School me on camping stoves. - Page 2

Outdoors » Survival Gear

Site Notices

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - School me on camping stoves. (Page 2 of 2)

Posted: 7/27/2014 2:51:53 PM EDT

[#1]

Quote History

Quoted:
one word.....Biolite

http://www.biolitestove.com/

View Quote

Isn't that thing like 4 lbs?

Posted: 7/27/2014 2:55:53 PM EDT

[#2]

Quote History

Quoted:
one word.....Biolite

http://www.biolitestove.com/

View Quote

Hmmm.. everything I've read on Biolite is that they're a great idea that has executed poorly. Do you own and have you used one? I'd be interested in any personal reports on efficacy.

Posted: 7/27/2014 5:33:02 PM EDT

[#3]

Quote History

Quoted:

Hmmm.. everything I've read on Biolite is that they're a great idea that has executed poorly. Do you own and have you used one? I'd be interested in any personal reports on efficacy.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
one word.....Biolite

http://www.biolitestove.com/

Hmmm.. everything I've read on Biolite is that they're a great idea that has executed poorly. Do you own and have you used one? I'd be interested in any personal reports on efficacy.

I can tell you from the reading I did on it's specs, it's output power for charging things is pretty piss-poor, just a few watts. You' be a lot further ahead by getting a small flexible solar panel in the 4-7 watt range.

About the only thing I can think the Biolite stove does that is good is that it has a fan to help the stove burn better. The problem is that the box to hold your wood is small so you have to feed it a lot with forced air making the burn more effective..... which leads to another problem-you have to feed it from the top by taking your pot/pan off of the fire.

Posted: 7/27/2014 5:45:09 PM EDT

[#4]

Biolite review

How long does the wood in BioLite Stove take to burn?

If you fill a BioLite Stove with wood, it will take 5-10 minutes for all of the wood to be consumed depending on the type of wood used and its thickness (if using small sticks). If you plan on recharging a dead cell phone battery, I’d recommend you gather about two paper shopping bags worth of small sticks because you’ll need a lot of wood to keep the fire burning for the 4-5 hours required to recharge a cell phone. I shudder to think of the damage that our forests would suffer if everyone camping in them gathered this much wood every night to recharge their cell phones. The damage would be equally worse in developing countries.

Further, be advised that you will need to empty the accumulated ashed from the stove after each hour of use. Despite the efficiency of the burn, the growing ash pile increasingly limits the amount of fuel you can get into the stove and the resulting heat produced by the flame. Hot ashes alone do not generate enough heat and a raging flame is required to generate the extra energy required for recharging.

View Quote

Conclusion

If you want to cook with wood in the backcountry, get yourself a decent wood stove or make your own. If you’re looking for a way to recharge USB enabled devices, I’d recommend you use batteries or a rechargeable power brick instead of the BioLite wood burning CampStove. This product is a gimmick that will be shelved in your basement after a single outing.

View Quote

Posted: 7/27/2014 7:25:54 PM EDT

[#5]

http://www.amazon.com/Ultralight-Backpacking-Canister-Ignition-silvery/dp/B00ENDRORM/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1406517898&sr=8-9&keywords=butane+stove

order 2 of these and buy some fuel.

Posted: 7/28/2014 9:30:47 AM EDT

[#6]

Quote History

Quoted:
Biolite review

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:
Biolite review

How long does the wood in BioLite Stove take to burn?

If you fill a BioLite Stove with wood, it will take 5-10 minutes for all of the wood to be consumed depending on the type of wood used and its thickness (if using small sticks). If you plan on recharging a dead cell phone battery, I’d recommend you gather about two paper shopping bags worth of small sticks because you’ll need a lot of wood to keep the fire burning for the 4-5 hours required to recharge a cell phone. I shudder to think of the damage that our forests would suffer if everyone camping in them gathered this much wood every night to recharge their cell phones. The damage would be equally worse in developing countries.

Further, be advised that you will need to empty the accumulated ashed from the stove after each hour of use. Despite the efficiency of the burn, the growing ash pile increasingly limits the amount of fuel you can get into the stove and the resulting heat produced by the flame. Hot ashes alone do not generate enough heat and a raging flame is required to generate the extra energy required for recharging.

Conclusion

If you want to cook with wood in the backcountry, get yourself a decent wood stove or make your own. If you’re looking for a way to recharge USB enabled devices, I’d recommend you use batteries or a rechargeable power brick instead of the BioLite wood burning CampStove. This product is a gimmick that will be shelved in your basement after a single outing.

We did a head to head video on the Biolite vs the Solo Stove. Overall the Biolite is heavy (due to battery) and is difficult to feed wood into. I'll see if I can get the video up.

Posted: 7/28/2014 6:58:10 PM EDT

[#7]

LOUD Stoves:

These guys have a solution. Anyone who has a Dragonfly can immediately appreciate the diff it makes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV-SiKGrddc

My technique for reducing my Dragofly's noise, is the following:
I wait till the priming step is only about 80% finished, then I (seemingly prematurely) crack open the fuel valve and run the stove. It only makes half the noise, as before.

I like the silent burner head, though.

Posted: 7/28/2014 8:11:03 PM EDT

[#8]

There's also the Sierra Zip Stove. It's a small woodburning stove, but it uses a double-A battery to provide power to a small fan. Very cool stove, if not a little bulky.

Zip Stove

Posted: 7/29/2014 11:00:53 AM EDT

[#9]

I have the Sierra Zip Stove. I'm just not quite happy with it.

If it works well for other people, more power to them.

Posted: 7/29/2014 11:10:08 AM EDT

[#10]

Quote History

Quoted:
I have the Sierra Zip Stove. I'm just not quite happy with it.

If it works well for other people, more power to them.

View Quote

What do you not like about it?

I almost bought one once, but didn't like the idea of needing a battery.

Posted: 7/29/2014 11:13:40 AM EDT

[#11]

I used the bushbox a few weekends ago, and it worked perfectly.

Hard to beat for folding flat 1/4" thick, light, and $40.

Posted: 7/29/2014 11:58:34 AM EDT

[#12]

Quote History

Quoted:

What do you not like about it?

I almost bought one once, but didn't like the idea of needing a battery.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
I have the Sierra Zip Stove. I'm just not quite happy with it.

If it works well for other people, more power to them.

What do you not like about it?

I almost bought one once, but didn't like the idea of needing a battery.

You can use it without a battery, it's just not as efficient, and doesn't burn as cleanly. The ultimate reason I passed on buying one was the bulk, and the need to constantly feed the stove. From my understanding it's something of a pain to keep going for any length of time, and you spend quite a bit of time processing wood just to have the right amount in the right size in order to keep the stove fed to the point where you can cook.

Posted: 7/29/2014 4:14:38 PM EDT

[#13]

Mine is tippy, and has thrown more than one meal out on the dirt! Ouch. Tippy, flimsy stoves are ALWAYS a disaster, waiting to happen.

My biggest complaint is that the firebox does not seem quite large enough. Further, when you place a pot of food too close to any flame, you get something called "extinguishing", where the flame is kind of choked out. Sierra Stoves smoke more (or create more CO w/ petroleum fueled stoves) when the food pot is too close to the flame.

Needing to constantly add fuel is a concern, but somewhat minor.

So, the burn chamber seems too small, flame extinguishing leading to excessive smoking, and catastrophically throwing my meal onto the dirt. Mine is 15 years old, tho.

For people who would like to read about the finer points of backpacking stoves, backpackinglite.com is an excellent resource.
For people who need to repair (fettle) their stoves, spiritburner.com is possibly the last word.

I never had ANY of these problems with the inexpensive canteen cup Natick Stove, fed small twigs.

Posted: 7/30/2014 7:58:56 AM EDT

[#14]

I got a Kovea Spider canister stove back in January and have now used it on a few trips. I'm very happy with it. Unlike the canister stoves that screw directly to the top of the fuel canister, this is fed through a braided stainless steel tube which connects to the canister. This gives you a lower center of gravity and allows you to use a windscreen around the stove and pot without worrying about overheating the fuel canister.

It folds up to a compact package. You can fit this and a fuel canister inside a Walmart grease pot.

In the pic where it's unfolded you can see a small, copper colored loop next to the burner. This is a preheater that allows you to run the fuel canister upside down and feed liquid fuel to the stove if it's cold enough to prevent the butane from vaporizing.

With windscreen:

I'm looking into the adapter to allow me to use the 1 pound propane canisters for fuel.

Posted: 7/30/2014 6:51:00 PM EDT

[#15]

I just picked up a clikstand set for the Trangia. Spent a good while searching on price including ebay etc. -

http://www.campsaver.com/clikstand-glacier-combo-stoves

This is the SS model, not gas (for the Trangia) with the newer adjustable windscreen and the solid fuel plate. Sign up for the newsletter for a 15% off code on 1st purchase gets you down to $47 shipped. No burner (they have all the other combos at best price too).

Posted: 7/30/2014 6:53:32 PM EDT

[#16]

I heated up some soup with my Emberlit today, using 4 charcoal briquets. We store charcoal and I was looking to see if it would be a more economical use than a barbeque. Short answer: 4 briquets will boil a can of soup-barely. They need something to raise them up like a folded piece of wire mesh to get them up off the bottom of the stove and closer to the pan. The soup boiled when the briquets were on fire (these were matchlight) and there was enough heat to maintain that just barely boil once I moved my toolbox to shield the wind a bit. I'll do some experimenting and get it to work better. Nice part about the charcoal was that it didn't soot up the stove or pot.

Gotta say, the more I use this stove, the more I like it. It burns the shit out of sticks, twigs, pine cones etc. It's very fast to boil water and my GF's granddaughter loves making s'mores with it. I have the Emberlit UL and Mini, and prefer the full sized UL because you can get more fuel in it and the cross bars allow you to have more weight on the stove. One thing I thought would be a PITA with these stoves was the clean up. I figured for sure the little rubberized envelope for the UL would end up a sooty/stinky mess but the stove cleans up really nicely with a little water and your fingers.

Posted: 7/30/2014 7:00:20 PM EDT

[#17]

THIS is the da bomb but only for car camping.

I used to use a little 2 burner stove until I found this... has three burners that match the output of a single burner turkey fryer. Boil water to a boil in minutes. Coffee in the morning in no time. Cook more than one item at a time with no issues. and it serves as a backup to the gas stove at home.

Posted: 7/30/2014 7:24:15 PM EDT

[#18]

Quote History

Quoted:
a traditional Coleman dual fuel (Coleman fuel and unleaded gasoline) will give you some options you might consider... they make one with a kerosene option

<a href="http://s825.photobucket.com/user/LesSnyder/media/002_zpsf10a9818.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/zz180/LesSnyder/002_zpsf10a9818.jpg</a>

View Quote

I came to post the same stove.

Posted: 7/30/2014 9:04:52 PM EDT

[#19]

Quote History

Quoted:

a traditional Coleman dual fuel (Coleman fuel and unleaded gasoline) will give you some options you might consider... they make one with a kerosene option

http://i825.photobucket.com/albums/zz180/LesSnyder/002_zpsf10a9818.jpg

View Quote

love mine

Posted: 7/31/2014 3:59:05 PM EDT

[#20]

For your stated use I recommend a single burner propane stove that mounts on those green tanks.

I have used and have many different campstoves. I carry a single burner propane stove in my emergency gear box in the back of my truck. Canisters are available almost anywhere. The burner mounts directly on top of the canister.

I own and use snow peak, msr, coleman propane,Coleman white gas single burner, three burner stoves.

On my list is one of those stainless stoves that take scrap wood.

Posted: 8/4/2014 11:49:17 PM EDT

[#21]

Quote History

Quoted:
http://www.amazon.com/Ultralight-Backpacking-Canister-Ignition-silvery/dp/B00ENDRORM/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1406517898&sr=8-9&keywords=butane+stove

order 2 of these and buy some fuel.

View Quote

I've used this many times, cheap and light weight.

Posted: 8/5/2014 2:51:14 AM EDT

[#22]

Tag for a great thread.

Posted: 8/5/2014 4:27:48 AM EDT

[#23]

I've had this little Markill for 10 or 12 years. It has served me well, that is to say it makes fire. But truthfully the little igniter is finicky. The gas has be turned to just the right level and wind can make it hard to light. I generally just use as lighter.

But, for a decade, pretty much all my backpacking meals have gotten made like this:

Posted: 8/5/2014 2:44:27 PM EDT

[#24]

No school like the old school

Coleman Pocket Stove

Posted: 8/5/2014 3:57:05 PM EDT

[#25]

Here is the clickstand I got for my Trangia. I like this way better than the old school Trangia bowl shaped nesting stand/windscreen that my Finnish friend always brought when we went up into Glacier Peak area. It folds to nothing and weighs nothing without the burner, which itself seems rather light compared to my early 80's MSR. It will nest in an old MSR SS kit without disassembling, but the pans will not fit in the windscreen with it up on the props. In fact no pan possibly could do both. Also you can't put a nalgene cup on it directly as is, and you need a wire adapter to put in a Ti burner like the DX. Regardless, I think it will work well with the narrower pans I have coming or a different windscreen with these.

Here is the old MSR - I haven't lit it in a half dozen years. I rebuilt a few parts over a decade ago. Anyone want to start a pool to see if it goes without any new parts?

Quote History

Quoted:

This is another option and I took it a step further. This is more of my "bushcraft" cook kit, but the kit nests in a Snow Peak 900 Ti cook kit with a bail. This allows me to boil water or cook over an open fire. Nested inside is the Bushbuddy wood gasification stoves; these are extremely efficient.

When I take this kit, I collect up two handfuls of dry wood chips, twigs, etc. and that is used to boil a full pot of water. Even better, they burn with little smoke once they get going and leave very little ash...very efficient.

Inside the gasification stove, I pack a small titanium (DIY stoves will fit too) alcohol stove. This gets used when it's really wet and could be used if you really want to keep a low profile as alcohol stoves don't give off smoke or very little smell and no noise.

For versatility, this is my best cook kit. It's not the fastest (the alcohol stove is pretty good), but if you have time to collect fuel, you can guarantee a solid cooking system indefinitely without wasting effort on a larger, open fire.

ROCK6

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:

Love the woodgas stove.

This is another option and I took it a step further. This is more of my "bushcraft" cook kit, but the kit nests in a Snow Peak 900 Ti cook kit with a bail. This allows me to boil water or cook over an open fire. Nested inside is the Bushbuddy wood gasification stoves; these are extremely efficient.

When I take this kit, I collect up two handfuls of dry wood chips, twigs, etc. and that is used to boil a full pot of water. Even better, they burn with little smoke once they get going and leave very little ash...very efficient.

Inside the gasification stove, I pack a small titanium (DIY stoves will fit too) alcohol stove. This gets used when it's really wet and could be used if you really want to keep a low profile as alcohol stoves don't give off smoke or very little smell and no noise.

For versatility, this is my best cook kit. It's not the fastest (the alcohol stove is pretty good), but if you have time to collect fuel, you can guarantee a solid cooking system indefinitely without wasting effort on a larger, open fire.

ROCK6

You did cost me money, btw, but it was time. I got the SP 900 with bail and the bush cooker II to go in it. When you get the pot combo the windscreen is only $10 more so yeah sure. I also ordered a solo pot 1800 SS that it seems the 900 will nest in for canoe camping etc.. It is cheaper and bigger than the SP1400 as it has a bail stock (obviously a good bit heavier too). If anyone is interested I'll post back if it fits. I went with the bush cooker as it sounds like it is set up a bit better for an alcohol burner without modification (looks like it comes with one too).

Posted: 8/11/2014 6:43:05 AM EDT

[#26]

Another freakin thread that cost me money

. Of course I have had an MSR pocket rocket for years and a couple Trangia spirit burners, but I just ordered a couple of the Chinese knockoffs from Amazon to play around with:

Also, has anyone tried the DIY hobo stove using the IKEA stainless steel utensil holder?

Posted: 8/14/2014 4:16:57 PM EDT

[#27]

I've settled on one of these esbit setups. I haven't really used the alcohol stove yet (it's just a copy of the trangia), just the tabs.

I like being able to visually know exactly how much fuel I have left. Lately I've just been using the little 4g tabs to get it going then supplementing with wood.

Posted: 8/15/2014 5:16:09 AM EDT

[#28]

Update on the clikstand - it works great with both the SP 900 and the Solo 1800, so that is going to be very useful.

Also, that stuff did all nest up pretty well. The windscreen is a little proud but the bag keeps it together fine. The windscreen will not full enclose the 1800 but will stand and covers plenty:

Also decided to keep the DX. This is why:

Posted: 8/15/2014 9:57:01 AM EDT

[#29]

I like the MSR Whisperlight. I've had one since... 1987? I'm on the third pump though--the tabs that hold the plunger in keep snapping off every couple of years.