Buy at Amazon
We tested a variety of backpacking stoves, examining their ability to not only boil water but also sauté and simmer backcountry fare. Our winners, the Soto WindMaster Stove with 4Flex and the Jetboil MightyMo, were incredibly lightweight and easy to assemble; both stoves allowed us to cook everything from boil-and-eat backpacking meals to scrambled eggs with precision and ease. If you want maximum stability and wind resistance, go for the stove from Soto. If you’re after precise heat control, opt for the model from Jetboil.
The sun is shining, the birds are twittering, and you’ve decided to go off the grid and take a backpacking trip in the great outdoors. While a good tent, backpack, and sleeping bag are essential, so is a lightweight stove to cook your meals (nobody’s hauling a heavy car camping stove on the Appalachian Trail!). Enter backpacking stoves, aka the tiniest, lightest stoves you’ve probably ever set eyes on.
Backpacking stoves are ultrasmall—as seen here with the Jetboil MightyMo, which is stored in an orange bag—and take up very little space in a backpack.
This type of stove is most often used by backpackers to boil water to rehydrate shelf-stable, freeze-dried backpacking food. For our testing, we selected stoves that claimed to have precise heat control so that we could perform some simmering and gentle sautéing tasks (e.g., cooking items such as instant rice and beans or rehydrated chili) as well as boil water. Other important qualities on our list included having a stable cooking surface and performing well even in windy conditions.
Here's a handy guide to what's what on your backpacking stove.
Fuel compatibility is another important feature to consider when choosing a backpacking stove. There are two popular options: liquid fuel–compatible stoves and gas canister–compatible stoves. Liquid fuel stoves come with empty fuel bottles that can be filled with a variety of liquid fuels, including white gas, kerosene, and gasoline. Gas canister stoves rely on nonrefillable gas fuel canisters that contain a blend of isobutane and propane. We chose to limit this testing’s lineup to stoves that are compatible with gas fuel canisters, because these canisters weigh less than liquid fuel canisters (important when backpacking) and are easier to connect to the stove. The one exception was the MSR WhisperLite Universal stove, which is designed to use either fuel type, though we tested it with only an isobutane-propane gas canister.
What to Look For
- Refined Heat Control: Stoves that claim to have good heat control offer the ability to not only rapidly boil water but also gently simmer and sauté. Many of the stoves we tested performed these tasks well, but one stove, the Jetboil MightyMo, stood out. Its heat adjustability was super-refined; we could clearly see the flame subtly changing size as we turned the fuel-adjuster knob.
Nuanced heat control made boiling and simmering easy.
- Built-In Igniter: It’s easy to forget something when packing for a trip, and if that one thing is a lighter, you’ll be one unhappy (and hungry) camper. But since a few of the stoves we tested had built-in piezo (short for “piezoelectric”) igniters, there was no need for a lighter when using these stoves. The process was simple: We opened the fuel valve and pressed the igniter button, and the stoves lit instantly.
A built-in igniter meant getting dinner started was as easy as the push of a button.
- Four Pot Supports: Pot supports hold pots and skillets above the burner. We liked that a few models, such as the Soto WindMaster Stove with 4Flex, had four pot supports. Those with four supports kept pots and pans more stable during cooking than models with three.
Stoves with four pot supports kept pots and pans more stable than those with fewer.
Nice to Have
- Fuel-Can Stabilizer: We really liked that one model, the Jetboil MightyMo, came with a bright-orange fuel-can stabilizer that can accommodate fuel canisters of various sizes and ensures that your stove setup is sturdy on any surface. However, you can buy an inexpensive generic fuel-can stabilizer to use with any fuel canister.
A fuel-can stabilizer (left) kept our stoves sturdy on a variety of surfaces while a windscreen and heat reflector (right) made boiling water ultrafast.
- Windscreen and Heat Reflector: These simple, bendable metal accessories can help reduce the chance of wind ruining your dinner plans by keeping the heat where you want it: beneath your food. One model in our lineup came with a windscreen and heat reflector, which greatly decreased the time it took for water to come to a boil in windy conditions.
While some stoves were louder than others when lit, we preferred a bit of noise since it helped us gauge the level of the flame (i.e., a louder sound meant a higher temp and larger flame).
Other Considerations
- Liquid Fuel–Only Stoves: Liquid fuel stoves are usually bigger than gas canister–fueled models and often more work to set up and maintain, so they can be intimidating to a novice backpacker. However, liquid fuel stoves are worth considering if you’re looking for a stove to use internationally, since the empty fuel bottle can be packed and then filled with whatever liquid fuel is available at your destination. One of the stoves in our lineup, the MSR WhisperLite Universal, uses both liquid fuel and gas fuel.
- Pack each stove along with a 3-liter water bladder, backpacking cookware set, and two packets of freeze-dried backpacking food in a backpack and go for a hike
- Set up, light, and break down each stove, noting any difficulties
- Time how long it takes to bring 2 cups of room-temperature water to a boil on each stove
- Place a three-speed fan 3 feet from each stove, set the fan on the highest setting, and time how long it takes to bring 2 cups of room-temperature water to a boil
- Scramble two eggs in a skillet on each stove
- Sauté chopped onions in a pot on each stove
- Simmer Grocery-Store Backpacker Alfredo with Mushrooms and Sun-Dried Tomatoes in a pot on each stove
- Open the pot supports on each stove (if applicable) 25 times
- Knock each stove over 10 times (not attached to fuel)
