Best Wood-Burning Camp Stoves: Trialed & Tested [2023 Update]

The SS Lite is a great pick for solo campers and camping couples.

This compact, lightweight little burner is made with high-quality stainless steel and uses a double-wall construction that allows air to be heated and fed to the top. This gives the flames at the top a boost of preheated oxygen and creates a secondary combustion point. This makes for a hotter fire with less smoke, and more efficiency when cooking meals.

Solo also makes a slightly larger version of this product, the Solo Stove Titan. While the SS Lite is ideal for 1-2 people, the Titan is a better collapsible stove if you’ll be cooking for more people.

The EcoZoom Versa packs a serious punch and is one of the largest stoves we tested, which allows you to use a larger pan and cook up a feast for larger groups.

You can burn wood sticks, wood pellets, charcoal, or other solid biomass fuels with this, too. It features a fully insulated vertical chamber for combustion. This chamber is lined with a refractory metal to bounce all that heat back into the fire, which increases efficiency and creates less smoke.

While this is a pretty expensive option, its larger dimensions and impressive fuel efficiency make it a shoo-in for group camping trips.

The Toaks Titanium wood-burning backpacking stove is an ideal choice for anyone keen to keep pack weight to a minimum.

The TT packs down into a very small package, with each piece nesting inside the others. Not only does it pack small, but it’s also extremely lightweight, tipping the scales at just 5.4 oz. If you include the weight of gas canisters, this is at least a few ounces lighter than even the lightest canister burners.

Like everything Toaks makes, this one is constructed out of titanium – an ultra-strong and durable metal. It features air holes along its base to stoke the flames and uses a double-walled construction to prevent heat from dissipating, which ensures the fire is burning at maximum efficiency.

And the downsides? Well, since this is so small, you’ll have to feed it very small sticks and break them up before you start cooking. It’s also less stable than the SS lite, so you’ll have to closely monitor the flames while you cook. This, however, is the price you have to pay if you want a true minimalist wood-burning stove, which this is.

The BioLite Camping Stove 2 is the only product we tested that converts heat from fire into electricity. As you cook your dinner over a fire, the BioLite takes the excess heat and stores it in a 3,200 mAh battery. After you’ve recharged your body with a hot meal, you can recharge your cell phone!

This wood camping stove and power station is built using durable, rugged stainless steel. It has an LED dashboard built into the device that allows you to monitor fan speed, power output, and fire strength while you cook, and a built-in light that lets you see what you’re doing when cooking in the dark.

The BioLite has high and low heat settings, too. You can certainly boil water with this, and quickly at that. But, you can also simmer or cook other food over the flame on the low setting. While a little on the heavy side, the Biolite’s multifunctionality could save you a few ounces in pack weight by allowing you to leave your battery pack at home.

The Lixada wood-burning backpacking stove folds down so thin that losing it in your pack is a real possibility!

But there’s a lot more to the Lixada than packability alone…It’s made of corrosion-resistant stainless steel and yet weighs under a pound, so it’s both durable and lightweight – a winning combo! The Lixada is also the cheapest model on our list.

And what about fuel efficiency? Thanks to the strategically placed air holes along the bottom and underside, your fire will get plenty of oxygen to burn hot.

On the downside, the stove’s smaller dimensions do mean it’s best suited to solo campers as opposed to groups or couples. You’ll also have to feed small sticks or other fuel through the small combustion door regularly to keep it going. And watch out, the sides can get pretty hot from the fire!

The kampMATE WoodFlame is one of the best wood-burning stoves in terms of portability and versatility. It’s strong and lightweight and folds down into a tiny package. Even though it packs small, you’ll find that it can support a surprisingly heavy pot or pan, even a cast-iron skillet!

This lightweight offering is made of sturdy stainless steel and is easy to assemble and use – just fit the pieces together, grab some sticks, pine cones, dry grass, or other flammable materials you can scrounge up, and get cooking!

This offering from Ohuhu is one of the only wood-burning camping stoves that comes with a grill plate/grid. That’s right, you can grill hotdogs or burgers in the backcountry with this wood camping stove. And despite being strong and stable enough to handle almost any pot or pan, it also packs down pretty darn small.

The Ohuhu is made of strong stainless steel and is very easy to set up. When you use it, things heat up fast thanks to air vents that channel oxygen to the fire and keep it hot.

The only downside is that the can occasionally get too hot, making it less suitable for simmering or other low-heat cooking. Even considering this, we think this offers a great bang for your buck!