The Alpkit Koro camping stove is a remote canister stove that’s great for those on a budget looking to extend their camping into winter. It’s made from titanium to keep the weight low, but has a brass preheat tube to help vaporise the gas at lower temperatures. The burn holes are arranged around a flat head on a convex edge. The medium-sized burner suits a wider pot – a 900ml Titan kettle or wider. Taller pots are less well suited.
Price: $75 | £55
The Alpkit Koro has three legs and three pot supports. The former fold away underneath while the pot arms fold on top. The legs fold securely whilst the arms have no friction resistance to them; the latter is a tiny detail but it can mean they unfold or rattle around when the unit is packed away.
The hose is armoured but has some flexibility – useful when manipulating in conjunction with a windshield – and a small flame control/regulator unit sits at the canister end. The Koro is pretty powerful, but there are faster units out there.
The burner has no inherent wind resistance other than it being close to the ground, and so a half-height windshield is essential. Similarly, simmer control is OK, but not world-beating. The ability to invert the canister in colder temperatures or when near the end of the canister is really useful.
I like the Alpkit Koro enough to own one; I bought and paid for the unit on test, last year. It’s simple, light, packs down small and is inexpensive. There are other options here that will boil faster using less gas, and I’d prefer the pot supports to be a little more robust; but the Koro operates on a principle of good enough – and most of the time it’s just that.
This review was part of our guide to The best camping stoves
