$22 Folding Camp Stove Review

I was scouring Amazon for an extra birthday present for my son and found this folding camp stove by UniGear. It was a score!

My kids and I often cook at the beach. It usually involves hand cooking meat directly over the fire on BBQ skewers with plantains or veggie kabobs of some sort. Other times I bring a flat grill grate, dig out a sand hole, and balance the grate on large rocks. It turns out to be a lot of work and fire wood for 2-3 people to cook something small. Not to mention, sand is always gettin’ into the food! However, to avoid those issues, you could consider using it with a propane burner. For that, you may need a portable propane cylinder you can take with you while camping or hiking. Visit kellypropane.com or look for other propane suppliers in the location, that can provide the kind of propane tank that could be appropriate for carrying along on your hiking trips.

This little stove is well constructed (stainless steel) and only weighs 1.5 lbs. It folds up into a little nylon bag and takes up the space of a medium sized book. We’ve used it a few times now and mastered the art of cooking with small pieces of wood. We usually use drift wood, twigs and whatever we can find at the beach.

Can’t beat cooking over driftwood.

Silverware is rarely necessary.

How does this folding Camp Stove….Fold up?

It’s funny how these manufactures don’t bother to proof read. Lol

Overall Value

I own a few different camp stoves, including a Primus gasoline/diesel powered stove, the Cobb Grill Premiere,and the uber high tech BioLite Campstove 2. For $22, I have ZERO regrets. It made a excellent last second present for my 11 year old and it’s size and simplicity make it an easy choice to always have in the car. And, It’s so small when folded, you can set it up and cook anywhere there are twigs. We use it for impromptu beach cooking.

Less setup = Less Clean up. This grill takes 15-20 seconds to set up and cools down quickly when you need to pack up.

Downsides?

The trendy compact size of this grill is also it’s downside. You’ll be restricted to thing like kabobs and smaller cuts of meat/fish. I think there could be a design to maximize cooking surface area while keeping compact. I haven’t seen one yet. Also, due to it’s small size, to keep this going, you have to have a little pile of wood/twigs and consistently feed it. This is the way it is with any of these smaller form factor grills. You’re NOT going to fit a log in there.

You can however use other “less fun” fuel sources such as propane or charcoal. I have comfortably cooked steaks, cuadrados and kabobs for 2 people on the beach with this thing.

Get it here. $22