Looking for a review of the Guide Gear outdoor wood stove? I’ve had mine for over two years and today I am going to tell you all about it. I’ll start by giving you the specs on the stove. Next I will talk about my experiences using the stove. Finally, I will list out the pros and cons of the stove as well as give it a review. Let’s get started!
Also, I wanted to mention that I am not sponsored by Guide Gear or Sportsman guide. I just wanted to share my thoughts on this stove. This is the first camp stove that I’ve owned. I wanted to start with something inexpensive and this was the cheapest hot tent stove that had the best reviews.
Specs, Assembly, and Curing
I purchased the Guide Gear camp stove on Sportsman’s Guide.com for $108 plus tax and shipping (Dec 2020). It is currently $149 on Amazon. The stove was packaged well and relatively easy to put together. It weighs 43 pounds and is made of galvanized steel. Here are the specs:
- 2mm thick galvanized steel fire box with high-temp finish
- Cast iron door with adjustable vent
- Five interlocking stove pipes connect to form 6.45’h. chimney
- Cool-touch coiled handle
- Adjustable damper
- 10×8″h. door opening
- 11″w. x 17″d. x 8″h. firebox
- 12.5″w. x 19″d. x 7.75’h. overall
- Weight: 43 lbs
You must cure the stove before you use it in a tent, so I burned a fire in it two nights in a row on my back porch for about 3 hours each time. The instructions said it would turn a gray color, but I didn’t notice that. There was a chemically smell at first but that is normal as the paint and coating are curing. I left it outside on my back porch and it got snowed on, so it started rusting pretty quickly.
After curing, it was ready for use. I set up my hot tent in my backyard so I could test the stove. Installation was easy. Getting a fire started in the Guide Gear camp stove is also very simple. You have to make sure you are cutting the wood to fit into the firebox, but other than that starting a fire is a breeze.
Testing the Guide Gear Camp Stove
I spent two days testing the stove in my backyard. I cooked two meals on it and burned a fire in it for 8 hours each day of testing. If you would like to check out the first day of testing, click here. I cooked chicken fajitas in a cast iron pan on the first day and chorizo and beans the second day.
The stove was ready for some real action so I booked a campground for some winter camping. We got lucky and were able to camp during a blizzard. We ended up getting 8.5 more inches of snow on top of the 8 inches we had from the previous week. It was a great opportunity to test this Guide Gear camp stove. We burned a fire in it for 10 hours while camping. Check out the video of that camping trip by clicking here.
Pros and Cons
Time to outline the pros and cons of the Guide Gear camp stove. After over thirty-five hours of testing, these are the things I noticed most.
Pros:
- Inexpensive
- Easy to assemble
- Burns hot and easy to start a fire
- Easy to cook a meal on the surface
Cons
- Heavy
- Rusts quickly (could be because it was sitting out in snow)
- After about 5 hours of burn, it gets smoky when you open the door to feed the fire
- Door design is garbage (click the video above to hear more about this issue)
- Top warped within 3 uses (although this could be because of the extreme variation in temps)
Rating the Guide Gear Camp Stove
I am going to rate the stove in 3 categories: construction, ease of use, and overall impressions.
Starting with construction: The stove is definitely solid at a whopping 43 pounds. It was easy to put together, except for the door handle. Also, the door locking mechanism is horrible. I don’t know if I had a faulty handle or this was just an issue on my camp stove, but it drastically reduced my rating for the construction of this stove. Instead of an interior latching mechanism, I think it should be on the exterior so you don’t have to fight with the stove to open the door. For construction, I would give this Guide Gear outdoor wood stove a 5 out of 10.
Next is ease of use. It is very easy to get a fire going in this camp stove. The 17.5 inch length of the stove allows you to use long pieces of firewood, which is awesome. Since the stove is so heavy, it can be a bit cumbersome to lug into place. Again, the door ruined this stove for me. There were several occasions where I latched the door completely and couldn’t get it open without some serious effort. I started just using a log to hold the door shut, so once I did that, it was easier to use. Cooking on this campstove is great! There are always a few hot spots, but that is just the nature of a wood stove. For ease of use, I would give the Guide Gear outdoor wood stove a 7 out of 10.
Finally, my overall impressions. I knew purchasing this stove that it wasn’t going to meet all of my expectations. It was a cheap and easy option so I could experiment with hot tent camping. I think it’s a good starter stove. This is definitely not something you could take backpacking as its far too heavy. I don’t like how fast it warped and rusted, but that could be my fault. The thing that really killed this stove for me was the door latch. It may sound a little nitpicky but it’s a big deal. You need to have easy accessibility to feed the fire and make adjustments, so if you’re burning yourself and fighting with the stove every time you have to open it, that is a huge flaw.
Final Thoughts on the Guide Gear Camp Stove
Overall, I would give the Guide Gear camp stove a 5 out of 10. Not the worst, but certainly not the best. My next camp stove will be a light weight titanium folding option, I researching it now. So, be sure to subscribe to my channel to see what stove I review next! That’s it for the Guide Gear outdoor wood stove review. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!
