and stainless steel drip tray make for easy clean up. Lighting is easy with the built- in matchless igniter.You get the best of both worlds with this one, a stove and a grill all in one. It would be great for both camping trips and for tailgating. What could be better.
Buy the Camp Chef Denali 3 Burner stove
from BUY.com here.
Or at Camping Gear Outlet The Camp Chef Denali 3 Burner stove
Stansport makes a similar unit, that while it only has one burner, that burner is larger than most other burners at 3.25″ and puts out 10,000 btu’s of heat. Plus the grill surface is a large 13″ x 10″. Lots of room for your burgers and steaks.
Like the Camp Chef, the Stansport comes with drip tray for easy clean up and a matchless piezo igniter.
Start your search for the Stansport HO stove and grill at BUY.com
Or at Camping Gear Outlet The Stansport stove and grill
Those are just a small sample of what is available on the market today. You just have to decide how much camping stove you think that you will need for your next family camping trip!
