7 Great Off-Grid Stoves for Survival Cooking

Have you ever found yourself needing to cook in the woods?

Survival cooking means anything from cooking on a crudely built campfire to a commercial stove designed for the outdoor environment. There are a number of good cooking stoves out in the market and you can also make one yourself from scratch if you are feeling up to the task.

Here we have selected 7 off-grid stoves that you can use for survival cooking on your hiking or camping trip. These can also come in handy in case of an emergency or disaster.

The Crises Cooker

The Crises cooker is a very good companion for your off-the-grid cooking needs. It offers a lot of functionality. You can use it to boil, grill or fry a meal. It can also be used for baking.

The stove can be used with a variety of fuel sources such as wood, propane and charcoal. It is highly efficient and can cook your meals at a fraction of the fuel you would need with a conventional stove.

The stove is small, portable and can be easily packed for camping trips.

Canister Stoves

A canister stove is considered one of the best when it comes to survival cooking. It is light and compact and quite easy to use, even for beginners.

The stove consists of a gas tank and an attachable metal stove. The tank has a nozzle to adjust the flame. Canister stoves require very little maintenance; give a clean burn and a quick boiling time. The fuel is slightly more expense and you can’t just use any available fuel source which may become a problem for extended survival needs.

Liquid Fuel Stove

A liquid fuel stove is more useful for cooking in extreme survival conditions. It has a similar tank and stove design as the canister stove.

The stove can operate in freezing temperatures and generates a strong fire for cooking. It requires white gas or kerosene for fuel which is cheaper than isobutane. However, this stove is heavier and requires more maintenance because the flame leaves a lot of soot.

Rocket Stove

The rocket stove is quite popular in survival communities. It can be built for less than $100 and offers a very high heating efficiency. You can bring a pot of water to boiling point in a few minutes using just a couple of common twigs.

The rocket stove is based on the design of rockets. It consists of a cylindrical metal barrel that is filled with an insulating material, such as ash. A narrow stove pipe at the center runs the length of the barrel from bottom to top. Fuel, such as wood can be fed through a small opening at the side, near the bottom.

The energy created by burning fuel is kept from being wasted by the insulating material around the sides of the barrel. This makes the stove very useful for survival cooking.

The rocket stove comes in many varieties based on size, portability, material used and efficiency.

Rocket Mass Heater

This stove is similar in design to the rocket stove. The difference is that it is much bigger, stationary and can generate a lot more heat than the smaller rocket stove.

A common homemade rocket system lets fuel in through a narrow pipe into a combustion chamber. This generates heat which is pushed through a narrow insulated duct into a secondary chamber where it can be retained for a few hours.

Although it was originally designed for cooking, this type of stove can be used for more than just that. Because of its functionality, a mass heater can be used as a thermal heating system for a dwelling as well.

Most types of fuel can be used with this stove.

Alcohol Stove

The alcohol stove is light and simple to use. They are relatively cheap when buying and easy to make on your own. They make next to no noise and run on a special fuel, Heet, which can be purchased from most gas stations or auto fuel suppliers.

On the downside, they are slow to cook and inefficient. There is no way to control the temperature and the performance is poor in windy conditions.

The Hobo Stove

If you think about it, every single day is a survival situation for homeless people on the streets. As the saying goes, you should be looking to learn from anyone and we can learn a great deal about cooking from these people.

A hobo stove can be prepared with just a couple of empty cans of food or paint joined together. Poke a few round holes at the base of the bottom can using a screwdriver. Cut the side of the top can with a metal cutter. This is where you can feed the fuel from. Usually, wood and charcoal is used as fuel.