The Best Camping Stoves of 2024

The Coleman Cascade Classic Camp Stove ($100) might not have all the fancy features of the others on the list, but it’s hands down the most bang for your buck out of all camp stoves on the market. The windscreens do the job, and the flame pattern can be set from a simmer to a roar. It weighs just under 12 pounds, which isn’t much more than most more expensive options.

For as low as $75 on sale, you get two 10,000-BTU burners in a classic, trusted design. We cooked up plenty of meals on the Coleman Cascade Classic and appreciate how simple it is. The simmer control knob is a bit rough, which was one of the few downsides we could sniff out.

For the money, we reach for the Cascade Classic almost every time, but budget-hunters may also consider the Eureka Ignite or the Primus Profile. The former can be had for just $25 more, slides in at close to 2 pounds lighter than the Cascade Classic, and sports taller windscreens.

That said, the stove still puts out the same claimed heat, but lagged behind the Coleman in our tests to boil water. Alternatively, the Primus does bump up the output to 12,000 BTU burners, but demands $40 for it, and we found cooking performance to be nearly identical.

If you’re camping on a budget, or want an extra two burners for large meals, the Cascade Classic would be a great addition to your outdoor kitchen setup.

With a base area of 19” x 12”, the Kinjia slides into spots where other stoves in our testing simply couldn’t, and isn’t much the lesser of a stove for it. The twin 10,200 BTU burner heads are sized more similarly to those on backpacking stoves but still performed admirably in our cooking tests. Where the Kinjia really shines, we found, was in the detail work.

Simmering is a breeze with this stove, and making more delicate dishes like omelets, fish, or crêpes can be whipped up with ease. There’s no ignoring that this is just one good-looking stove, too. The black stove body is accented with brass rivets and topped off with a wood-trimmed handle that adds a bit of class to your next cookout. 

When it comes to fueling, the Kinjia takes an interesting approach with a metal propane canister stand that stands alone from the rest of the stove. This holds the fuel bottle at what we imagine is the optimal angle, but in reality, it was just another loose piece we feared losing track of. We also lamented over the lack of windscreens, but have gotten pretty good at building up DIY walls instead.

The Kinjia is undeniably a compact stove, but there are a few others to consider when camp kitchen real estate is in high demand. For $70 more, the unique Jetboil Genesis Basecamp Stove System folds both burners together to cut down on space, but has slightly less powerful 10,000 BTU burner heads.

Single-burner options like the Eureka SPRK+ and Snow Peak Home & Camp Burner are both a good bit cheaper at $65 and $120, respectively. However, you do miss out on the ability to cook two things at once. Most lightweight camp stoves leave out windscreens, and we certainly did miss them on this stove when things got blustery.

It’s tough to deny the packed size of the Kinjia, however, and if you don’t need the overbuilt quality of something like the Camp Chef Everest 2X, the Primus Kinjia is an excellent solution. Vanlifers — this is your stove.

Read Review: Smaller Than the Best, Lighter Than the Rest: Primus Kinjia Camp Stove Review

What we loved most about this stove in testing was its durability, heat output, and simmer control. The windscreens were even adequate for 20-30 mph winds. All of the features offer a quality feel, and it can cook just about anything.

The quality of the cast iron was also on par with more expensive options (though the cast iron components do make the stove fairly heavy). Still, the Coleman 3-in-1 (a two-burner stove, grill top, and griddle) weighs less than the only other camp griddle we tested, the Camp Chef Versatop. One somewhat glaring error, however, was the short windscreens that this stove incorporates. Not only do taller windscreens limit heat loss, but they also cut down on the grease splatter that a griddle can emit. Build up those walls, Coleman!

Hybrid stoves like the 3-in-1 generally lag behind straight-ahead camp stoves in popularity, but can be an excellent way to divide up cooking space for a number of dishes. The main tradeoff comes when sharing cooking space with multiple pots or pans and not being able to remove griddle attachments, such as on the Camp Chef Rainier 2X. Thankfully the Coleman is modular, and while the Rainier is a bit cheaper, this ability — plus hotter burners — keeps the Coleman 3-in-1 in the top dog spot for hybrid stove options.

If you’re a fan of cast iron, or simply want an all-in-one option that performs well in every category, the 3-in-1 is one of the best camping stoves you can buy.

Read Review: The Classic Camp Stove Gets a Modern Makeover: Coleman 1900 3-in-1 Review

Let’s start with the obvious: what’s the deal with the satellite dish? Traditionally made from plow discs, discada cookers are native to the American Southwest and Mexico and utilized by farmhands who need to cook up lunch quickly. The ‘cowboy wok’ on the Disco stove is a 16” cast iron skillet that comes pre-seasoned, and we found it to be perfect for butter-basting steaks, cooking up chilaquiles, and making classic discada tacos.

Powering the Disco stove is a Kovea-made 8,455-BTU burner that nests solidly into the tripod stand — an impressive structure in its own right. The burner also sports collapsible feet, allowing it to be fired up on a camp table or tailgate, and it runs off your standard-issue isobutane canisters. When coupled with the heat retention of the cast iron discada, this stove has enough power to shallow fry, and can also be dialed back to keep things like tortillas warm. 

The tripod is really where the modularity of the Disco stove shines. Adjustable in height, the stove is meant to be used standing up, providing a real community cooking feeling. A slick little table rides side-saddle and keeps all of your utensils, spices, and beer at close hand. And the real hat trick: the discada can be suspended beneath the tripod and over a campfire, turning this stove into a dual-fuel cooker with built-in entertainment. Get your cowboy TV roaring and lower the skillet to the correct level with the built-in chain and pulley system. Genius. 

Other overlanding-style stoves to consider are the Camp Chef Mountaineer, a rough-and-tumble all-aluminum traditional stove that will pump out more BTUs than the Disco, but with a much larger — and less modular — footprint. The Primus Kinjia takes a different tack that will appeal more to car campers who are strapped for space but ends up being just about the same packed size as the Disco, and that’s without the built-in cooking surface. 

It’s hard to overstate just how enjoyable this stove system is to use, and that’s not just our opinion. While testing, we fielded questions from almost everyone who passed by our camp. Yes, this stove system commands a pretty penny, but in use, we struggled to identify any potential failure point that would keep the Disco Series Stove from lasting long into the future. Overlanders rejoice, your ideal stove has arrived.

The utility of a single burner is that it can be used as either a cooking solution for a couple of campers, or added into a camp kitchen as an additional burner for more dishes. During our testing, we did this often, and to great applause — nothing is better than having all your food come out hot at the same time.

The SPRK+ is a slightly souped-up version of the SPRK Camp Stove ($50), and bumps up the BTUs to 11,500 over the standard 10,000. We found this to be more than enough to heat up even our burliest cast iron pans, and easily stir-fried veggies or cooked steaks. Other single burners like the Snow Peak Home & Camp Burner lag behind this output, and while that stove has the edge on packability, the SPRK+ relays a sturdiness that we trusted more to hold up in the long run.

It is important to note that the SPRK+ is a butane stove, which while not quite as popular as propane, is still available in outdoor stores or online. It’s also lighter weight than propane. The canister slots into an integrated space on one side of the square stove body, with no screwing in required. We found in practice that a single canister will net about an hour of run time.

The stove has a three-sided wall that’s perforated and reaches a couple of inches high, which is meant for wind protection. However in testing, we found the screen to lack influence, and an impromptu shield was needed (the carry case the stove comes in actually doesn’t do half-bad).

This is unsurprising given the lean design, but something that did need to be addressed to make it through dinner. Perfect for a quick and simple dish, or whipping up another side, the SPRK+ Camp Stove adds a lot of versatility to your camp kitchen. When we need to whip up a lot of chow but don’t want to roll out the huge group stove, we snag the SPRK+ and a dual burner for max versatility.

The Pro 16 (which, we’ll note, is a name pivot from the previous Pro 90X — same stove) is Camp Chef’s flag bearer and is tricked out with all the bells and whistles you’d expect. All revolves around three huge burner heads that rival commercial units in size and churn out enough heat to get skillets ripping hot. During all of our testing, we never wanted more output.

Those burners are set inside a 16 by 38-inch cooking surface, which, in practice, we could fit three 8-quart stock pots atop. Protected by an ample windscreen and flanked by two folding side shelves that are stable enough for light prep work, the Pro 16 is the cookout battle station of choice for anyone looking to feed a lot of people. 

One of the biggest draws of the Pro 16 for most folks is going to be the suite of other Camp Chef 16-inch accessories that can be mated up to the stove. There are pizza ovens, grill boxes, and griddles, and since the Pro 16 is a three-burner stove, you can use a few simultaneously.

At around 60 pounds, the Pro 16 is closer to portable grills than some of the lighter camping stoves on our list. However, that weight packs up admirably well and stows with a folding leg design (a definite upgrade from the screw-on legs on the Explorer series). Still, consider that this stove takes some considerable space to move, and plan accordingly.

For family get-togethers or simply aiming to feed a large number of people, the Camp Chef Pro 16 is the stove to do it with.

Sporting the same dual 20K BTU burners as our favorite Everest 2X stove, this stove has firepower to spare, and we love the integrated burner-head windscreens that help direct heat up toward your cookery. The major difference between the two comes in the fueling, and while the Everest ports up to your average green 1 lb. propane bottles, the Mountaineer sports a remote hose and regulator for 5-pound canisters. 

The build is also noticeably different between the two stoves, with the Mountaineer decked out in an all-aluminum body that helps to keep the weight down on this larger stove. The cooking surface is a larger 302 square inches and easily accommodates two 12” cast iron pans. During truck-assisted camping in Washington State, we used the Mountaineer to whip up Dutch oven nachos, kebabs, and salmon.

We tested the Mountaineer with the add-on leg kit ($44), and as the saying goes, if you have the means, we highly recommend picking them up. The height is just about perfect, and each of the legs is adjustable to hit the perfect balance. The stove performs equally well on a camp table; however, just be sure to remember the larger footprint it takes up.

The stove isn’t without its tradeoffs; one to keep in mind is the need for 5 lb. propane tanks. There is an adapter available to run the stove on more camp-friendly 1-pound bottles, but you’ll have to get your mitts on it separately. The 20,000 BTU burner strength is also hot to trot, and while the stove dials down nicely, we still suggest using slow-heating cookware like cast-iron skillets.

And finally, $390 is a not small amount to ask (only the iKamper Disco is more), but with no steel to rust out and high-quality burner heads, we’ve little doubt that the Mountaineer could last a decade or more.

Compared to other large-group stoves like the Camp Chef Pro 16, this stove is much more versatile with its option to be used on a table or freestanding, and while we loved the iKamper Disco for overlanding, those who want a more familiar cooking set-up would be well-served by the Camp Chef Mountaineer. Its rugged build will shrug off being jostled around in the back of a pickup and won’t blink at whipping up food for entire families.

While it doesn’t blow any other stove out of the water, the Selkirk 540+ does its job admirably – easily boiling water or sautéing veggies for any camp meal you can dream up. Twin metering knobs provide a smooth output and twist a full 720 degrees, offering up great fidelity to fine-tuning your perfect stirfry, and the piezo ignition was strong right out of the box.

Our testing has shown that higher BTU output is connected to worse fuel efficiency, however, and indeed the Selkirk was thirstier than the typical 10,000 BTU stoves like the Coleman Cascade Classic or Eureka Ignite. This was the main reason the stove didn’t find itself higher in our line-up.

We also greatly appreciated the stainless steel stove basin and easy-to-remove grate for when the time came to clean up. After a few quick swipes, our stove was clean and ready to be put away. Some stoves harbor more nooks and crannies, but there’s no such issue here.

The windscreens, while of ample height, unfortunately, leave a bit of a gap between the base of the stove and the grill supports, meaning that wind had a pesky tendency to skirt around these walls and interfere with the flame pattern. Careful setup can help alleviate this, and it’s something to be mindful of when arranging your camp kitchen.

A jack-of-all-trades type of stove, the Selkirk 540+ hit the high points in our testing and would make an excellent stove for anyone who needs a stove that just plain works.

The unique part about the VersaTop is its versatile design. With separate attachments, you can cook on a flat top, grill, or even bake bread inside. You just pull off the cooking surface, place it on another, and start cooking.

While quite heavy (24 lbs.), the size and weight make you feel like a real chef. During a previous GearJunkie campout, our editors had a blast cooking breakfasts, sandwiches, and large helpings of stir fry on this stove. The 17″ x 18″ cooktop of the VersaTop is much more spacious compared to other hybrid camp stove options, including the Coleman 3-in-1’s twin 13″ x 11″ griddles, and Camp Chef Rainier 2X’s 14″ x 9″ aluminum top, and we found the raised backsplash of the VersaTop better suited for piling on food and cutting down on splatter.

Of course, going with a dedicated griddle will mean that you’ll need to lean on another single burner for any of your boiling needs, but we’ve found that adding the Eureka SPRK+ to the kitchen when cooking on the VersaTop makes for a perfect duo. You’ll also need to take care of the flattop as your cooking surface is integrated into the stove body, and scorching can be a real pain to get rid of.

At $190, you’ll need to calculate how many killer breakfasts you’ll need to turn out to justify the expense, but if you’re a griddle savant and don’t mind the extra weight in your rig, the VersaTop might be the best camping stove for you. We find that most folks are better served by a classic two burner, but as a breakfast powerhouse, this stove reigns.

Snow Peak’s Home & Camp Burner ($120) has all the compactness and intricacy of origami with the durability of a two-burner camp stove. Snow Peak is known for its minimal, highly compact designs, and this burner is no different — it completely folds into itself (to about the size of a 32-ounce Nalgene).

Simply open the top, slide out the legs, and engage the locking pin to swivel the burner out onto any surface. Then, slide in a butane gas canister. While minimal, we didn’t experience any durability issues and would expect this stove to hold up well to extensive use.

This is one of the only butane-fueled stoves on our list (the other being the Eureka SPRK+), which highlights the relative supremacy that propane has on the camping stove scene. While it’s not difficult to get, it may not be as universal as going with a propane stove. Compared to other single burners like the Jetboil Genesis Basecamp, the Snow Peak exhibits origami-like collapsibility that makes it easily the most compact on our list.

At such a small size, the Home & Camp Burner is ideal for in-vehicle cooking (just please ventilate accordingly). With no included attachments, you’ll need to add your own windscreen in blustery weather. If you ride solo often or are looking for a quality camping stove that’s equally capable and compact, look no further.

Not lightweight by any means, the Explorer 14 is a stove you ideally only set up once during a camping trip. The twin burners are fueled by a propane canister that you’re unlikely to want to carry in a backpack, so it’s best to think of this as a close-to-the-vehicle cooking setup. Besides the burners, there’s not much more to this stove, with a simple tube frame, a good enough windscreen, and unfortunately, no piezo-ignition.

We will note that the stove packs down smaller than expected, with all legs and windscreens detaching for travel. Likely the most exciting component of this stove is its family of cooking surface accessories — spanning from griddle tops to BBQ boxes to pizza ovens. This flexibility greatly increases the dishes on the menu, and will also cost you some extra cheddar.

The realm of free-standing camp stoves is a comparatively lonely one, with Camp Chef also making up most of the “competition” with other higher-end stoves like the Pro 14 ($300) or Pro 16 ($350). Both of these stoves add on extendable shelves, adjustable (and foldable) legs, and piezo-ignition, but are still built around the same 30,000 BTU burner heads as the Explorer 14.

There’s a weight penalty, too, for moving up to the bigger stoves, with the Pro 14 weighing around 50 pounds, and the Pro 16 clocking in at almost 60. In the end, the price is truly what will likely sell you on the Explorer. For $200 less than our top pick for feeding large groups, you still get an impressive amount of heat — just with a little less polish.

We first tested our Explorer 14 at a family-style Dungeness crab boil, and this is exactly the type of stove for an event that aims to feed many. If you’re looking to set up the full mobile kitchen, this stove is up to the task.

The wind panels block wind reasonably well (but not great if you notice the gaps), and it has excellent simmer control. It may look similar to cheaper options, but the materials feel more trustworthy than our bargain pick, the Coleman Cascade Classic. On par with options higher on the list, it weighs just 10 pounds and takes up similar picnic table space as the GSI Selkirk 540+ and Primus Kinjia stoves.

One of the most novel features of the Ignite is its capability to be chained to other Eureka or Jetboil stove systems with what the companies call JetLink. This hose system allows you to connect your separate burners and run them from one propane source, which we found killer for basecamp situations or when you want to whip up a meal to feed an entire family.

While perfectly functional, we found that this stove simply doesn’t excel in any one particular area. It does all the things a camp stove should do, but when compared to others, its performance just doesn’t stand out.

Compared to the Coleman Cascade Classic, the Ignite does weigh almost 2 pounds lighter but didn’t quite match the heat output that the Coleman could muster. For an added $25, it’s close to a wash in our books, but having that extra heat keeps the classic Coleman stove higher on our list for now.

The Ignite has proven to be highly durable, with little to no lapse in function after extended use, and it looks great in action. Despite its lack of exceptional features, it’s still an admirable camping stove for the price. And if you love everything about the Ignite but need a bit more cooking room, consider the Ignite Plus ($160), a plus-size range that accommodates large skillets and adds a few inches between the burners.

The piezo ignition striker is easy to use, and it has a slightly larger cooking area than other stoves we tested. This allows you to get larger pans on it, though the larger the surface area, the longer it takes to generate adequate heat.

While it performs well in almost all facets of cooking, our flames blew out multiple times while testing, which means it’s not ideal for windy climates. The dials function well enough to simmer, and it’s also on the lighter side for two-burner stoves, weighing in at under 12 pounds.

This is another stove that works great but simply doesn’t stand out in any specific category. The Profile is an all-around performer with no frills and would work well for anyone who wants a little extra cooking space in a classic design.

“Where the Genesis really shows through is its simmering ability. The burner knob can be spun in four full rotations from the lowest to the highest setting, and each slight movement of the knob makes fractional adjustments to the flame,” we wrote in our full-length Jetboil Genesis review.

This stove system packs up small, and with the ability to chain additional burners, you can turn this system into a full-fledged kitchen for large groups at a fraction of the packed size. It’s quite expensive, but the technology backs it up, and it also comes with a lightweight pot and pan.

It’s that price, however, that keeps us from signing the praises of the Genesis at full volume, as $400 can net you the Camp Chef Mountaineer, easily a more durable and capable stove unit. While the compact nature of the Jetboil stove is one of the highpoints, we actually end up leaning on the Primus Kinjia more often for the slightly hotter burners and low-profile design that slides into camping bins with ease.

If you’re cramped on space or want to tote a two-burner system into the backcountry, the Genesis could be the best camping stove for you. While the foldability isn’t necessary for the average car camper, it’s truly one of the most versatile setups we’ve tested.

Read Review: Jetboil Genesis Basecamp Stove System Review: The Benchmark of Car Camping Stoves