CAMP STOVES

The romantic ideal of camping includes cooking over an open fire, but unless you really know what you’re doing, you’ll have a better meal if you use a camp stove. A good stove allows you to prepare a meal quickly with reliable, even heat. Camp stoves all tend to have the same basic design—a base with one to three burners, a lid that folds back to become a windscreen, and two fold-out side windscreens—so it’s the details that differentiate them. Please note that the stoves below are intended for car camping and all use propane fuel. (Backpacking stoves have a completely different design and generally use white gas for fuel.)

Coleman Guide Three-Burner Stove

Coleman stoves, with their familiar dark-green color, are a campground fixture, and if you’re cooking for a crowd this is the one you want. It has two 10,000-BTU (British thermal units) burners and one that produces 15,000 BTUs. That one will boil one quart of water in under four minutes. The nickel-chrome grate provides stability for pots and the aluminized steel cooktop is removable for easy cleanup. One 20-pound propane cylinder will run all three burners on high for 12 hours, or 36 hours on low; connections are included.

Camp Chef All-Terrain Sport Stove

This stove features two 20,000-BTU stainless-steel burners in a 14x25-inch cooking area for fast meal preparation. The whole package, including aluminum lid and steel case and windscreen, weighs 20 pounds and uses 5-pound reusable propane tanks. Camp Chef provides a pile of accessories for this stove including a grill box, two griddles, and a chef’s light for late-night cooking. A set of adjustable legs is also available so you don’t need to use up table space.

Brunton Wind River Range

Camping Life magazine has called this stove “the Porsche” of campground stoves. Its aluminum and stainless-steel construction is rust resistant and weighs 23 pounds. The two burners each produce 15,000 BTUs and feature precision fuel control, while the burner plate is removable for cleaning. However, what really set this stove apart are the included cutting board, towel rack, and utensil storage unit.