Best wood burning camp stove in 2023: save your money & the planet!

When it comes to cost, reliability and fuel availability nothing beats a wood fuelled stove. Plus, you’re helping save the planet along the way.

Most wood burning camp stoves are made to be small enough to function with use of scavenged materials, similar to that of a traditional rocket stove (without the bulk and weight).

From pinecones and twigs to dried grass and leaves, you’ll always be able to provide yourself with warmth and a quick way to cook through use of materials found in the wilderness.

In a hurry? Here’s our top 3 picks for best wood burning camp stove.

Best wood burning camp stove

überleben Stöker Flatpack Stove

Best wood burning camp stove on a budget

The überleben Stöker is a great choice if you’re looking for a collapsible wood burning backpacking stove, or just want something small and unobtrusive to pack for a camping trip or survival bag.

Made from 304 stainless steel, it’s super sturdy, durable and more than strong enough to handle heavy cast iron pots and pans (not that we’d recommend taking cast iron if you’re using it for backpacking!).

It features a nice big burner hole for easy feeding and easily burns anything from small pieces of wood to pine cones, twigs and dried grass.

It can boil water in as little as 3 to 10 minutes depending on how much fuel you’ve added to it.

Another neat feature is the inclusion of a small waxed canvas bag to store your Stöker in.

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Solo Stove Bonfire

Best wood burning camp stove for car camping

As its name suggests, the Solo Stove Bonfire is a BIG wood-burning camp stove. In fact, you can’t really get anything larger without it being too cumbersome to camp with.

Despite its large size, it’s super easy to travel with and carry. It comes supplied with a heavy-duty carry bag, and while it’s not super lightweight, it’s more than light enough to carry to camp.

Its large size also means you can cook a decent amount of food for more than just one or two people, as is usually the case with smaller stoves. With a grate added over the top, you can have a full-on BBQ for a full group with this thing.

One of its major pluses over smaller stoves is the ease of keeping it fed, largely due to the fact you can add much more and much bigger pieces of wood.

Solo Stoves’ claim that it is virtually smokeless is, drum roll please, actually spot on. No wild claims here.

After a BBQ or night around the Bonfire, you won’t go to bed stinking of smoke. The wood also burns really cleanly, leaving mainly ash behind instead of wasted half-burnt logs.

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BioLite Campstove 2

Most high-tech wood burning camp stove

The BioLite Campstove 2 is not JUST a wood-burning camp stove. It also captures the waste heat from burning the wood and turns it into electricity to charge or power your USB devices.

A great reason to invest in the Biolite Campstove 2 is BioLite’s whole ecosystem of products. The KettlePot, CoffeePress KettlePot attachment, and portable grill are all designed to work the Campstove 2 flawlessly.

The BioLite Campstove 2 includes an internal fan that creates roughly 95% less smoke than a standard wood campfire.

The fan also means the wood burns hotter and quicker, ensuring you can cook food or boil water in just a couple of minutes.

There is a smart LED dashboard located on the front of the Campstove that allows you to assess the strength of the fire, power output to your devices and control the fan speed.

One of the neatest features of the Campstove 2, particularly for backpackers, is its small size.

The small chamber allows for you to use small twigs, pinecones, or anything else you can gather together from your surroundings so you don’t have to worry about carrying wood to have a fire!

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Solo Stove Lite

Lightest wood burning camp stove

The Solo Stove Lite is the perfect option for most campers. It’s small and lightweight but requires virtually no assembly like most of the others (you just have to put the ring on top).

It’s designed to be suitable for backpackers and campers alike.

The small feed hole is perfect for scavenging fuel from around your camp. It works best with sticks, twigs, pinecones, leaves, and dried grass. Basically anything combustible you can naturally find.

Similar to the Biolite, Solo Stove also produce a whole ecosystem of accessories designed to fit and work perfectly with Solo Stove stoves. There are pots, plates, bowls, mess kits…basically everything you need to cook and eat a hearty meal in the great outdoors.

In fact, the Solo Stove Lite fits directly inside the Solo Stove Pot 900 if you are planning to take it backpacking or are tight on space in your backpack and want to kill two birds with one stone.

You can boil 32 fl oz. of water in roughly 8-10 minutes, depending on how hot and well-fed you have the stove.

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Recommended accessories

überleben Zünden Fire Starter

The überleben Zünden fire starter is the perfect companion to your wood burning camp stove. One of the most popular fire starters on the market, the Zünden uses Überleben’s Sånft-korr(TM) ferrocerium.

The Sånft-korr(TM) ferrocerium offers the perfect blend of softness & durability.

You can easily throw a 5,500ºF shower of molten sparks in any weather (waterproof), at any altitude.

At roughly 5-inches in length, the Zünden is available in three thickness variations, including:

• Trad (5/16”): 12,000+ strikes
• Pro (3/8”): 15,000+ strikes
• Fatty (1/2”): 20,000+ strikes.

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BioLite Grilling Pellets

Like the sound of a wood-burning camp stove but don’t fancy scavenging for the materials? Then the BioLite food-safe grilling pellets are your answer.

The pellets are made from a hardwood blend and are sustainably sourced in the USA.

They are suitable for use with most wood-burning stoves but work better with enclosed stoves such as the BioLite Campstove and the Solo Stove Lite.

Each bag offers a burn time of 2-hours.

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