Camping gear has a habit of living in the garage for 51 weeks a year. Camp Torch, built by three friends in Boise, Idaho, took a different route: it was made for camp, then wandered onto the founders’ porch and never left. It is a modular propane torch with a flame up to four feet tall that packs down into a bag. Because there is no wood, ash, or smoke, your patio smells like a patio on Monday. One knob dials the flame from a low glow to a full blaze.
I like a product that picks one job and does it properly, and this one’s job is giving a gathering a center. Founders Prince, Jimmi, and Boyd strapped the first rough prototype to a raft and went through six prototypes before landing on this one. Some of the nights they most wanted a fire were the nights a wood fire wasn’t allowed, which is why it runs on propane, with a controllable flame and a shutoff valve. To refine it, they brought in engineers who had worked on products like Jetboil. Stack the poles and you get a 6 ft 4 in Beacon. Drop to the tripod and you get a low Campfire that pulls everyone into a circle. It runs on a standard 20 lb propane tank, so there is no proprietary fuel to hunt down.
Designer: Camp Torch
Click Here to Buy Now: $499 $599 ($100 off). Hurry, only a few left! Raised over $530,000.
A single knob controls a four-foot flame
The flame is the whole point, so it gets the simplest control possible: a knob on the side of the burner head. Turn it low for a small dinner or crank it up when the group grows and the stories get louder. At full flame the light reaches about 60 feet in every direction, enough to cook and wander around after dark without a headlamp. One tank gives about 9 hours on high and more than 20 on low. That covers a full weekend of evenings, and I suspect you’ll be the one who wants to stay up for the last one.
Height is the modular part. The poles stack into four configurations: Campfire on the bare tripod, one pole, two poles, and the full 6 ft 4 in Beacon. Campfire mode sits low and central so the warmth lands right where the circle is, while Beacon goes tall to light up the whole site. Base Camp takes it further, with three torches running off a single tank through a splitter. Put one by the table, one near the chairs, and one where everyone keeps ending up. Back home, that height adjustment earns its keep again. Drop it to Campfire beside the chairs for a quiet evening on the porch, or raise it to Beacon and let it light the whole patio when friends come over. You don’t need a trip on the calendar to pull it out, which makes the price easier to justify: the same torch rides along on the weekend and gets used again the night after you unpack.
Steel, brass, and legs borrowed from precision machinery
The base is a three-foot tripod whose legs end in Hirth-joint tips, the interlocking serrated geometry you usually find in precision machinery. Each leg micro-adjusts, so the torch can sit level on a lumpy campsite or a lawn, and the tips drive into the ground when you want it locked down. Every knob and fitting is steel, aluminum, or brass, and the structure has zero plastic. The quick-connect that joins the poles sets your height without tools and takes future accessories the same way. The entire design is patent pending. I’m a sucker for a joint that does real engineering work, and a serrated leg on a camp torch made me smile.
An anti-tip shutoff cuts the gas the moment the torch tips. Camp Torch was designed with stability in mind, and the flame control is fully manual. Rain has nothing to soak and no coals to drown, while wind moves the flame around the way it moves any fire. A precision controlled flame, no embers, and an instant valve shutoff are why it’s often allowed where a wood fire isn’t, including under many Stage 1 and Stage 2 restrictions. Stricter restrictions and full closures ban propane too, so check with your local fire authority before every trip.
Packing, setup, and what comes in the box
The whole system breaks down into the included 11 x 22 inch bag at about 18 lb, so it slides in behind a seat next to the cooler. Setup takes under a minute and needs no tools: level the tripod, stack the poles and connect the head and fuel line, then attach your propane tank, light it through the port, and adjust the flame. The box also holds silicone heat-resistant covers, a quick-connect regulator and hose, and handling gloves. Heat shields, patio and deck bases, and cooking accessories are in development.
Camp Torch ships to the US only, with delivery estimated for February 2027. One torch is $499 and a two-torch set is $899 at launch pricing, ahead of a planned full retail price of $599 per torch. Each torch includes the carry bag, propane hose and regulator, heat-resistant covers, and gloves, while Base Camp is the three-pack. Returns are accepted for 30 days after delivery for a full refund, with return shipping covered, and Camp Torch is backed for life: if something fails in normal use, they fix it free, usually shipping the part before you send anything back. After all that, the garage is the one place this torch won’t be spending its winters.
Click Here to Buy Now: $499 $599 ($100 off). Hurry, only a few left! Raised over $530,000.
