What Are Tent Stoves Used For?

Portable wood burning tent stoves provide more than just heat for cold weather camping. Tent Stoves serve a variety of purposes, although some types of tent stoves are designed to perform some functions better than others.

Heat

Portable wood stoves are a safe and efficient means of heating your tent and staying warm. Tent stoves require a fraction of the amount of wood open fires consume to create a similar heating effect. Heat from the combustion occurring in the firebox as well as hot smoke drafting up the flue pipe is trapped in your tent – keeping you warmer, longer.

Cooking

Small wood burning stoves provide concentrated and consistent heat perfect for cooking whether you're boiling water for coffee, searing a steak, or cheffing up a stir-fry. Stove top cooking is faster and cleaner than working over an open fire. Wood stoves are designed for use inside tents whereas propane fueled stoves must be operated outside. Some tent stoves even have ovens for backcountry baking.

Light

The ambiance created by the soft lapping of warm light from a crackling fire is irresistible. Flames are visually fascinating, even moth brains agree. Harsh white light is useful for headlamps, hospitals, and torturous office environments but studies show it is both physically and emotionally distressing. Aesthetics aside, light is necessary to extend our productivity beyond daylight hours since humans don’t see well in low light conditions. The dark is also scary, we’re all instinctively afraid of it on some level. Not all tent stoves are designed to be a light source – be sure to look for glass panes when stove shopping if basking in the battery-free glow of a fire is a priority.

Protection

Fire is usually a critter deterrent. Although keeping food and trash secured is your best bet to keep the animals in the wild and out of your camp, smoke and flames generally signal dangers most creatures want to avoid. Insects can be attracted to light and mice can seek the heat, but any reasonable quality tent is going to keep crawlers at bay whereas a rock ring on an open fire pit provides hidey-holes. The large animals - moose, lion, wolf, and (most) bear – are generally fire-adverse.