Planning a camping trip requires several purchases before going on the trip. Most of us do not keep camping equipment if we have not been camping before so there is a good chance you are going to have to go out and buy a few things such as a tent, a sleeping bag and a camping stove. While you may want to economize by sleeping in your car, you likely will not find this comfortable for more than an evening so you will want to invest in some proper camping equipment.
The camping stove is an important investment when buying camping equipment unless you want to eat only items that you can cook over a campfire while you are camping. While this may be a good idea, if you are camping more than a day or two, you may quickly become tired of eating hot dogs especially for breakfast. As well, if it is raining, it may be difficult to get a fire started to cook those hot dogs, so it is a good idea to buy a camp stove for a backup. You likely will find that you will be glad you have it as you can make more food than just hot dogs.
When it comes to selecting a camping stove, there are a few different things to consider. One of these is the type of fuel that the stove uses. Some use liquid fuel and others will use a solid fuel. This fuel could be kerosene, alcohol or propane. Many stoves now will let you use several different types of fuel which is convenient when you are out camping in the middle of no where and they do not have the type of fuel that you need for your stove.
Another thing to consider when picking out a stove to go with your camping equipment is how many people you are going to be cooking for on this stove. If it is just one or two people you likely will not need as big of a stove as if you are cooking for an entire family. You can buy stoves that have legs to sit on so you can use them anywhere or you can buy stoves that sit on other camping equipment such as a picnic table or even over a saw horse and wood.
There are several places that you can buy these stoves such as a store that specializes in camping equipment, the army surplus store or even some of the big box stores. You may want to consider the army surplus stores if you are looking to save a bit of money as quite often these are items that have been purchased from the military at a discount and you can then get them cheaper than other locations. If they are second hand, you will want to try the stove out at home before you head camping just to make sure that there are no problems with it.
Camping stoves are a great investment if you plan to camp for more than a day or two. Not only are they great to use at a campsite, but they are handy to have at home in case of a power outage or if you do not want to heat up your kitchen cooking.