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Wood stove vs gas stove on a UK camp

Updated: October 2026

If you are choosing a wood stove vs gas stove for a weekend away, these wood cookers look light and the fuel looks free. The stove may be light. The fuel may not be there, and in some places it is the fuel you are not allowed to burn. Gas canisters are not in the six-row table, so there is no canister price here. The [wood stove comparison](/hub/fireplaces-and-stoves/wood-stove) is the wood listings only, from £14.49 to £21.99 for the cook stoves. This page is from the Products Compared editorial team, using those amazon.co.uk captures and public UK guidance, not a laboratory. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission.

If you are choosing a wood stove vs gas stove for a weekend away, these wood cookers look light and the fuel looks free. The stove may be light.

Our top picks

Ohuhu Ohuhu stainless rocket camping stove

Best overall

Ohuhu Ohuhu stainless rocket camping stove
8.5/10about £21.99
View offer
REDCAMP REDCAMP folding camping wood stove

Best value

REDCAMP REDCAMP folding camping wood stove
7.2/10about £15.49
View offer
Lixada Lixada four-wall camping wood stove

Alternative

Lixada Lixada four-wall camping wood stove
7.9/10about £18.03
View offer
On this page
  1. 1.The stove is light. The fuel may not be
  2. 2.A gas word on the listing is not a gas stove
  3. 3.Where gas is the one that is allowed
  4. 4.Neither one cooks in an ordinary tent

The stove is light. The fuel may not be

The four cook stoves weigh about 450 g to 1.1 kg before you add a stick. Wood is whatever the ground offers. In a wet week, the same stove is a steel box and a bag of smoke. £14.49 does not buy dry sticks. That is the round REDCAMP’s price, with two reviews and no usable write-up for this ASIN. The folding REDCAMP at £15.49 has 259 reviews, a sharp edge and a thin grate, and it still needs dry wood. The limit is the woodland, not the star rating.

A gas word on the listing is not a gas stove

The Ohuhu fuel field says wood. The power source says gas powered. The bullets also name a gas tank, solid-fuel tablets and alcohol, as well as wood. Nothing in the included-components line is a canister. That is a messy card, not a gas stove you can file under canister camping. If you buy it as a gas stove, the fuel field will disappoint you the first time you look for a Lindal valve and find an ash catcher. The Lixada bullets say twigs and wood so you spend nothing on gas tanks. Reviews still call the clips fiddly and the edges sharp. “Nothing on gas” is true only when the twigs are dry and you are allowed to burn them.
Ohuhu Ohuhu stainless rocket camping stove

Testsieger

Ohuhu Ohuhu stainless rocket camping stove
8.5/10about £21.99
View offer

Where gas is the one that is allowed

In the Cairngorms National Park, from 1 April to 30 September, wood and charcoal stoves are not permitted. Gas, liquid fuel, methylated spirits or solid fuel blocks are allowed, and the fine is up to £500. A cheap wood stove in March is the stove you cannot light in July. That is one park and a date window, not a ban on a picnic in England. Outside that window the rule changes. GOV.UK allows outdoor barbecues, and it does not treat a chimney on a building as a barbecue. None of these six wood listings is documented here as Defra exempt. Solid fuel blocks are on that park’s allowed list, and they are not the same as found branches.

Neither one cooks in an ordinary tent

GOV.UK says not to use a barbecue in a tent, under an awning or in a caravan, and that gas cylinders stay outside. A wood rocket and a canister stove fail that test together. The Scouts’ line, as carried in our notes, bans a fuel burner in a tent or a vehicle. A hot tent with a stove jack is a different case. The jack is not in these boxes. Do not use it as a reason to run a rocket in a backpacking tent. If the week is wet, the park bars wood, or you want a flame you can turn off, gas is the tool this table does not sell. Do not buy the Ohuhu because one field says gas powered.

Common questions

Is a wood cook stove cheaper once the fuel is included?
Only when you can find dry wood in a place you are allowed to burn it. The cook stoves themselves were £14.49 to £21.99. The fuel is not in that price. A wet week removes the saving, and this comparison has no canister price to subtract, because gas stoves are not in the table.
What do I carry if the week is wet?
You carry fuel that does not depend on the ground, or you do not cook on wood. Damp sticks smoke and tempt a petrol shortcut, which GOV.UK rules out for a solid fuel stove. Tablets are a fuel you bought, so the “no gas tanks” claim has already failed. A canister is the predictable option, and it is a different shop search.
Is the Ohuhu a gas stove because the listing says gas powered?
No. The fuel field says wood. The power source says gas powered, and the bullets also name a tank, tablets and alcohol. The box list is a grate, a bag, a plate and an ash catcher. Reviewers cook on sticks. Read it as a conflict on a wood stove, not as a canister stove.
Where is wood banned and gas still allowed?
In the Cairngorms, from 1 April to 30 September, wood and charcoal stoves are not permitted, and gas, liquid fuel, methylated spirits or solid fuel blocks are. The fine is up to £500. That is one park. It is not a UK-wide rule, and a summer picnic elsewhere is a different question.
Can either type go inside a tent?
Not in an ordinary tent. GOV.UK says not to barbecue in a tent, under an awning or in a caravan, and to keep gas cylinders outside. A wood flue stove is a separate case, and only in fire-retardant canvas with a stove jack. A clean flame does not cancel the tent line.
Do the £14 to £22 stoves replace a canister on a walk?
They can, when the wood is dry, the land allows it, and you are cooking in the open for one or two people. They do not replace a canister in the Cairngorms in summer, in an ordinary tent, or on a week when every stick is wet. The round stove’s two reviews are a thin reason to make that swap.

Related pages

Wood stove buying guide

Best portable wood stove

Wood stove for a hot tent

Wood stove

How to light a wood stove: sticks, a flue, and stop

Sources

Public UK sources used for the rules on this page, last retrieved on 15 October 2026.

  1. Smoke control area rules — GOV.UK (retrieved 15 October 2026)
  2. Selling wood for domestic use in England — GOV.UK (retrieved 15 October 2026)
  3. Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/1185 — legislation.gov.uk (retrieved 15 October 2026)
  4. Consumer FAQs — HETAS (retrieved 15 October 2026)
  5. Six log burner rules — HETAS (retrieved 15 October 2026)
  6. Fire safety outdoors — GOV.UK (retrieved 15 October 2026)
  7. Using stoves safely — Scouts (retrieved 15 October 2026)
  8. Wildfire management — Cairngorms National Park (retrieved 15 October 2026)