Are you tossing up whether to buy a cheap Kmart Hiking stove? Perhaps you’re thinking that it’s a great price but aren’t sure whether it’ll do the job.
Don’t worry, I’m here to help! This article is not a full technical review – instead we will discuss the pain-points of buying a new backpacking stove, including price and quality. If you’re anything like me, the real nitty-gritty technical stuff doesn’t really matter, because you’re not an expert mountaineer or a full-time overland hiker.
In this article we will walk through 7 steps to help you figure out which hiking stove is the best choice for you. Once we’re done, you’ll be able to easily decide whether the Kmart hiking stove is the one for you.
1. Are you a beginner?
Keeping this question in mind will help you decide how much money you want to spend investing in a portable ‘hiking’ stove. If you’re set on your hiking path, pun intended, and you know you’ll be sticking with it, then it may be worth considering spending more to get something that’s going to last a long time. But if you’re new to camping or hiking entirely and still not sold on taking it up as a hobby, then perhaps the cheaper option is better for you.
Regardless of the quality of the stove you decide to buy, any ‘instant boil’ mini stove system will be a game changer for beginner hikers or users. There’s nothing quite like firing your stove up in the middle of a tough hike, and sitting for a minute to take in mother nature.
2. What do you plan to cook with your hiking stove?
When most people think of a stove, they think of cooking meals from scratch in a pot or pan. But hiking can be a different story. Often, ‘cooking’ on a hike could be as limited as just boiling some water to rehydrate your dried backpacking meal…or boiling water for a cup of tea or coffee. Other hikers prefer to cook things from scratch when they’re on the trail. All of these options mean that you’ll need a slightly different hiking stove set-up depending on your needs.
If you’re just going to be boiling water to start with, any stove set-up will work, including the Kmart option. But if you’re planning to use your stove to cook meals in the future (like frying things), then a Kmart stove won’t work. That is because the Kmart range does not include any compatible pots or pans, meaning you will never be able to do anything other than boil water with it.
Other more expensive stoves, such as a Jetboil, have far more options when it comes to attachments. You can get pots, pans, and even a French press attachment for your Jetboil. This means that even if you start out just using your stove for boiling water, that if you change your mind in the future, you will still have options.
Another thing to keep in mind is simmer control. Although this isn’t a huge problem for simply boiling water, having an option to turn the heat down is always handy. The Kmart hiking stove does not currently offer this function, which means your stove is either ON or it’s not!
3. Consider how big it needs to be
Size is a consideration when it comes to backpacking or hiking adventures. Everything you have with you must be carried on your back, so it makes sense that you would want everything to be as small and light as possible.
The Kmart hiking stove has a 1 litre capacity, and currently there are no other models that offer any other sizes. Jetboils come in bigger and smaller sizes than this, meaning you can choose a capacity to suit your needs.
Lots of multi-day solo hikers prefer to carry a Jetboil with smaller capacity, because ultimately, it’s lighter and they will rarely need to boil 1 litre of water at a time. That being said, I have a 1L Jetboil that I carry on all my solo adventures and for me it’s well worth the weight. This is mainly because I take my Jetboil everywhere. I often boil water for others when hiking, I also boil larger amount of water for drinking, and I take it car camping to make tea and coffee for myself and others too. I find it quite handy having that extra capacity.
If you’re planning to share the stove with someone, I would recommend at least 1L capacity. This means you’ll not only save time and effort, but you’ll also save fuel.
4. Are you out every weekend, or just every blue moon?
If you’re reading this article and diving into hiking on a whim, then your needs will be different to a committed hiker. The more you use your hiking stove, the more durable it needs to be.
Given the old adage that ‘you get what you pay for’, there’s no telling how long a Kmart stove will last before something on it breaks or the parts wear out. But I can say for certain that I’ve tried and tested my Jetboil for years and it hasn’t skipped a beat.
Because the Kmart option is made with cheaper, less durable materials and parts, they can offer it for a cheaper price than almost any other hiking stove. This is a huge win if you aren’t sure how much you’ll use it. If you do end up using your Kmart stove so much that you wear it out, you won’t be worried about spending more to upgrade later down the track.
5. Will you be using it for backpacking/hiking, or just car camping?
If you’re buying a hiking stove to take on a road trip to make your life a bit easier, there’s no real need to buy an expensive brand. That’s because it doesn’t matter how big or heavy it is, and it’s less likely to get a battering on the back seat of the car than in your hiking pack.
The three most important things to consider when choosing a stove primarily for hiking are:
- Weight
- Durability
- Size/bulkiness
Given that this is not a technical product review, I won’t waste your time discussing weight difference down to the gram. The truth is that for a beginner, a few extra (or less) grams in your backpack won’t make too much difference, and the weight difference between the Kmart stove and other more expensive options is minimal.
One thing that is worth considering though, is bulkiness. If you’re out on a day hike the last thing you want is for your hiking stove to be taking up most of the space in your bag. If something has to come out because it won’t all fit, there’s a good chance you just won’t bother with the stove at all – meaning all your original efforts will be a total waste!
Although the Kmart hiking stove does pack into itself, each individual piece doesn’t come apart as much as a Jetboil stove will. At the end of the day, that means the Kmart stove takes up slightly more space in your bag. I take my 1L Jetboil on almost every day-hike, and even in a small backpack it’s no problems to fit it in.
6. Consider the fuel
Pretty much all hiking stoves use the screw-top butane/propane mix fuel canisters. You can get a variety of sizes in a few different brands. They’re kept in stock at almost every outdoor store and don’t vary much in price. Fuel consumption between different stove brands, even the cheapest and the most expensive, doesn’t vary enough to worry about as a beginner.
Kmart actually do sell the same gas canisters for about half the price of most others, but they are almost always ‘out of stock’ in stores. I don’t see this being a problem for most, because unless you want to buy the stove at Kmart and depart on your trip immediately, then you’ll be able to find fuel for it.
7. It’s a personal choice at the end of the day
If you’re a complete beginner on a tight budget, then a Kmart stove will probably work perfectly fine for you. If you can see yourself using this piece of kit over and over again, then a durable and reliable stove, like a Jetboil, is 100% your best option.
Throughout this article I have compared a similar-style Jetboil (the Jetboil Flash 1L) with the Kmart ‘Campmaster Ultralight Hiking Stove’. That is so that we could compare ‘apples with apples’ and come out with a more balanced comparison. But one thing I haven’t discussed is other stove options. There are plenty of brands out there that make even more compact portable stoves.
Other Hiking Stove Options
Other stoves, like the 360 Degrees Furno Stove, are a slightly different style to the Jetboils and the Kmart option. These are stoves which are basically only the ‘canister’ – ie, the part that produces the flame. They pack away to the size of a pencil case and are very light. But in order to do anything with it, you’ll still need a pot or a pan and a gas canister.
The reason I never opted for one of these, although they are an amazing cheap option for beginners, is that they’re more prone to spills. Your pot or pan simply sits on top rather than locking into the canister like a Jetboil does. I steered well clear of this option because I am a clumsy person, and the last thing I wanted was to accidentally spill all of my dinner ration on a hiking trip.
Good luck choosing your stove, I hope the options make more sense now… and that you get to take it on some awesome adventures!
Made your choice but now you need somewhere to take it?
Test out your new stove the easy way first – on a road trip! Head here to check out this epic 27-stop road trip guide from Port Douglas to Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland.
Want to really test it out? Take it into the wilderness of El Questro in Western Australia, read this guide to the 15 Things You Need to Know about Hiking Emma Gorge.
