21 Camping Stoves Put to the Test

hello youtube it is chris here and in today's episode we're going to be putting 21 camping and backpacking stoves to the test [Applause] [Music] there are a ton here and over the past two years we have purchased and tested all of these in the field so the very first section we're going to be discussing are rocket stoves and in my opinion these are some of my favorite styles of stoves period mostly because their efficiency and what you can get away with a lot of these can be used for individuals but they also work excellent even the small little guy from hot ash stove for families just because of their structure makes them very strong to be able to hold very heavy pots walks skillets whatever you need to get done it could handle now these two are from hot ash stove this is the rocket king and this is the virus stove so the very first on the outsides are the hot ash stoves they have been engineered very well but my one gripe with them is they don't fold flat the way the tooling works on here is it is basically a solid tube now it does fold in itself and it becomes very compact but as far as the setting up of this particular stove you have to unscrew things and it's pretty time consuming and if you're okay with taking a good a minute or two to get this stuff set up you're gonna be just fine and it's not a big deal but compared to some of these other ones you can't feed nearly as many twigs even though rocket stoves are efficient it doesn't hold as many they've noticed there is an issue with people wanting to go lighter weight and they want to be able to pack down smaller so they did invent the titanium mini version which is super adorable this is extremely effective and extremely useful for the single individual however if you did want to put a four quart pot on here and boil some water and get things going for an entire group of like three to four people this can in fact get the job done the next one is the rocket king which looks more like a flat packing stove than a rocket stove however rocket stoves and flat pack stoves share a lot of things in common in the fact that you feed in things from the front and it heats up from the top so it's very effective one design issue with this that i don't like as much as some of these other designs is it's very easy to come apart it slides there's nothing that kind of interlocks the system which could be an advancement or an improvement they can make in a future iteration this is made of extremely heavy gauge steel it is not going anywhere you're going to be able to put mountains of weight on this thing and cook and because of its wide opening you're gonna be able to cook macro level stuff in a very small package but the design the downside to it is there's no cross beam like they are on all these other ones to put smaller cups and canteen cups and kettles for just something like a cup of coffee as easily the last one is my favorite of the rocket stoves to date and this is the vire stove this is a folding one piece flat fold rocket stove and it's absolutely insane we think the design is completely ingenious it can definitely hold big huge woks pots skillets cast iron skillets just fine you'll be able to cook for an individual or a group this grate right here will allow you to do things from a cup of coffee all the way like i said to the big huge dinners for a group or a family and the v-shaped design it takes the twigs and allows them to feed in but as they burn they kind of just start dropping on their own and it makes it very very efficient and this is the first stove that i've seen that openly shows there is a secondary doorway so you can pack that huge tunnel as tightly as you want and there's still going to be a huge tunnel to be able to suck in a bunch of oxygen and air and keep your fire hot and burning next on the list are kettles and gasifier stoves these are also very popular for people who are setting up a base camp and families if you want the ability and you're willing to go a little bit bulkier these are some of the most efficient stoves they're even a little bit quicker than rocket stoves the kettles are absolute monsters in the efficiency category this is the kelly kettle and the gilly now the kelly kettle is the one based in the u.s that i'm used to and most people are used to and there's some designs that i wish would be incorporated that i've seen in the ghillie stove that i like a lot better this is the trekker and how this works is you have a very small bowl system where you stick in your tinder your twigs very similar to a rocket stove or a flat pack stove just using small pieces of tinder it's pretty dang efficient but because of the design it starts with a very large base and slowly funnels in almost like a triangular cone and sucks up all that air and almost immediately from starting your base fire by the time you put the lid on it actually starts hurting your hand because it's so hot so quickly and it sucks up those flames and you can start boiling water in like 90 seconds it's almost as fast as a jetboil they are bulkier but they're extremely efficient now one thing i like about the ghillie kettle over the kelly they're actually using a metal lid instead of this rubber and it actually has a whistle on the end of it so when your water starts boiling it starts going off like a teapot so even if you're away from your camp 20 30 yards you're gonna be able to hear it and get back to your camp so you don't have any spillovers any accidents or any fire hazards a lot of these break down into a system where you could actually put on a skillet cast iron pot whatever with these hobo stove type concepts so once you're done boiling your water you could take these off if you so choose or stack a pot right on top and just keep the fire going and you're good to go and you have a lot of versatility for like a big huge base camp for an individual or group now as we move on we've got the gasifiers this is the solo stove camp and this is the uhuhu this is a representation of a very cheap budget brand and in my personal opinion this is not my favorite i am not a super big fan of the uhuhu because it is just made of lackluster materials but there's no real feeding source like there are on this and the kettles to actually feed in your fire it is very cheap and it can get the job done and sure you can slide stuff in but i don't like getting that close i prefer a window so it's a little safer i've got clearance i can stick in swigs and i don't have to get my hands right there next to the fire the next topic are man-made fuel stoves whether using solid fuel butane or some new types of technology these are the ones that a lot of weekend campers and hikers and through hikers take with them and these also play a very important role just like those other stoves there are some areas of the country that you cannot use wood burning stoves there are burn bans and you have to be very careful what you can do and these are great alternatives for those short treks where you can't actually burn wood legally in those areas so this is the titanium stove by expedition research i love this because it breaks down and folds flat it's extremely compact and convenient but it's very niche it can only use these hexamine tablets however these do burn for 15 to 20 minutes you'll definitely get water boiled with them without any care in the world and another big plus is i can fit anywhere between 6 to 12 tablets with me and take up no space downside is there's almost impossible to feed in wood and just make it very easy to do it's very it's possible but it's not ideal it's the jetboil it is the most efficient stove on our list it is an absolute powerhouse though pretty expensive a setup like this is completely self-contained it fits inside itself you can boil two cups of water you could get two mount house meals cooked in about 10 to 12 minutes but you can also get your coffee done at the same time it's extremely efficient however once this is all done you run out of fuel at any given time unless you can restock because you're not in the back woods this is not one of the systems that's good for anything over a week after that you have to refuel and bring extra canisters with you but its efficiency is second to none next is a very interesting technology from a company called borrow cook it use zero flame so this is the ultimate burn ban stove uses very similar technology to the old school mres where it takes water and these heat packets and it steams up your food you cook it in the lid and you're going to have steamed mres ready to go in about 20 to 30 minutes the next category are some of the most popular these are ultralight flat folding backpacking stoves these are excellent for through hikers day campers or someone who's just going to go out by themselves they're not going to be with a family and they don't want to bring a whole lot of stuff with them these are excellent choices now these are just representations of the entire gambit of stuff that's out there and we have the fire ant by amberlet we've got the emberlit stove the full sized version we've got an unnamed chinese brand that i've had for about five years it's no longer available but it still serves a really good purpose and then we've got the luxada which is probably the most popular budget branch stove because it's multifaceted just like the fire ant breaking down these two bigger ones this is if you actually think you're probably going to bring a two quart pot with you something maybe a 10 inch skillet you're going to have some substantial meals but you're still going to be by yourself and you don't want to bring heavy equipment you might be in a fire restricted area where you can't just have an open fire on the ground these are excellent to kind of control the ash and help you get a meal cooked very quickly the last two the luxada and the fire ant kind of butt heads and go head to head because they're nano they're tiny they're lightweight and i'm going to be real most people no matter how you twist the pie are going to go with luxada because it's 15.99 it's just how it goes and it can handle alcohol and it can handle fuel and alcohol is actually very efficient especially if you have a burn ban so you have two options in the field and you don't spend a lot of money not to mention the system is hinged it all comes together there's no pieces to lose and it works pretty well but it is cheap i would be worried about warping over the long term but because it's basically the price of amora it's kind of it's kind of a beater stove that'll work my one big gripe with it is it's opening up top is huge for a small stove it is not as compact and sticking standardized things like titanium cups couscous and all that stuff to kind of heat up your it doesn't work you definitely need a cross beam and i did come up with a solution where i actually grabbed the top of my mini titanium hot ash stove and just put it right there because it fits perfectly however unless you own that there's not a roll out of good solutions that fit exactly there's now as we move forward to the last one this is the most versatile nano stove on the market it does all the things one you can stick a small tiny little log and do kind of a swedish fire torch micro version inside here you can use the twigs and go in like a rocket stove and all these other designs but where it shines the most is it has a tray and the slots to put in for solid fuel so if you are fire restricted you can't do that but if solid fuel is not your flavor the slots also fit perfectly for a standard alcohol stove and that's super impressive this is the only stove in this category that was specifically engineered to be able to not only be under three ounces this is 2.7 ounces it's the lightest stove i've ever used in my entire life it virtually basically doesn't exist in your pack but it's designed to do solid fuel alcohol wood burning and mini torches on the fly without even trying it can do all four types of cooking and you're just it if you're willing to pay the money for it it's going to give you the most versatility no matter where in the world you are now the final section of this video outside of my top five and you want to find out what my top five is just stick around to the end of the video grills these are epic versatile champions that are easy to bring with you they're super versatile they're minimalist you have to tweak them but if you want to just go ultra flat ultra lightweight you've got them covered however people did see the need for family size solutions without bringing this huge two burner propane stove that weighs 85 pounds that you have to bring in the back of the truck and there's no way you're going to lug that down a campsite for two or three miles of height so introducing the yuko line there's basically both of these this is the flat pack grill they also make a flat pack mini and they have the grilla put quattro now this is a rubik's cube to put together it's kind of annoying in the build process but once you have it built and put together you have a massive grill that will cook all the things you could we've literally been able to cook eight burgers and a pack of hot dogs on this thing at the same time which is absolutely fantastic if you want to go ultralight you don't want to mess with family size stuff you're all by yourself these next options are pretty incredible this next one actually is not a grill but it is i actually got this from my awesome friend and youtuber survival lily this is the ikea dish pot holder there's like a bunch of legs you put on it and you actually put pots pans and plates on it when you stick it upside down but if you just use all four legs because it's made of heavy gauge steel it becomes a grill that you could use and fold and you can just manipulate it as you see fit which is super cool but it only costs like 15 bucks it's actually the cheapest grille in this entire setup the flat pack bushcraft grills are an excellent choice you can wedge them and slide them on top of anything you can put them on rocks logs i've seen people cut wedges into dead standing trees and just slide them in and let them there's a lot of cool fancy fun things you can do with these and this is the original bushcraft grill from expedition research but the cool thing is i actually own the family pack which is a three three of these and you can actually go family size if you need to you can go small or large so if your meal changes because you caught a huge fish or maybe you got two rabbits in the same hunt you're good to go and can actually nail down a pretty more substantial meal if you need to but they also saw the benefit of going lighter weight because people didn't want to carry a big huge stainless steel grill because it does weigh a lot in the manner of stainless steel weighs more than titanium so they invented the titanium grille this is also by expedition research it does not take up any weight at all it has an awesome grille design it's super super robust and they're not very expensive you're going to get a lot of lightweight performance and it's not a big deal however my favorite bushcraft grill is one by arcadia this is titanium it's a little bit bigger i did hear rumors that they might be coming out with a family size one so you can just have a big huge titanium grille but i actually end up getting more space about 25 percent more surface area on one plate than i do from expedition research but i also weighs less and it has a support beam to handle the extra size so if you stick around to the end of the video these are our top fives for each category of stoves we covered today now yours may not be on the table and that's perfectly fine the winner for man-made fuel stoves is the jetboil in my opinion even though it's they're all very limiting but it's speed and it's versatility to work pretty much anywhere is it's a master of quick heat and boiling the next one is the gilly which is the kettle it has some pro level features and things like a wider base for stability in high wind situations all the little knickknacks it comes with but it's hard anodized solution but it's that whistle cap right there that i don't have to worry about burning i get signaling there's just extra features that just puts it over the top over the kelly the kelly's still tremendous stove and if it's on this table it's an excellent stove so no matter if you like my top five or not they're all worth getting no matter the price point for rocket stoves it's the vire stove i'm not gonna lie it's the most expensive on this unit but it flat folds it's one piece it's extremely game changing it self feeds and it is just extremely efficient and it can handle big huge heavy loads for the individual for a group for a family and you're going rocket stove there's just no better option out there for nano flat packing stoves it is the fire ant now this is far more expensive than the luxada and like i said most people are going to pick the luxada because it's 15.99 you get alcohol and you also get twigs however with this one i have the ability to put a cup on there immediately it's small enough to handle that business i can do solid fuel alcohol twigs or a small swedish fire torch and do a one log fire in this bad boy and have a very efficient burn time with this setup i can pretty much do all of the things last but not least is the arcadia titanium grille it's titanium i don't have a titanium allergy it's never gonna corrode on me as long as the welds hold up and i don't see anything of that failing it's very heavy gauge but extremely lightweight and the fact that i only need two of these to nail down a huge catfish or something that i catch in the wild is going to be perfect well that just about does it for our episode i hope you guys enjoyed seeing all 21 stoves lined up and i hope that gave you a better breakdown of what they're all for and you got to see some of my top five favorites and why i like them so much now just because i have my top favorites doesn't mean that any of these stoves or other ones that you have at home that aren't on this table aren't good for you because if it fits in your pack it's portable and you like the way it performs for you that's just still for you but with that said i hope you guys enjoyed this episode if you want to see more types of gear videos like this where we just take a whole bunch of stuff and break it all down for you definitely this video a big thumbs up and share this out with your friends and family in your social media networks so we can keep growing thriving and making awesome videos for you guys but that disappears for now hope you guys have an absolute wonderful day i'm out

Channel: DropForgedSurvival

Views: 544,805

Keywords: #Survival, #Bushcraft, #RocketStoves, #CampStoves, #twigstoves, 21 Backpacking & Camp Stoves Put to the Test, Gasifier Stoves, Jet Boil, Kelly Kettle, Alcohol Stoves, Solid Fuel Stove

Id: ajPCW41YWOU

Length: 17min 17sec (1037 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 09 2019