Best Backpacking Stove

What kind of backpacking stoves are available!  Which backpacking stoves are best?  Let’s look first at the basic stove categories.  This will help you decide which backpacking stove is the one that will best fit your needs.

There are a just a few broad categories of fuels generally used in backpacking stoves, each with its own set of unique characteristics for storage and optimal use. First there are Petroleum Stoves.  This would be White Gas and Kerosene.  These are good for camp stoves but are generally considered too heavy and bulky for ultra-light hikers. Petroleum stoves are good if you need to melt lots of snow in extreme sub-freezing temperatures, you like to cook your food hot and fast, and you want it to be easy to find fuel.   If you are considering light weight backpacking, a petroleum stoves would not be what you wanted.

The next category would be Liquefied Gas Stoves (Butane, Isobutane, and Propane).  These stoves tend to burn clean, but the fuel is expensive and stored in non-refillable metal canisters. These types of stoves are easy to adjust from a light simmer to a roaring fire. If you are looking for a stove that works as easily as the gas range you have at home, then this might be the stove for you.  This stove will not work as well on subfreezing treks and you would need to purchase fuel as you travel.

Alcohol Stoves (Alky, Meth, Spirit) come in many forms.  They have a tendency to be slow for cooking and use up more fuel than other stoves.  These types of stoves are great for ultra-light backpacking and you like to build your own gear.  The fuel is readily obtainable here in North America.  This stove doesn’t have adjustable heat or high heat output.  An alcohol stove is not recommended for cooking a lot of food or if you will be cooking in the snow.

Another kind of backpacking stove is the wood burning stove.  These stoves tend to be heavy and bulky, but no fuel needs to be purchased.  You should, however, expect pots to turn black with soot.  This is the stove for you if you like the smell of a wood fire, other fuel types are banned in the area where you are hiking, and if you like saving money.  It is hard to have good cooking control with this type of stove.  You also need to consider where you are going camping.  Wood may not be available for there may be a burn ban.

Some stoves even incorporate cutting edge space age vaporization technology and special materials to make them lighter or perform better.  Every stove has its own special features, and each stove design has its unique drawbacks.  Selecting the right backpacking stove is exciting!  It is also a potentially difficult endeavor since no one stove has it all.  This makes stove selection a compromise rather than a hunt for the ultimate stove.  No matter what kind of backpacking stove you are looking for, you will undoubtedly find the backpacking stove that fits your needs, your wants, and your budget.