A Review of Four Camping Stoves

This is a review of four different types of camping cookers that I have used. In this review we put these cookers to the test by boiling one large cup of water (450ml) fresh and icy-cold from a river on a winters'day, we boiled in a small billy can with the lid off. All these stove's will perform better if you use a lid when boiling water. So here is the cooking stoves that we tested:

Gas Camping Stove (Common Butane/Propane one)

Gas Camping Stove

Weight: 450g (both canister & burner) Size: Canister: 9cm tall, 10cm wide | Burner when packed: 7.5cm tall, 6cm across, 3.5cm thick Boil Test: Completed in 4mins 50seconds This is a relative compact setup as far as gas camping stoves go, the burner itself packs away to be very small and light. Of course you can choose to carry a big or small gas canister depending on how much you think you will need to cook when on a particular trip. This particular burner has a electric ignition making lighting easy, it also unscrews from the gas canister and folder away to become very small and has its own plastic case to protect it in your bag. To see the gas burner being folded away scroll down to watch the short video.

- Quick, easy & fast to setup and get going.
- No mess! Once finished just leave to cool and then its fast and easy to pack away (see short video below)
- Fast ignition & able to provide a consistant heat with a easy control.
- Clean burning, zero smoke and leaves no stains on cooking pots.

- Burn-time limited to however much gas your carrying.
- A bit tricky to tell how much fuel you've got left as you cant see it.
- Can flaire up on ignition, which can be a danger for people who think they can use it in a tent! Dont use any of the cookers featured on this page in a tent.

Video of this cooker being packed away:

Pocket Cooker

Weight: 578grams (with no fuel)

Size: Packed away in pouch: 16cm tall, 10cm across & 2cm thick

Boil Test: Completed in 8mins 34seconds

Title'd the pocket cooker because it folds down nicely into a pouch, ok so you could probably fit this in your pocket but you wouldn't really carry it in your pocket often, its a little too heavy for that. But other than that it is a nice looking cooker that can handle all sorts of solid-fuel, you could use twigs, fungi or even just a couple of hexi-blocks (heximine). The stove has a side door which you can adjust to allow more air-flow and faster burn. Also it has air-holes around the base and underneath, this stove can burn the floor beneath.

- Multi-fuel - You could burn any solid fuel in this, maya-sticks, cramp-balls, normal wood, hexi/meths blocks the list goes on!
- Packs away fairly compact.
- Great for summer, you can use any solid-fuel that you can find nearby.

- Not the lightest cooker, fairly heavy, thick metal.
- Can be smokey & you still have to watch carefully, treat as a normal fire regards damage to the floor and anything catching.
- 90% of the time I use this with naturaly avaliable wood in my imediate enviroment and because of this the weather obviously effects its performance, if its a rainy, cold winters day this stove will take a great deal more effort to run as your fuel (different sized twigs) will be wet on the outside. Because of this I dont consider this my primary cooker when in the winter months.

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Hexi Block Burner

Weight: Burner: 90grams | Half-pack of fuel (4 blocks): 115grams
Size: 12cm tall, 9cm across & 2.5cm thick.
Boil Test: 4mins 12seconds

Hexi-burners are traditionally used by the British military and SAS. They burn a Heximine tablet which has a high energy density, burns smokelessly, leaves no ashes and does not liquify. Burning hexi-blocks does give off an ordor however I wont list that as a pro or con as I know some don't like it and I know others like it, reminds them of camping in their childhood.

They are cheap, easily obtainable through your local army-surplus store and considered disposable by some, although can be used again with no problem. These stoves often acompany army ration packs to cook boil in the bag meals.

- Cheap
- Fairly compact; fuel packs away inside and the burner folds up.
- Fuel is easy to light by flame, break of grind fuelif ground posible to light by spark
- Burner slightly versatile in that you could use different solid-fuels with it, essentially just using the hexi-frame to hold your pot on top.

- You don't find hexi-blocks in the bush!
- Flames can lick about a good bit, dont have near your tent!

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Swedish Gel Cooker

Weight:200grams full, 95grams empty.
Size:8cm wide, 5cm high
Boil Test: 14mins 8seconds *

The latest edition to my kit, this gel cooker impressed me with its compact size and ease of use. It comes in two parts; one metal pot-stand which when packed away surrounds the gel-tin and when in use sits on top. Simply unscrew the small canister to expose the gel, sit the pot stand on top and light by either flame or spark.

Its actually eaiser and more convienient to light this using a firesteel, as trying with a match or lighter is tricky with the pot stand in the way but all you have to do is shower it once with sparks and its lit, no waiting around for anything to prime, just whack your billy-can on and your away.

* One thing that might be worth mentioning about the boil test, im not sure if it'll effect the performance or not but when starting the test the gel-cooker was less than half full with gel, it still appeared to burn well.

- Very easy to light (presuming you can generate a spark or flame!) One well placed spark and your ready to cook!
- Packs away nicely, very compact and light.

- The pot-holder/stand ontop is not large and therefore you might struggle balancing large billycans on top, so stability isnt the best with this cooker.
- If your out camping and the gel runs out your stuffed, its not like you can even source a alternative fuel source from the natural larder, it 

You can purchase the Swedish Army Gel Cooker here:
http://www.ronniesunshines.com/compact-mini-swedish-army-personel-cooker-p-1039.html 

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Afterthoughts / Evaluation

Boil Test Results:

So the Hexi block burner won on speed, an unexpected result for me personally, I thought the gas camping stove (on its highest setting) would have performed best at boiling water however 2 hexi-blocks and the good old army cooker won. Heximine blocks can be easily found at all army-surplus and outdoors shops.

Its not always about speed, obviously the gear you pack reflects the way you want to travel and if its light and compact your looking for I would definatly consider the Swedish Gel Cooker, although it had the slowest boiling time on our test it didnt have a lot of fuel when we started and im not sure if this effected its performance. Anyway it surely is the smallest and lightest cooker I've owned along with being amazingly easy to light by spark, I really appreciate the compact-size, ease and speed to get started.

The gas camping stove is the cleanest burning of the bunch, no smell (when lit), no smoke and dosen't leave soat or stains on cooking equipment. Gas / Butane is easily accessible in the UK & US and this type of stove performs well in British conditions.

As for the pocket cooker, well I think its a nice summer cooker. In dry months when twigs and sticks are plentiful and relatively dry its easy and a pleasure to use. But if the weather conditions are wet and its been raining for a day solid you'll have a lot harder time running this cooker. Of course when we want a normal camp fire in wet conditions we work a little harder to get dry wood, if everything is soaked we find dead standing wood and split it to expose the dry inner wood which will catch well, however with the pocket cooker your fire is on a smaller scale with twigs and sticks you can't really split them quickly like you can with a few logs and an axe, so your left with the option of quickly skinning the twigs of their wet bark, although do'able it'll be tedious and hard to maintain for long periods in the really wet. Alternatively you could try and work with large wood and shave of large chunky shavings. Either way; great cooker in dry times, hard work in the really wet.

Overall, the cooking stove you choose to take with you will be a personal preference and will no doubt be influenced by the type of trip you have in mind. Hopefully some of the pro's and con's listed above will have given you a better insight into these cooking solutions and will help you make the right decision for your needs.

For reviews on more expensive Dual Fuel Stoves like the Coleman Dual Sportster II and the Mountain Safety Research XGK EX Visit here: http://www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk/dual-fuel-stoves

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