Camp & Tent Wood Stoves: Sizing, Setup, the Englander Survivor Collection and the Drolet Hunter

Updated September 2026

A tent wood stove turns a canvas wall tent from a cold nylon-adjacent experience into somewhere you actually want to spend November. Same for an ice shack, an outfitter camp, or a hunting base. But portable camp stoves work by different rules than the stove in your living room, and getting those rules wrong is how tents burn down.

If you hunt out of a wall tent, you already know the pattern: you're up before light, back after dark, soaked from the waist down, and the only thing that decides whether elk camp is miserable or great is whether the stove can dry your boots and boil coffee at 5 a.m. A good camp wood stove does both, packs into a truck bed or onto an ATV, and runs all week on whatever deadfall is around camp.

Here's what a tent stove is, how to size one, what you need besides the stove, and the four we carry. The short version: for most hunting camps, the Englander Black Bear Camp Stove Kit is the right portable wood stove, and buying the kit rather than the bare stove is the cheaper way to end up with a working setup. Or compare all our tent stoves side by side.

Quick picks: the right tent stove kit for your camp

Each Englander kit bundles the stove with the attachable 4" pipe collar, four 2' sections of 4" pipe and an attachable shelf. Bought separately, those parts cost $115 to $155 more.

Camp stove vs house wood stove: not the same appliance

A camp stove is a lightweight, portable, welded steel box designed to be packed in, set up on dirt or ice, and packed out. It has no firebrick lining by default, no secondary combustion system, no EPA certification, and no listing for use inside a home. A house stove is the opposite of all of that: heavy, certified, permanently installed, with clearances tested to a standard.

The rule that matters: camp stoves are for outdoor use only — wall tents, ice fishing shelters, campsites. The manual is blunt about it: it is prohibited to install these in any permanent structure, including a home or mobile home. It also limits them to tents made for stove use — a canvas wall tent with a stove jack — and not nylon tents.

Sizing: match the stove to the tent

Englander rates each stove by the wall tent size it can heat, which makes sizing refreshingly simple:

Stove Price Heats wall tents up to Firebox Cooktop reaches Max log
Englander Cub $269 12' × 14' 1.1 cu ft 600°F 12"
Englander Black Bear $299 14' × 16' 1.8 cu ft 700°F 14½"
Englander Grizzly $369 16' × 24' 2.5 cu ft 800°F 19"
Drolet Hunter $299 Not rated by Drolet 2 cu ft Not published 20"

Drolet doesn't publish a tent rating for the Hunter. Its 2 cu ft firebox sits between the Black Bear and the Grizzly, and it takes the longest logs of the four.

Oversizing isn't harmless — a big stove in a small tent runs you out the door, and you'll damp it down into a smoky, creosote-making burn. Undersizing means feeding it all night. Match the rating to your tent and you're done.

How to size a tent stove when you're between sizes. Go by the tent's floor dimensions first, then adjust for how you camp. Late-season hunts, uninsulated canvas and wind-exposed camps pull you toward the bigger stove; a tent with a liner or insulated fly, or early-season use, lets you stay small. A bigger firebox also means longer logs and fewer reloads, which matters more at 3 a.m. than any rating.

Cub vs Black Bear vs Grizzly compared

Cub Black Bear Grizzly
Heats wall tents up to 12' × 14' 14' × 16' 16' × 24'
Firebox 1.1 cu ft 1.8 cu ft 2.5 cu ft
Max log length 12" 14½" 19"
Cooktop reaches 600°F 700°F 800°F
Weight Not published 58 lb Not published
Pipe size 4" (offset outlet) 4" (offset outlet) 4" (offset outlet)
Construction 12-gauge welded steel 12-gauge welded steel 12-gauge welded steel
Stove only $269 $299 $369
Kit (stove, collar, 8 ft of pipe, shelf) $429 $449 $499
Kit saves vs parts bought separately $115 $125 $155

Specifications are from Englander's product information and the Survivor camp stove manual (46330AF). Englander does not publish a weight for the Cub or Grizzly.

The Englander Survivor Collection

Englander builds all three in the USA from welded heavy-duty 12-gauge steel, with removable legs that store inside the stove body for packing and bent top edges that double as carrying handles. All three use the HexaTech hexagonal firebox, a circular door damper with in-door air redirect for controlled start-ups, and a high-temp fiberglass door gasket for longer burns. The 4" pipe outlet is offset on each to free up cooking space.

Englander Cub — the packable one

Englander Cub portable camp wood stove for tents

The Cub ($269) heats wall tents up to 12' × 14' from a 1.1 cu ft firebox taking 12" logs, with a cooktop that reaches 600°F. It's the pick for a small spike camp, a two-person ice shack, or anywhere weight and pack size matter most. The Cub Camp Stove Kit ($429) adds the pipe, collar and shelf.

Englander Black Bear — the do-everything middle

Englander Black Bear tent wood stove

The Black Bear ($299) covers wall tents up to 14' × 16' with a 1.8 cu ft firebox, 14½" logs, and a 700°F cooktop. This is the one most wall tent camps should default to — the extra firebox over the Cub is what gets you through the night without a 3 a.m. reload. It measures 17" wide, 19½" deep and 25¾" tall and weighs 58 lb. The Black Bear Camp Stove Kit ($449) is the one we'd send to most hunting camps.

Englander Grizzly — big tents and serious cooking

Englander Grizzly camping wood stove with cooktop

The Grizzly ($369) is sized for wall tents up to 16' × 24', takes 19" logs in a 2.5 cu ft firebox, and reaches 800°F on top for real cooking. Plus spring handles that stay cool to the touch. If you're feeding a camp, this is the one — and the Grizzly Camp Stove Kit ($499) carries the biggest bundle saving of the three.

The Drolet Hunter — 20-inch logs, 6-inch pipe

Drolet Hunter portable steel camp wood stove on legs, left side view

The Drolet Hunter ($299) is the one camp stove we sell from Drolet, built in Quebec. It takes 20" logs in a 2 cu ft firebox, has a full steel door and a flat top you can cook on, and at 56 lb shipping weight it rides on an ATV to a hunting or ice fishing camp.

Where it differs from the Englanders: it is 14-gauge steel against their heavier 12-gauge, its legs don't pack inside the body, there is no kit version, and it uses a 6" flue rather than 4". That last point cuts both ways — you can't use the Englander camp pipe, but standard 6" black stove pipe is the most common size there is, so if you already own some, or want to buy it locally, the Hunter is the easy fit. Drolet rates it for recreational use only, such as an ice fishing hut or prospector tent.

Hot-tent setup: stove jack, pipe, spark arrestor and clearances

Everything below comes from Englander's Survivor camp stove manual. Follow the manual that ships with your stove if it differs.

Stove jack. Never run the pipe straight through canvas. The manual requires a rubber military-style stove jack where the pipe passes through the tent, and a second one in the rain fly if you use a fly. Flame-resistant canvas is not fireproof.

Pipe. The Englander stoves take 4" pipe. Assemble it with the male end of each section pointing down toward the stove, fasten every joint with three sheet metal screws (important in wind), and keep the run short and straight. Any horizontal section must slope up away from the stove at least ¼" per foot. The stack should rise at least 6" above the ridge of the tent, and the tent roof and ridge should be staked down so the tent can't shift against the pipe. The manual notes that pipe usually needs about 18" of clearance to combustibles unless you use insulated pipe or a thermal shield.

Damper and spark arrestor. A draft damper in the pipe section closest to the stove is recommended; a barometric draft stabilizer is prohibited. A spark arrestor and rain cap on the top section are recommended too, because stove sparks will burn holes in a fire-treated roof. Check the spark arrestor daily: a clogged one can push smoke back out of the stove door or start a fire in the pipe.

Clearances. Keep 48" from the stove to the tent wall at the back, sides and corners, and 60" from the cooktop to the ceiling.

Floor protection. Never set the stove on a tent floor or anything flammable. In the USA the manual calls for a non-combustible surface of at least 1/64" steel extending 16" in front of the stove and 6" at the sides and rear.

Running it. Warm the flue with a twist of burning paper before you light the kindling, keep the wood load no higher than 6", and aim for 250–500°F on a magnetic pipe thermometer about 18" above the stove top. Below that range builds creosote; above it wastes heat and risks over-firing.

Kits vs stove-only: why the kit is the better buy

A bare camp stove isn't a working setup — you need pipe to get smoke out of the tent, and a way to pass it through the roof safely. That is why we steer almost everyone to the kits. The Cub Kit, Black Bear Kit and Grizzly Kit each include the stove, the attachable 4" pipe collar, four 2' sections of 4" pipe and an attachable shelf.

Cub Black Bear Grizzly
Stove $269 $299 $369
+ 4" pipe collar $45 $45 $45
+ 4" × 24" pipe set $160 $160 $160
+ shelf (small / large) $70 $70 $80
Parts bought separately $544 $574 $654
Kit price $429 $449 $499

The easy button: each Englander stove has a complete kit — Cub Kit ($429), Black Bear Kit ($449, saves $125), and Grizzly Kit ($499) — bundling the stove with pipe collar, four 2' pipe sections, and shelf at a package price. If you do not already own 4" pipe, the kit is cheaper than assembling the same parts.

The only reason to buy the bare stove is if you already own 4" pipe and a collar — for example, replacing a burned-out stove in an existing camp setup.

What the accessories do

The brick, leg, bottom saver and shelf kits below are sized for the Englander stoves. The manual recommends lining the firebox with either firebrick or a BottomSaver insert before your first fire — the stoves don't ship with either — so treat one of those as part of the setup, not an extra.

  • Pipe and collar: all three Englander stoves use 4" pipe. The 4" × 24" pipe set (4 pieces, $160) gives you eight feet of stack, and the attachable 4" pipe collar ($45) connects it to the stove. The Drolet Hunter takes 6" pipe — 6" × 24" black stove pipe ($32 a section), a 6" section with damper ($45) and a 6" cap ($33). Either way, your tent needs a rated stove jack for the pipe to pass through — never improvise that penetration.
  • Firebrick: the medium ($80) and large ($90) brick kits line the firebox, which moderates the heat and extends the life of the steel. Worth it if the stove sees heavy use. The medium kit fits the Black Bear and the large kit fits the Grizzly.
  • Long legs: the long leg kit ($75) raises the stove on 26" legs — useful on snow, and it keeps the firebox at a more comfortable working height. Fits the Cub, Black Bear and Grizzly.
  • Bottom saver: the bottom saver kit ($60) protects the stove floor from burning through over seasons of use. The small kit fits the Cub.
  • Shelves: a small shelf ($70) for the Cub and Black Bear, or a large shelf ($80) for the Grizzly, gives you somewhere to park a coffee pot. A shelf is already included in each kit.

A complete hunting-camp bundle: Black Bear Kit + medium brick kit + long leg kit = $604 for a stove, eight feet of pipe, collar, shelf, firebox lining and cooking-height legs. For the Grizzly, swap in the Grizzly Kit and large brick kit ($664 with long legs). For the Cub, pair the Cub Kit with the bottom saver ($489).

Cure the paint before it goes in the tent

One step people skip: Englander's manual says to burn the stove in a safe open area — driveway or yard — for two to three hours before its first use in a tent, with the pipe set up so it cures too. Start with a kindling fire and don't push it hot. The manufacturing oils and paint need to burn off somewhere that isn't a canvas tent you're sleeping in.

Camp stove safety, briefly

Tents burn fast and carbon monoxide doesn't announce itself. The basics: use a proper rated stove jack where the pipe exits, set the stove on a non-combustible surface and keep it well clear of fabric on all sides, run a battery CO alarm in the tent every single night, never leave a fire unattended in a tent you're not in, and let ashes go fully cold before packing out. Keep the stack tall enough to draft properly — a short stack in a tent is a smoky, dangerous tent. Follow the clearance and setup requirements in the manual, which ships with the stove.

  • CO detector: Englander recommends a smoke detector and a carbon monoxide detector with any wood stove. In a tent, a battery CO alarm at sleeping height is non-negotiable.
  • Ventilation: a fire uses the oxygen in the tent. The manual says to always leave a window cracked or the door partly open while the stove is running.
  • Fuel: burn dry wood only — no trash — and never use gasoline, lantern fuel, kerosene or lighter fluid to start or revive a fire.
  • Ashes: keep a fire extinguisher handy, put ashes in a lidded metal container well away from the tent, and never store the stove with ash in it or the firebox will rust.

Heating an RV, garage, shed or cabin? You need a different stove

This is the most common mistake we see, and it is worth stopping on because the answer is not the stove on this page.

If you are heating a garage, shed, workshop, cabin, RV or mobile home — anything with a permanent roof over it that you are not packing out at the end of the season — you need a certified appliance, not a camp stove. Camp stoves are not listed for those installations, your insurer will not accept one, and an inspector will fail it.

The good news is that the right stove is not expensive. Our compact certified range starts at $999:

Stove Heats up to Price
Drolet Fox 1,200 sq ft $999
Drolet Spark II N 1,200 sq ft $1,049
Drolet Escape 1200 N 1,200 sq ft $1,129
Drolet Deco Nano N 1,200 sq ft $1,199

All four are EPA 2020 certified — the Fox at 1.8 g/h, the three N models at 1.7 g/h — and certified for mobile home and alcove installation, which is exactly what a garage, shed or RV install needs. Our small wood stove guide compares them properly, and the heat shield guide covers fitting one into a tight shop or cabin corner.

Two practical notes for those installs. A garage or shed still needs proper venting and clearances — see the stove pipe guide, where a complete kit starts at $149. And for an RV or mobile home, the fresh air intake is not optional; the intake kit for the Fox ($110) and the kit for the Spark II N and Deco Nano N ($110) are the matching parts.

For the full sizing and code picture on those buildings, see our guides to a wood stove for a shed, barn or pole building, a wood stove for a garage or shop, and a wood stove for a tiny house.

If you are genuinely in a tent, ice shack or open camp, the stoves above are the ones to look at.

Buying a tent wood stove from StoveSource

  • No sales tax in any state. We don't charge sales tax on your order, wherever you ship it.
  • Free shipping to the lower 48.
  • Kit availability: the Black Bear Kit (Ships in 1–3 days), Cub Kit (Ships in 1–3 days) and Grizzly Kit (Ships in 1–3 days).

Bottom line

In a tent or ice shack: Cub for tents up to 12' × 14' and packing light, Black Bear for the typical 14' × 16' wall tent, Grizzly for big tents and cooking for a crowd — and buy the kit unless you already have pipe. Pick the Drolet Hunter if you want 20" logs or already run 6" pipe.

In a garage, shed, cabin, RV or mobile home: a certified stove from $999, not a camp stove. It is the difference between a legal, insurable install and one that is neither.

Related guides

Browse camp and tent wood stoves at StoveSource — authorized dealer, No Sales Tax in any state, free shipping on qualifying orders. Questions about your tent size or setup? Email info@stovesource.com or text 1-888-866-8206.

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