Anyone who has backpacked knows that eating is an integral part of the experience. And unless you plan on eating cold food for every meal (or cooking directly on a fire like a caveperson), you’ll need a backpacking stove. But there are a ton of backpacking stoves out there and finding the perfect one for your adventure needs can be confusing. This guide will clearly explain the various types of backpacking stoves and simplify the decision process so you can be confident in your choice.
Backpacking Stoves Fuel Types
We’ll break backpacking stoves into three main categories by the type of fuel they use: compressed gas, liquid fuel, and alternative fuel. Each type of fuel has pros and cons in terms of weight, availability, performance in adverse weather, cost, and other factors. Let’s look at a quick overview of each of these types of fuel.
Compressed Gas
Lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to use, compressed gas canister stoves are very popular with backpackers. Just purchase a canister of compressed gas (usually isobutane and propane) attach your stove, turn it on, light it, and you’re ready to go.
Liquid Fuel
Liquid fuel backpacking stoves usually use white gas, but can often work with other types of liquid fuels. The fuel is heavy but inexpensive, the bottles are refillable, and they work well in bad weather.
Check out: Best Headlamps for Every Type of Adventure
Alternative Fuel
Alternative fuel backpacking stoves include wood burning stoves, denatured alcohol stoves, and solid fuel tablets. Popular with ultralight backpackers, these are the absolute lightest (and often cheapest) options on the market.
Let’s look at a quick overview comparison chart of each type of fuel before diving into the stoves:
| Compressed Gas | Liquid Fuel | Alternative Fuel | |
| Weight | Lightweight | Heavy | Ultra lightweight |
| Stove Price | Inexpensive | More expensive | Very inexpensive |
| Fuel Price | Expensive | Inexpensive | Inexpensive |
| Windproof | Bad – OK | Best | Bad |
| In cold weather | OK | Best | OK |
| With large groups | OK | Best | Bad |
| Good at high elevation | Bad – OK | Best | Bad – OK |
| Ease of use | Easy | Moderate | Moderate – hard |
| Temperature control | OK – Good | Good | Bad |
| Boiling water | Fast | Medium | Slow |
| Field repair options | None | Lots | Some |
Check out: 36 Unique Gifts for the Outdoorsy Person in Your Life
Compressed Gas
Stove weight: ~3 – 15 oz
Fuel canister weight (per 8oz of fuel): 11.2 oz
Stove price: $15 – $50
Fuel Price (per 8oz): ~$5
Compressed gas canister stoves are popular for many reasons: they’re lightweight, easy to use, inexpensive, and can boil water really quickly. Sounds awesome right? We recommend this style for first-time backpackers, casual campers and those looking for an easy-to-use option. They come in two main types: canister and integrated canister.
Canister stoves
Canister stoves are super simple and small, they simply attach to the gas canister and are ready to go. However, they’re not super stable once you put a heavy pot on top of them, and they’re not windproof. Also keep in mind that it’s STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you don’t use any sort of windscreen with a canister stoves because they can heat up the canister and cause it to explode.
Check out: Leave No Trace Lovemaking: A Guide to Sex Outdoors
Integrated Canister
The hottest new backpacking stoves on the market, integrated canister stoves are super easy to use and the fastest way to boil water around. The pot and stove are all one integrate piece so the heat from the flame is more efficient and wind resistant than normal canister stoves. While excellent at boiling water, these are not very good at cooking large or complicated meals since the integrated pot is very small. Some come with a built-in spark lighter, making them even easier to use. They’re significantly more expensive than regular canister stoves.
Other considerations
While compressed gas stoves are cheap, the fuel is comparatively expensive. The canisters aren’t refillable, so you can’t buy fuel in bulk like you can with liquid fuel. Also, canisters need to be properly recycled since they’re a one-time use item. Compressed gas stoves also don’t work great in colder weather (below 20F) because the gas becomes depressurized (there are a few tricks to try and avoid this, like holding the fuel in your jacket to keep it warm). It’s also difficult to tell exactly how much is fuel left in a canister since it’s so lightweight and you can’t look inside. So, pro tip: Always bring a backup canister, just in case.
Read More: Best Sleeping Pads of 2021
Liquid Fuel
Stove weight: 11 – 17oz
Fuel canister weight (per 8oz of fuel): ~8oz
Stove price: $80 – $160
Fuel Price (per 8oz): ~$3
Liquid fuel stoves are the old school workhorses of backpacking stoves. Often used by guide companies and outdoor ed schools, these are versatile and long-lasting stoves. They do have a few downsides: they take a bit more skill to operate, they need to be regularly cleaned, plus they’re more expensive and heavier than compressed gas or alternative fuel stoves. However, you have much more control over the flame temperature (important for all those backcountry bakers and foodies), they’re more easily repairable (a liquid fuel stove can be completely taken apart and fixed in the field with just a few simple tools), and they’re flexible—many work with multiple types of fuel, including white gas, kerosene, diesel, compressed gas, and even unleaded auto gas (only recommended in emergency situations since unleaded auto gas additives can damage your stove). Liquid fuel stoves are ideal for international travel or places where you aren’t sure what type of fuel you’ll have access to. Plus the fuel itself is relatively cheap, so these stoves are the best long-term investment.
Read More: Outdoor Nudity: The Must Follow Instagram Accounts
Alternative Fuel
Stove weight: 1 – 9oz
Fuel canister weight (per 8oz of fuel): 0 – 8oz
Stove price: $10 – $70
Fuel Price (per 8oz): $0 – $10
Alternative fuel are in some ways the oldest style of backcountry stove (e.g. wood burning) but have made a comeback recently with ultralight backpackers. These stoves are incredibly lightweight and usually very inexpensive—in the case of a wood burning stove, you don’t even have to bring your own fuel, and you could build a denatured alcohol stove out of an old coke can. There are three main types of alternative fuel: wood, denatured alcohol, and solid fuel tablets (also called Esbit fuel tabs). These stoves are not great in adverse weather, they boil water slowly, and you have little to no control over the temperature. Their selling points are their weight, price, and simplicity, but their drawbacks make them a niche stove used only by the most dedicated ultralight enthusiasts.
Interested in more like this? Check out more from our Camp/Hike page!
Summary
If after reading all of that you’re still unclear on what backpacking stove to get, our recommendation is to start with a compressed gas canister stove. They’re cheap, easy, and lightweight. From there if you feel you need something different branch out and try the other styles. Here are some other common use cases and the backpacking stove type we recommend:
| Use Case | Stove we recommend |
| Short backpacking trip for a small group | Compressed gas canister stove |
| Trip where you only need to boil water | Compressed gas integrated canister stove |
| Longer trip or with a large group | Liquid fuel stove |
| Winter or adverse weather backpacking | Liquid fuel stove |
| Experienced Ultralight backpacking | Alternative fuel stove |
Top Picks for Each Category
Here is our favorite backpacking stove in each category:
| Type of Stove | Top Pick | Price | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canister | MSR Pocket Rocket 2 | $45 | 2.6 oz |
| Integrated Canister | Jetboil MiniMo | $135 | 12.2 oz |
| Liquid Fuel | MSR Whisperlite | $100 | 11.5 oz |
| Alcohol Stove | White Box Alcohol Stove | $20 | 1 oz |
| Wood Burning | Solo Stove Lite | $70 | 9 oz |
| Solid Fuel Tablets | Esbit Pocket Stove | $12 | 3.3 oz |
If you enjoyed this article, learn more with our other How-To Guides, or you might like one of these:
