When you’re heading off on a camping holiday or a backpacking adventure, or even a multi-day hike, a cuppa and some hot food at the end of a long day spent exploring can make all the difference to your comfort levels. Naturally, a portable camping stove is the easiest way to boil water and heat food, but sometimes you don’t want to lug around a hefty stove – especially on the trail.
So if you’re looking for a lightweight trail stove that’s still powerful enough to heat food and water fast, look no further than the Primus MicronTrail Camping Stove. Its top features include being dinky and lightweight for easy all-day carrying, plus a decent burner for rapid boiling.
Of all the camping stoves on the market, the Primus MicronTrail packs in the most bang for buck, not only because of all of the above features, but packing in a regulator and a piezo igniter too. And the best part? This camping stove is so dinky, it’s small enough to sit in the palm of your hand. Not that we would recommend doing that when it’s actually ignited.
Primus MicronTrail Camping Stove | £37.99 at Amazon UK
This dinky camping stove for backpacking, camping and multi-day hikes is also ideal for making hot drinks on fishing trips and when hitting the beach. It'll sit in your backpack pocket when not in use an has a flow control valve for more efficient fuel use.
Despite being a featherweight 92g, the Primus Micron Trail Stove pumps out a massive 2,600W of heat, which will boil a litre of water in around four minutes. Cheaper camping stoves might get near this output on a new cartridge, but as the gas pressure drops, so does the flame, until soon your pan is barely warming.
The Primus regulator solves this problem by regulating the gas flow. That means you get a nice steady stream for the entire life of the gas cartridge So no nasty surprises when camping, backpacking or on a multi-day hike. The integrated piezo igniter means there’s no scrabbling around for a lighter at critical tea-moments, either, and the piezo will work in the rain, something lighters often don’t do.
Finally, the design of this backpacking and camping stove is solid and well-thought out, with wide pot supports delivering maximum support to larger pots (stability is always a bit of a challenge with small gas stoves), as well as a large wire control valve handle.
The latter is easily operated even if you’re wearing gloves during cold weather adventures, as well as making it easy to be confident that the gas is fully shut off.
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In short, the Primus Micron Trail Stove is the ultimate lightweight general-purpose camping stove for backpacking and camping, keeping you in hot tea and noodles anywhere from a manicured Devon campsite to a make-shift bivvy in the Alps.
Mark Mayne has been covering tech, gadgets and outdoor innovation for longer than he can remember. A keen climber, mountaineer and scuba diver, he is also a dedicated weather enthusiast and flapjack consumption expert.