Is It Safe To Use Your Camp Stove Inside Your Tent?

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Picture this: You’ve just pitched your tent at the end of a long hike, and you’re ready for a hot meal. But just as you get ready to start cooking, you hear the wind driving cold rain across the thin walls of your tent. You feel your heart sink. You could wiggle into your wet rain shell and brave the elements—or you could just start cooking right here, right now, inside your tent. We’ve all been tempted—but how dangerous is it really?

Combustion 101

The use of combustible fuels for cooking has been a mainstay of food preparation for thousands of years. In the old days, explorers used sticks and logs. Today, your fuel source is more likely a canister of isobutane blended with propane. But whether you use pressurized gas or firewood, the basics of combustion remain the same.

Combustion is a chemical process that produces both carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO). Breathing in too much CO2 isn’t great for your health. But CO is a known killer.

Why is carbon monoxide so dangerous? 

Cases of campers experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning inside of tents have been reported for decades, with numerous fatalities. The toxicity of CO is related to its incredible ability to bind to hemoglobin, the molecule in our red blood cells that’s responsible for transporting oxygen. In fact, CO binds to hemoglobin about 250 times better than oxygen does. So, when we breathe it in, it latches onto our red blood cells, crowding out oxygen molecules until our tissues and cells effectively suffocate.

Compounding the danger, carbon monoxide is odorless and tasteless. That makes it extremely hard to detect—especially since tents aren’t typically equipped with CO detectors.

While researchers have been collecting data on the dangers of various fuels—such as unleaded gasoline, kerosene, and white gas for more than 20 years, modern isobutane/propane canisters haven’t been studied until much more recently.

Which camp stove produces the most carbon monoxide? 

A few years ago, Dr. Jeff Thurman, an emergency physician based in Louisville, KY, decided to collaborate with medical and Fire-EMS colleagues to address the lack of data. Together, they designed an experiment to measure the carbon monoxide output of three popular stoves: the Primus Power Trail, Jetboil MightyMo, and MSR PocketRocket 2.

For the experiment, Thurman and his colleagues let each stove burn at max power for 15 minutes within a closed, three-season tent. Every 60 seconds, they measured the concentration of carbon monoxide within the tent.

The verdict? All three stoves produced CO—albeit not at the same rate. Researchers discovered that there was a significantly higher carbon monoxide output from the Primus Power Trail in comparison to the Jetboil MightyMo and MSR Pocket Rocket 2. Here are the maximum in-tent concentrations of CO for each stove, measured in parts per million.

Primus Power Trail:  207 ppm
Jetboil MightyMo: 105 ppm
MSR PocketRocket 2: 67 ppm

With all three, the concentration of CO within the tent increased rapidly for the first five to six minutes. After that, the concentration inevitably plateaued. The plateau was thought to occur when the rate of carbon monoxide production became equal to the rate of its diffusion through the fabric of the tent.

Why do some stoves produce more CO than others?

So, why did the Primus Power Trail produce so much more carbon monoxide than the other two stoves?

The researchers concluded the differences were likely due to power level: the Primus Power Trail has a power output that is 35 percent greater than the Jetboil MightMo and 65 percent greater than the MSR PocketRocket 2. The team surmised that the faster rate of fuel consumption produced greater levels of CO.

That said, the exact concentrations of CO produced in this experiment might vary from what you’d experience in your own tent. In the real world, you’d likely see variations in CO levels depending on the type of fabric your tent is made of, the size of your tent, and where you’re sitting in the tent (e.g., near the stove versus beside an open tent flap).

“For the ease of the study, we had the tent set up in a fairly controlled environment,” Thurman said. “But in the real world you would have more cross breeze and ventilation, which might change the carbon monoxide levels.”

Is it safe to use your stove inside your tent?  

So now we know that isobutane/propane fuel produces carbon monoxide when combusted. That brings us to the next question: Are these levels high enough to actually cause harm?

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 100 ppm is the minimum threshold for maritime worker evacuation. Both the MightyMo and Power Trail exceeded that threshold. The MSR PocketRocket 2 did not.

Stove use inside a well-ventilated vestibule remains standard practice for many mountaineers and cold-weather backpackers. Stove use within the tent proper, however, should be approached with extreme caution.

While reports of carbon monoxide poisoning due to stove use inside of tents may be relatively rare, it does not mean the risk is zero. Avoid prolonged simmering, maximize tent ventilation, and make regular trips outside the tent. Also be mindful that there’s higher risk of carbon monoxide poisoning in a tent in zero-wind conditions.

Keep an eye out for symptoms whenever you use your stove within an enclosed area. According to the CDC, common signs of carbon monoxide poisoning include “flu-like” symptoms such as “headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion.”

“If you notice symptoms, the first thing to do is remove yourself from that environment,” Thurman said. “If you’re in a tent, the easiest thing to do is get outside to fresh air.”