Top 5 Best Tent Stoves

The 5 Best Tent Stoves & Cabin Stoves

Looking for the best tent stove before your next chilly weather camping trip? Read our tent stove reviews to find the best cabin stove choice for you. If you’re going camping during the cooler weather and want to stay warm, try buying a stove that cooks your food and keeps you toasty at the same time.

The nostalgia of roasting marshmallows by a fire is beautiful, but now convenience is everything, and having one of these stoves can make mealtime a breeze. Plus, you get the added benefit of having a wave of warmth floating through your tent so you can cozy up in your heavy-duty camping chair. Below, you will find tent stove reviews and ratings for our favorite stoves.

The 5 Top Tent Stoves

I know how tough it can be to choose the right tent stove. You want the best stove so your camping trip can go smoothly, and facilitating that can be a challenge. I’ve taken the liberty to check out several options and have come up with a list of 5 of the best tent stoves on the market.

* Ratings are determined using our specialized rating system.

VidaLibre Charcoal Biomass and Wood Burning Folding Camp Stove

The VidaLibre Folding Camping Stove is an extremely versatile piece of equipment. It’s an entire system in one—you can cook just about anything with this stove. You can even bake bread! It can also run on just about any dry fuel source including biomass, charcoal, and wood. 

We’ll admit that the company exaggerates the ability of the stove to fold. The only folding parts are the small legs at the bottom. However, all the parts and pans fit snugly inside the stove and it has a handy carrying bag with a handle for transport.

Another favorite feature is that it’s so easy to start cooking with this stove. Just take everything out, set up the stove pipe, and light your fuel. Within less than a minute, you’re ready to start your meal, heat your tent, or both.

Winnerwell Woodlander Double-View Medium Tent Stove

If you’re looking for the Cadillac of this roundup review, look no further than the Winnerwell Woodlander Double-View Medium Tent Stove. As the brand states, this is the winner for luxury. This cylinder stove is made of 304 grade stainless steel that can stand up to the most extreme conditions. The precision construction ensures that it will work perfectly as described. Airtight door? Check!

What sets this stove apart from the others on the list is the glass door. This feature not only makes it easy to practice proper fuel safety, but it’s decorative in nature. You get the feeling of being near a calm, soothing fireplace. It also comes with a spark arrestor and 2.5-inches diameter of pipe, sectioned off into five pieces.

Interested in using a Winnerwell stove? Read our Winnerwell tent stove reviews to find more products from this company.

TMS Portable Military Camping Wood Stove

The TMS Portable Military Camping Wood Stove isn’t especially fancy, but it will cook your food, boil your water, and do so at a lower price point than the competition. Sure, it’s got some problems but nothing that renders it unusable.

The biggest issue that is worth noting is the fact that it is not painted with high-temperature paint. When you use it for the first time, most of the paint will burn off and it doesn’t smell good. Make sure your first burn should be outdoors. Back to the good, this stove comes with utensils, so you can save a little more money using those instead of buying a separate set.

Guide Gear Outdoor Wood Stove

The Guide Gear Outdoor Wood Stove is strong and tough—perfect for camping. It’s made from black galvanized steel with a cast iron door. Yes, this makes it heavy, but it’s worth it. Plus the door has a great airtight seal.

We wish the legs were a little longer (they’re only about a foot tall) but this can be remedied with some cement blocks if the short legs really bother you that much. Also, no worries about the galvanized steel giving off fumes because, unlike silver galvanized steel, black galvanized steel does not give off toxic fumes.

SHTFandGO Bullet Proof 50BMG Rocket Stove Tent Heater

The SHTFandGO Bullet Proof 50BMG Gasifier Rocket Stove Tent Heater is built like a tank and will more than likely last you a lifetime, so it’s a great investment. It is on the heavy side, but that’s to be expected with a seven gauge steel stove. 

Interestingly, the stove is not bullet proof. This is actually the name that the company gives to this particular line of rocket stoves and 50BMG is the model number. A bullet proof construction would have definitely made it the best tent stove ever, but instead all it has is a self-feeding feature so you don’t have to add fuel as often. But that’s cool too, I guess.

Important Tent Stove Features to Consider

Having a tent or cabin stove can be great because it provides a place for cooking inside your camping lodging, so you’re safe from the elements, which isn’t true for other camping stoves like camping wood stoves, car camping stoves, solar camp stoves, or normal camping stoves. This equipment is a great choice for camping in cold weather. And on top of that, they’re just convenient. You don’t have to leave the comfort of your tent to put your camping kettle or camping coffee pot on the stove to make some coffee in the morning.

When shopping for a camp stove, there are a number of different features you should look for to help you pick out the best tent stove for your needs. Here are some features to look for:

Dampers

Dampers help to control the amount of oxygen that gets to your fire inside the stove. Without oxygen, the fire simply cannot keep going. However, you may want to adjust how much oxygen gets to the fire so you can control the heat. Dampers also make your stove more efficient so you’ll use less wood.

Spark Arrestors

Spark Arrestors prevent sparks which can cause damage to your tent. A spark arrestor is just a thin, mesh-like metal with large holes. Some tents may come with it or you can get them at the local hardware store.

Stove Pipe Cap

A stove pipe cap is just what it sounds like. It prevents rain, snow, or other foreign objects from falling into your stove pipe. In camping situations with a lot of rain, this is a necessity. It can also protect against sparks. Remember, your tent should be designed with a space for the stove pipe to go out of, to protect from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Airtight Door

An airtight door is essential for a tent or cabin stove for the same reason that you need dampers. If the door isn’t airtight, oxygen will escape from the stove. This means that you aren’t adequately controlling your fire so your stove is less efficient. Warping can affect how airtight a door is so you’ll want to make sure that the one you buy resists warping. This comes down to a quality issue–some manufacturers are simply better than others. The best tent stove would definitely have an airtight door.

Different Styles of Tent & Cabin Stoves

In addition to different features you can get with your tent wood stove, there are also different styles depending on your specific needs. There are quite a few different options to choose from. Here is a breakdown of the more common styles:

Durable Cylinder and Box-Style

These are some of the most popular tent and cabin stoves on the market. They are great for heating large tents and also tend to last the longest. The downfall is that they are on the heavy side.

Portable Collapsible

These stoves tend to be a little lighter than cylinder and box-style stoves. They usually have folding parts or parts that can easily be disassembled like the legs and the stove pipes. These are great for medium to large-sized tents.

Fuel-Efficient Rocket Stoves

These stoves are generally L-shaped or J-shaped stoves that are very efficient fuel burners. Some newer models may look like a can with a rack sticking out of the front or some other interesting design, but they all work by inserting narrow piece of wood into a mouth-like chamber and letting the hot air drift upward.

Rocket stoves are great because the cost of fuel is almost negligible—all you need is dry wood. Since almost 100% of the energy from the wood is used towards cooking or heating, it can also provide the best heating experience. However, this also makes it unsuitable for small tents or tents with inadequate ventilation since these type of stoves don’t have stove pipes.

The Best Tent & Cabin Stove Materials

Much like with a camping oven, the material a tent wood stove is made of can affect the heat output, efficiency, durability, and weight of the stove. In some cases, it can also affect the price of the stove. Here are four main materials that these stoves are made out of.

Steel

Steel is the most durable stove material. The best selections will be made of steel because of its sturdiness and dependability. It is also one of the heaviest, so try to avoid taking it backpacking!

Titanium

Titanium is a very sturdy, light weight metal. It is used for a lot of portable designs. Keep in mind that titanium is not as durable as steel so it’s not going to be great for heavy-duty use.

Cast Iron

Cast iron is the toughest material used to make heavy-duty stoves. It’s great for heavy-duty use, but it’s very heavy. These units tend to be large.

Aluminum

Aluminum is rarely used for the tent wood stove itself, but the stove pipe may be made of aluminum. In general, this isn’t the best material to be used in extreme heat because it’s thin and it can warp easily.

Conclusion

We looked at a lot of the best camping stoves, but the best tent stove we’ve reviewed is definitely the VidaLibre Folding Camping Stove. We love how it’s compact and lightweight, so it’s easy to transport while camping. While we already have our own lightweight alcohol stove, this stove is easy to clean and makes a great addition to our campsite when it gets toasty in the fall and winter. We had a great experience with this stove, so we have no problem recommending it to you!

We want to stress the importance of safety with any of these picks, and you can rest assured that the ones we’ve listed have been tried and tested. They’re safe, efficient, and have overall positive feedback. Happy cooking and happy camping!

The responses below are not provided, commissioned, reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any financial entity or advertiser. It is not the advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.