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The best camping stoves will 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 camping stoves you can buy.
Camping stoves that are awkward to use and take a long time to heat can really put a dampener on your camping trip - and that's before the rain starts.
In May 2021, we tested seven popular camping stoves from Campingaz, Halfords, Vango and more, to see which ones you should take on your next camping trip.
Our tests covered a variety of camping stoves - from dual burners with toasting grills to tiny foldaway stoves for backpacking.
See our full test results below to discover which we would recommend.
Pricing and availability last checked: 20 April 2022.
Only logged-in Which? members can view the camping stove test results below.
If you're not yet a member, you'll see an alphabetically ordered list of the camping stoves we tested. Join Which? now to get instant access to our recommendation below.
Cheapest price: £15 at Blacks, Millets, also available at Amazon, Go Outdoors
Number of burners: 1
Dimensions: 12cm x 34cm x 28cm (H x W x D)
Carry weight: 2.3kg
Recommended fuel(s): Isobutane/butane/propane gas cartridges
Other key features: Piezo ignition, carry case included
Simplicity is what Campingaz has gone for with its single-burner Camp Bistro 2. Rather than fiddling with gas regulators and canisters, you just plug a small gas cartridge into a compartment in the side.
Our tests judged how much of a benefit this makes in terms of ease of use.
Log in now or join Which? to unlock our test results.
Cheapest price: £99 at Amazon, also available at Decathlon
Number of burners: 1
Dimensions: 42cm x 39cm x 34cm (H x W x D) assembled; 25cm x 39cm x 34cm (H x W x d) packed
Carry weight: 4.66kg
Recommended fuel(s): Butane/propane mini gas canisters
Other key features: Piezo ignition, carry bag included, barbecue, pan, griddle, grill and wok cooking accessories included
The Campingaz Party Grill 400 CV is the most versatile of the camping stoves we tested. It comes with several accessories you can put on top of the flame to suit all kinds of cooking, and the lid can even be flipped over and used as a wok.
We timed how long it took us to boil a kettle and heat a pan to see if it's the complete package when it comes to convenience.
Log in now or join Which? to unlock our test results.
Cheapest price: £68 at Amazon (out of stock), Blacks (out of stock), Go Outdoors (out of stock), Millets (out of stock)
Number of burners: 1
Dimensions: 22.6cm x 14cm x 14cm (H x W x D) assembled; 16.2cm x 14cm x 14cm (H x W x D) packed
Carry weight: 0.63kg
Recommended fuel(s): Butane/propane mini gas canisters
Other key features: Piezo ignition, cooking pot with sleeve/carry handle and wind shield included, hose and gas regulator included
Designed for backpackers, the Coleman FyreStorm PCS is a lightweight foldaway camping stove that can pack into the small cooking pot it comes with.
Could its smaller size make it less convenient to cook with?
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Cheapest price: £38 at Halfords
Number of burners: 2
Dimensions: 34cm x 57.5cm x 39.5cm (H x W x D) assembled; 8cm x 57.5cm x 32cm (H x W x D) packed
Carry weight: 4kg
Recommended fuel(s): 37mbar butane/propane gas canisters
Other key features: Piezo ignition, grill tray included
With two burners and a grill tray for making toast, the Halfords Double Stove with Grill could be a good-value camping stove if it's up to scratch.
Find out how it fared in our tough tests and how we rated it for stability and portability.
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Cheapest price: £29.99 at Decathlon
Number of burners: 1
Dimensions: 11.1cm x 34cm x 28cm (H x W x D)
Carry weight: 1.99kg
Recommended fuel(s): Isobutane/butane/propane gas cartridges
Other key features: Piezo ignition, carry case included
Like the Campingaz Camp Bistro 2, the Kemper Camping Stove Xtra Smart uses small gas cartridges instead of a gas regulator and canister.
But how do they compare in terms of heat-up speed?
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Cheapest price: £67.50 at Blacks, Millets, also available at Amazon, Go Outdoors
Number of burners: 2
Dimensions: 38cm x 56cm x 32.5cm (H x W x D) assembled; 13cm x 56cm x 32.5cm (H x W x D) packed
Carry weight: 4.83kg
Recommended fuel(s): 37mbar butane/propane gas canisters
Other key features: Piezo ignition, grill tray included
Vango's Combi IR Grill Cooker is the heaviest camping stove we tested, but that's not necessarily a bad thing if it's convenient to carry.
We put it through our portability tests to see if you'll have trouble carrying it from your car to your pitch.
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Cheapest price: £29.10 at Amazon, also available at Blacks (out of stock), Go Outdoors, Millets (out of stock)
Number of burners: 1
Dimensions: 6.2cm x 12cm x 12cm (H x W x D) assembled; 11cm x 9.3cm x 6.3cm (H x W x D) packed
Carry weight: 0.23kg
Recommended fuel(s): Butane/propane mini gas canisters
Other key features: Carry box included, gas hose and regulator included
The Vango Folding Gas Stove is the only camping stove we tested that doesn't have piezo ignition, so you'll have to remember to bring matches with you.
Did we nonetheless find it a convenient portable camping stove overall?
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We selected seven of the UK's most popular camping stoves, available from major retailers such as Amazon, Blacks, Decathlon and Halfords. We also took online search into consideration when picking which ones to test.
We bought each stove for testing and don't take free gifts, so you can be confident in the independence of our reviews.
When you're camping, it's likely you'll have at least a short walk from your car to your pitch, so it's important that your stove has been made with ease of transportation in mind.
We carried each camping stove around our test site, taking into account the weight, the comfort of any handles and any way to make the stove more compact.
As you're dealing with open flames, it's also important for your stove to be stable and not run the risk of toppling over. We set each stove up on a table and on the grass and looked for any wobbly legs or feet that slide easily.
If you don't go camping often, you can feel a little out of your comfort zone using a stove outside, but the best ones make outdoor cooking a convenient and intuitive task nonetheless.
We cooked up some eggs and sausages using the same pan on every stove we tested, scoring each one on how user-friendly and comfortable it was to use.
Nothing beats a hot drink on a camping trip, but if the kettle takes forever to boil you might not want your cuppa by the time it's ready.
We timed how long it took each stove to boil 500ml of water in a camping kettle to find out which one will give you your brew the fastest.
We also timed how long it took each stove to heat a pan to 200°C, to see which one will have you ready to cook the quickest.
Get a convenient tent to match your stove with our picks of the best pop-up tents.
Camping stoves come in all shapes and sizes and can have a variety of features, so it can seem tricky to decide which one you should buy.
They mostly fall into two types: the lightweight and compact stoves with single burners, and the larger, heavier ones with several burners and a more similar design to your home cooker.
There are exceptions, however. Those such as the Campingaz Camp Bistro 2 and the Kemper Camping Stove Xtra Smart are a medium size but still have a single burner, and act as a compromise between the portability of the compact stoves and the familiar cooking experience of the larger stoves.
To help you whittle down the selection, we've listed some key questions below that you should consider when buying:
Need somewhere to keep your food and drink cool? Check out the best cool boxes and the best cooler bags.
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 burned the hottest and were great at heating up pans, and they proved much more resistant to wind interference than the 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 of the pan cooks more quickly.
The smaller stoves we tested packed plenty of punch in the heat they gave out, which is useful for boiling the 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 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; in others it took quite a few goes before the flames appeared.
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 some 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 are going.
When we put 500ml of 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 your heat being concentrated in the centre of the pot, 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 in a larger pot evenly 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.