The Best Camping Stoves of 2025

The simplest option on the list is also one of our favorites. As a tried and true model that meets the basic demands of car camping, it’s been a go-to choice for our staff over the years.

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 cooking surface is a bit smaller than a stove like the Camp Chef Everest, but we found we could fit a cast iron skillet and pot for boiling water, no problem. 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 Primus Profile. That stove does bump up the output to 12,000 BTU burners but demands $40 more for it, and we found cooking performance to be close to the same. The windscreens on the Coleman do protect it a bit better, so consider where you’ll be cooking before deciding between the two.

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.

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

Small but powerful — the Primus Kinjia Camping Stove ($210) brings a light footprint to your camp kitchen and is perfect for those who want a capable stove but don’t want to renovate their campsite in the process.

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 Snow Peak Home & Camp Burner is a good bit cheaper at $120. 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: The Classic Camp Stove Gets a Modern Makeover: Coleman 1900 3-in-1 Review

This camping stove comes with not one but two cast iron attachments for grilling and cooking on a griddle. Trust us, the Coleman 3-in-1 ($210) aspect is awesome. Thanks to the versatility, you can use two burners like any other camp stove, or one burner and a grill, or one burner and a griddle.

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.

If car-based adventuring is your jam, you’re going to need a camping stove that’s dialed in for the task. And while we’ve tried many, none have made an impression more than the iKamper Disco Series Stove ($490) — an uber-modular cooking system that’s primed for van life, overlanding, or gathering around with friends.

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.

While full-fledged stove systems might get all the glory, counting out a good single burner would be foolish, and the Snow Peak Home & Camp Burner ($120) is just that: one heckuva good single burner. 

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.

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, highlighting propane’s relative supremacy 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 single burners like the Jetboil Genesis Basecamp, the Snow Peak exhibits origami-like collapsibility, making 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.

While the less-refined Explorer 14 has been our go-to get-together cooker for some years now, it was only a few minutes of using the Camp Chef Pro 16 ($350) before reckoning that the title had just been wrestled away. This three-burner 30,000 BTU brute has all the afterburner to boil stock pots of Dungies and whip up the sides — all at once.

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.

The Camp Chef Mountaineer ($390) may as well come equipped with a chow bell — this is one burly cook station that’s primed to feed the whole wagon train. The Mountaineer is ideal as an overlanding, river rafting, and base camping stove, and is a perfect option for those who cook outdoors often — and seriously. 

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-pound 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.

If looks were the main consideration, the Primus Alika ($275) would take top honors with its sleek powder-coated lid, oak laths, and brass accents. But we also particularly like this stove because it hosts a number of unusual features, including a removable lid, which allows for larger pots and nimble cooking from all sides.

In Primus-land, aka Sweden (this stove is actually made in Europe), they envision the lid-off scene as a “360˚ gathering spot, and a place to connect over drinks and a steaming plate of food.” Needless to say, the company has embraced some new technology since then, and this stove is (almost) entirely well thought out.

A long, flexible fuel hose means you’re not married to canister placement. The regulator also stows neatly underneath, in a spring-action lock. It has a comfy webbing handle and two exterior locks for transport, which means it doesn’t rattle furiously in the car. It’s versatile, too, with an included butane adaptor kit. Oh, and those pretty oak laths aren’t just for show: with the lid removed, they function as a hot plate.

This stove also sports stout grates and two burner sizes: 10,200 BTUs and 13,300 BTUs. Both boil and simmer very well, though with a bit less overall BTU oomph than the Camp Chef Mountaineer or GSI Outdoors Selkirk. The Primus Alika is not as compact as the minimalist Primus Kinjia, but at 24” x 10.7” x 3”, it is a touch smaller and more streamlined than other two-burner models. It’s also easy to clean, thanks to a removable drip tray.

The windscreens work well, but could benefit from smaller gaps at the bottom, and the metal hooks that hold them in place are a rather chintzy design for such an otherwise superbly thought-out stove. Also, although Primus touts its snazzy piezo ignition, we had little luck getting it to work well consistently. Finally, this stove is on the expensive side, though still considerably cheaper than the Camp Chef Mountaineer.

If you’re someone who likes to buy upper end gear that will last a lifetime, the Alika is your stove. It’s highly innovative, and clearly a lot of thought went into the details of the design.

Newly updated, the GSI Outdoors Selkirk 540+ Camp Stove ($150) bumps up the BTUs from an original 10,000 to 14,000, greatly improving this stove’s performance in our cooking tests.

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. 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.

While not technically a stove, a griddle can bring a lot of joy and simplicity to outdoor cooking. The Camp Chef VersaTop ($190) has a nonstick cooking surface with a wide 18,000-BTU burner underneath, plus a grill accessory.

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 pounds), 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 Snow Peak Home & Camp Burner 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.

Suitable for your next tailgating event (or family reunion), the Camp Chef Explorer 14 ($150) sports a generous cooking surface area — a full 14 x 32 inches — and has the heat to back it up. The two burners put out a cumulative 60,000 BTUs, just shy of the monstrous 90,000 put out by the Pro 16 that recently knocked the Explorer off the title of ‘Best for Group Camping.’ When bringing big stock pots to a boil is on the menu, the Explorer 14 is up for the task.

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 Primus Profile 2-Burner Stove ($140) has a clean design and classic appearance. With a newly updated and increased heat output of 14,000 BTUs per burner, it works great for almost any meal you can conjure. Like the Eureka Ignite, however, this is another stove that didn’t wow us in any particular way.

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.

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

The Jetboil Genesis Basecamp Stove ($400) brings one of the more novel (if not genius) designs to the classic camping stove. It functions with a clamshell design that unfolds to display the cooking surface. And, underneath each burner is a place to chain additional burners.

“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.