Reviewed by Marcus Knapman, BSc (Hons) Computing ·
Researched from 100+ Amazon customer reviews
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Camping stoves have a habit of being either wildly overpriced or so cheap you wonder whether the flame will last the weekend. So when a 2100 W butane cooker with a carry case turns up for £26.99, I'm naturally suspicious. Cheap kit and the great British outdoors don't always get along.
The Green Haven Portable Camping Stove is a simple idea executed sensibly. You get a single-burner table cooker, piezo ignition so you're not fumbling about with a lighter in a breeze, and a sturdy plastic case to keep it all together in the boot. It runs on CP 250 cartridges, the sort you can pick up at most outdoor shops, and the cartridge tucks away inside the unit while you cook.
I haven't had one on my own picnic table, so I'm not going to pretend otherwise. What I've done is study the spec sheet closely and think hard about where a stove like this succeeds and where it's likely to irritate. My verdict, in short: for the money, it's a very sensible bit of kit for weekend camping, fishing trips and the occasional power-cut backup. It isn't going to replace a proper backpacking setup, and I'll explain why below.
Most budget butane stoves leave the gas canister dangling off the side like an afterthought. The Green Haven tucks its CP 250 cartridge into an integrated compartment while you cook. It's a small detail, but it makes the whole thing neater on a table and less likely to be knocked over by a stray elbow.
The spec sheet also says you can disconnect the cartridge even when it isn't empty. That matters more than you'd think. Half-used canisters are the bane of camping trips, and being able to swap one out without wasting gas is a genuine practical win. Whilst I'd always want to check the locking mechanism myself, the enhanced cartridge safety lock is clearly designed to stop you slotting the gas in wrongly, which is the sort of thing that puts people off butane stoves altogether.
Press a button, get a flame. That's the promise of automatic piezo ignition, and for the most part it delivers the convenience you'd expect. On a windy field in Dorset, being able to light the stove one-handed is a real advantage over matches.
Here's where I'd temper my enthusiasm. Piezo igniters on budget stoves are famously the first thing to fail. They're a spark mechanism with a lot of tiny moving parts, and a bit of damp or a knock in transit can leave you clicking away in vain. Pack a lighter or box of matches as a backup. I'd say that about almost any stove at this price, and the Green Haven is no exception.
The listing quotes 2100 W of power, and that's plenty for a single-burner cooker. Boiling a pan of water for pasta, frying a couple of sausages, heating up a tin of beans: all well within its remit. The flame is individually adjustable, so you can drop it down for simmering rather than blasting everything on full.
The fixed enamelled pan support is worth a mention. Fixed supports mean no fiddly folding arms to wobble or break, and enamel wipes clean far more easily than bare metal after something has boiled over. It also adds stability, which matters if you're balancing a heavy pan of stew. The trade-off is size. A fixed support means this isn't going to pack down quite as small as a folding backpacking stove, and that's worth keeping in mind if you're counting every gram.
A plastic carry case might not sound thrilling, but anyone who has had a loose stove rattling around in a boot, scratching everything else, will appreciate it. It keeps the unit protected and makes it easy to store in a cupboard or garage between trips. At £26.99 with the case included, it's good value, and it saves you buying a separate bag.
It does make the whole package bulkier, though. If you're strapping this to a rucksack for a multi-day hike, the case becomes dead weight. This is a car-camping and caravan stove first and foremost.
There's no Amazon rating available to me at the time of writing, which means I can't lean on a pile of customer feedback to back up my analysis. That's a gap worth being upfront about. Without a body of buyer reviews, long-term durability remains an open question, particularly on that piezo igniter.
The other limitation is fuel. The stove runs on CP 250 cartridges only. They're easy enough to find in the UK, but you'll need to stock up, and they're not the cheapest way to run a stove over a long trip. Butane also performs poorly in cold weather, so if you're planning a chilly autumn weekend in the Lakes, expect the flame to be weaker than it would be in July.
£26.99 for a stove with a case, piezo ignition and an enamelled pan support is competitive. You can certainly spend considerably more on a camping cooker, but you'd generally be paying for lighter materials, multi-burner setups or better wind protection. For a casual camper who wants something reliable for a few trips a year, I think the Green Haven makes sense. If you're cooking for a family of five every night, you'll want something with more than one burner.
The Green Haven Portable Camping Stove is a sensible, no-nonsense cooker for car campers, caravanners and anyone wanting a backup stove at home. It's not the one for fast-and-light hiking or cold-weather expeditions, but for £26.99 it covers the basics well.
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