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Backpacker Magazine's Stove Buying Guide

In this guide, Backpacker Magazine Gear Editor Kristin Hostetter walks you though all the camp stove options so you can pick the type that best matches your needs.

Backpacker Magazine's Backpack Buying Guide

Backpacker brings the outdoors straight to the reader's doorstep, inspiring and enabling them to go more places and enjoy nature more often. The authority on active adventure, Backpacker is the world's first GPS-enabled magazine and website, and the only outdoor media whose editors personally test the hiking trails, camping gear, and survival tips they publish. Backpacker's Editors' Choice Awards, an industry honor recognizing design, feature, and product innovation, has become the gold standard against which all other outdoor-industry awards are measured. And the magazine recently launched mobile media applications that allow users to text-message hiking maps and directions to their phones. In 2008, Backpacker won the magazine industry's highest honor, the National Magazine Award for General Excellence and in 2009, followed the win with three more National Magazine Awards: General Excellence Online, Personal Service Online, and best Essay.

Stove Types: Liquid Fuel, Canister, and Propane

Camp stoves fall into three basic categories:
  1. Liquid Fuel
  2. Canister
  3. Propane
Liquid Fuel Stoves
These workhorse cookers are ideal for cold weather, expeditions, and adventuring in developing countries. Unlike canister stoves, which suffer in cold temperatures, liquid fuel stoves perform in virtually any weather. Why? Because when air pressure drops with the temperature, a liquid fuel stove lets you pump up the bottle to compensate, while a sealed fuel canister cannot adjust. The same principle explains why liquid fuel stoves perform better with nearly empty fuel bottles--you can add more pressure to make up for lower volume. And because fuel is stored in metal, screw-top bottles, you can pack the precise amount you need, without having to lug around empty canisters, which can sometimes be difficult to find in remote areas. MacGyver-types also love them because they're field-repairable and cleanable. There are several different types of liquid fuel stoves:

  • White-gas stoves run on the purest, most refined fuel (also called naphtha). White gas (often sold in gallon jugs) burns cleaner and hotter than other liquid fuels, and is widely available in the United States. In a pinch, these stoves will also burn gasoline straight from the pump (manufacturers don't recommend it, and frequent cleaning is required).
  • Multifuel stoves come with interchangeable jets that burn white gas, kerosene, jet fuel, and even diesel (great if you're traveling abroad, where white gas isn't always available). Burn white gas whenever possible--other fuels have slower boil times and require more maintenance to clear soot buildup.
Backpacker Tips: Using Liquid Fuel Stoves
Mastering the art of cooking with a liquid fuel stove takes patience and practice. Follow these tips:

  • Practice priming: The vast majority of liquid fuel stoves need to be primed, or preheated. To do this, release a small puddle of fuel into the priming cup or pad that sits below the generator tube. (Don't overfill it, or you'll get a fireball.) Once lit, that flame heats the liquid fuel in the generator tube, transforming it to vapor. As the flame begins to burn down, pulse (open and close) the control valve to ignite the stove. Don't rush it and over-flood the generator tube, or you'll get a big yellow flame instead of the hot blue one you want.
  • Simmering tricks: Liquid-fuel stoves are notoriously blowtorch-hot, but simmering is possible. The key: Don't over-pressurize the bottle. Before igniting, pump the plunger 10 to 15 times, rather than the standard 20 to 30. When cooking, be patient with adjustments: expect a delay when you turn down the flame.
  • Estimating fuel needs: Follow these guidelines to estimate the amount of fuel you'll need on a trip: In summer, allow three ounces per person per day. In winter, bump it up to six ounces. For extremely cold expeditions that require constant snow melting, go with 15 ounces per person per day.
Canister Stoves
Tiny, light, and beautifully simple, canister stoves are ideal for typical backpackers. They run on pressurized canisters filled with various butane fuel mixes, require no priming (like liquid fuel stoves do), and often ignite without even a match, instead using a push-button starting feature called a Piezo ignition. There are a variety of models and you can choose a canister stove that has a delicate simmer mode or a volcano that boils water in less than three minutes. In addition, there are a few subcategories within the canister-stove realm:
  • Sit-on-top canister stoves are the smallest, lightest, and most packable of all cookers because the tiny burner heads screw directly onto the threaded neck of the canister. Drawback: the higher the burner, the less stable your pot of boiling water, especially on tippy ground.
  • Remote canister stoves have flexible fuel lines that connect burner to canister. This allows the burner to sit low and squat on the ground for better big-pot stability. It also allows you to invert the canister, which can boost performance as the canister runs low. Drawback: Slightly heavier and bulkier.
  • Integrated systems--in which the stove burner and pot are sold together--are ideal for people who thrive on convenience and quickness. They pack neatly into themselves, and boast excellent boil times and fuel efficiency. That's because when a burner and cooking pot are perfectly compatible, no fuel is wasted, creating heat that skids off the side of the pot. Systems also use heat exchangers--corrugated metal rings that capture and circulate heat to further boost efficiency.
  • Hybrid stoves are able to run on virtually any fuel--canisters or any type of liquid fuel. This type of stove is expensive and a bit heavier than ideal, but if you need maximum versatility, it's a worthy tradeoff.
Backpacker Tips: Using Canister Stoves
Though supremely simple to use--just turn the knob and light--canister stoves have limitations when it comes to cold weather. Here are some tips to boost their performance in nasty conditions:
  • Keep the canisters warm at night. Warm fuel vaporizes and burns faster than cold fuel, so tuck canisters in the foot of your sleeping bag during the night.
  • While cooking, set the canister in a shallow dish of water or tape a chemical warming packet to the bottom.
  • Even if your canister stove has a Piezo ignition, don't count on it. They're great when they work, but sometimes they don't so always pack a backup source of fire to light your stove.
Propane Stoves
Because propane canisters are thick-walled and heavy, propane camp stoves are best suited for car camping, not backpacking trips. You'll find several varieties:
  • Single burner: They're extremely affordable and reliable, but generally very tippy, because propane canisters are tall, so your pot teeters almost a foot off the ground.
  • Double burner: If you do a lot of car camping with big groups, you want one of these. With two independently controlled burners running off the same propane canister, you can make coffee on one side and scramble eggs on the other. Though big and heavy, double burner stoves fold up easily (think suitcase-style) for transport and storage.
  • Multicooker: These offer the convenience of multiple, interchangeable cooking surfaces, so no matter what you feel like eating, you can cook it. They typically come with a grilling surface, a grilling grate, and a standard stovetop burner plate.


Traveling with Stoves

Airlines do not like anything that smells of gas or looks--even remotely--like something that could explode. You can carry a clean backpacking stove and empty, clean liquid fuel bottles in your checked luggage (but not carry-on luggage). But you cannot carry fuel of any type on a plane. Do your research before you leave to find a store at your destination that carries your fuel type. (Don't wait till you hit the ground or you'll waste valuable hiking time running around on a wild goose chase.)


About Gear Editor Kristin Hostetter

Kristin HostetterKristin has been Backpacker magazine's gear editor for 15 years putting thousands of camping and hiking products through the magazine's rigorous gear testing program. Her travels have taken her all over the world--from Alaska to Iceland, from Wales to Wyoming--in search of the best testing conditions. She has appeared as a gear expert on NBC's Today and CBS's The Early Show, among others. Kristin is the author of three books: Don't Forget the Duct Tape, Adventure Journal, and Tent and Car Camper's Handbook. She is also known as the "Gear Pro" on Backpacker.com, where she answers questions from readers about all sorts of outdoor skills and gear. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons, all of whom love to join Kristin on her adventures whenever possible.