Colorado Kid

I'm thinking of getting a hiking type of wood stove to replace the white gas model that I have now. Has any one used these type of stove before and if so, what brand do you recommend?

Steve B.

There might be wood burning restrictions in some area's, especially in Nat'l Forests and parks prone to fire.

staehpj1

I always wanted one to work out and tried a few home brew ones. They never worked out for me. I saw a few factory made ones other guys had in camp and they seemed to have the same issues with them being fiddly, sooting up everything if not super careful how you packed and handled the pots, and so on. Then there were stove/fire ban issues where stoves were required to have a shutoff. Times/places where even gathering twigs was forbidden and so on.

I would love to find one I liked well enough that I'd put up with those at least for some types of trips, but so far have not. I think that the ones I have used were fiddly enough and required frequent enough feeding that they didn't tempt me.

FWIW, their biggest advantage to me would be the lack of need to carry fuel which would come into play if there were long stretches without resupply. For bike touring that typically isn't the case since I can typically resupple almost daily if need be and can buy fuel pretty much whenever I need it. I use yellow bottle Heet so I typically can get it in any town, if not there is something else in any big box, paint, or hardware store. For me it isn't usually an issue for backpacking either since I tend to plan trips around fairly frequent resupply points with caches or mail drops or whatever is necessary to avoid too many days of provisions on my back at a time. Where it might be more useful to me is canoe camping, but there I don't usually mind carring a bit of extra weight in liquid fuel. So I have mostly given up on wood burning stoves, but still kind of keep an eye out for one that might solve the issues that annoyed me.

staehpj1

I didn't mean to completely rain on your parade. I'd like to find one that worked out well enough to tempt me to use it for at least some types of my trips. At present I mostly use alcohol pop can stoves for touring and white gas for trips where I need to go father without resupply or require a shutoff valve because of fire bans. My white gas stoves can burn gasoline in a pinch so that helps with fuel availabilty. Of my favorite white gas stoves, one is rated for gasoline and the other not, but I find they both work with it if necessary.

Do you go off grid long enough for the wood stove to actually save weight? Or do you have other reasons to go that route? I find that unless resupply is pretty far apart the pop can stoves and 12 ounce bottles of yellow heet is a pretty light way to go. My stand burner and windscreen weigh less than an ounce and a half. I forget what a full bottle of yellow heet weighs, but it is under a pound and on average it is less than full over the days it is carried (I don't buy another until it is pretty close to empty and discard the old one pretty quickly after).

Please keep us posted on what you find and how it works out.

Edit to add:
The manufacturer says the 12 fluid ounce bottle of yellow Heet weighs 8 ounces or at least it is reflected that way on the Amazon site. I don't have one here to check. Any way the bottle of Heet and my stove, pot stand, and wind screen weigh about what many of the wood burning stoves weigh. That doesn't account for the fact that you typically carry some dry tinder and fuel for the woodburning stove in case of wet weather.

My point is that to save weight with most wood burner you probably have to be comparing to heavier setups and/or long times between fuel resupply for the liquid fuel stoves. I have done a lot of tinkering with various stoves and own way too many. I have given the topic a lot of thought before arriviing at what I use.

Btw, I left out canister stoves entirely, but they have another set of compromises and advantages and are worthy of consideration as well.

andrewclaus

I tried one once, forgot the brand, it was stainless steel and had a AA battery-powered fan, but same complaints as above--sooty, smoky, gathering restrictions, and now fire restrictions all over the West. Still, I used it quite a bit until a weld broke from the heat and I never tried one again. That was twenty years ago.

Rick

As stated by staehpj1 there are restrictions on wood stoves in national parks and during fire season they can totally be banned everywhere. Liquid stoves such as white gas and alcohol may also be banned in many national parks. and other places. I live in California and they are stove ban happy. I have used alcohol stoves and still have them. They have the most toxic fumes when you use products like heat. They are not as efficient as gas or liquid gas stoves. So they require you to carry more fuel. As far as canister stoves go I like the remote canister stoves. They weigh a little more but allow you more options when cooking.

staehpj1

One more thing and this one is a question. Is wood fire soot an issue for TSA inspection? Will it maybe trigger getting unpacked and everything swabbed? Will anything sooty get confiscated? My bet is nothing would get confiscated, but I am less sure on whether it might trigger a close inspection. Having to clean a woodstove and pots to the standards that you need to clean liquid fuel stoves would be a pain. Having a detailed inspection on every or even more flights would as well.

Sorry to go on and on without really giving the op the answers they asked for, but this is a topic that interests me and raises a lot of questions.

staehpj1

My impression was that yellow bottle heet isn't too bad, but red bottle heet is to be avoided. The whole ban issue has me considering using a stove with a shutoff valve on long tours. It will be less likely to run afoul of stove bans without being completely immune. Canister stoves are easier to fly with than liquid fuel (less risky for TSA confiscation IMO).

Yep, same advantage for white gas over alcohol, so they (alcohol stoves) lose any weight advantage at some trip length. What trip length the break even point is depends on stove and container weight, number of people using the stove, fuel consumption, and so on. For me, solo, alcohol still has a weight advantage for pretty much any road touring and there is the bonus that I have never had one confiscated by the TSA despite not bothering to clean them. The carrying more fuel thing really isn't an issue when you are doing a road tour and can pick up a bottle of yellow heet pretty much in any town. White gas is a pain often coming in gallons and never in less than quarts in my experience and a quart is a lot of white gas. A little 8 ounce bottle lasts me a long time. There is always gasoline, but the fumes are surely terrible to breathe.

I have found that I like original pocket rocket just fine. They have refined the design in the years since mine, but it still works well so I have not upgraded. Since my tours where two or three of us shared one (my pop can stove isn't that great for more than one person), I mostly only use it for backpacking where I mailed canisters to myself at cache sites.

mtnbud

This isn't a good time to use a wood stove in the PNW, but I have one that I've used when the fire danger is low and it works fine. I especially like to use it for winter use. It leaves soot on the bottom of the pan, so I have a pot and a fry pan I reserve for wood stove use along with stuff sacks so they don't get soot on anything else.

Rick

The yellow heat is cleaner and burns hotter than the red bottle. But it is still more toxic than denatured alcohol. just don't use it in an enclosed area. If you use the original Trangia burner or one of its clones you can shut it off with the simmer ring. The original Trangia blooms quicker than all the clones and most other alcohol burners. This means a saving in fuel. I have seen people starting up the Trangia stove sets in -30 degree weather on YouTube. I have a remote canister stove with a heating tube for cold weather operation .I have seen the Kovea spider used on YouTube in -20 degree weather. I like the remote canister stoves better for severe weather than the other style. I like to dry bake also with my remote canister stove. I like choices when I am traveling and don't like to always eat just add hot water meals. So I am going to purchase a Trangia 25 or 27 and use the canister stove burner. Yes it is heavy.

Rick

The OP asked about wood stoves. I like the regular size Firebox Stove. It is not the smallest or lightest stove out there by far. It is big enough to keep a fire going long enough to cook a decent meal. It is made in SS and titanium also. I also like the Kelly Kettle it is made in SS and aluminum. The Kelly Kettle uses the chimney effect much like a rocket stove and has very fast boil times.

Bearhawker

This year I was gifted a BioLIte CampStove 2+ that I haven't had a chance to try out yet. On days it's not too wet or windy I'm generally wiped out from renovating the house. Life gets in the way of everything!

Interesting concept: it comes with a powerbank that powers it's own fan to make the fire more efficient and smoke-free once up and running properly. It also charges itself with some sort of thermal voodoo.

Weighs 2 pounds which seems like a lot but is probably comparable to my MSR Whisperlite International... with fuel.

It will burn all manner of biomass you can toss into it - even woodstove pellets.

Once I get around to actually using it I will try to post the results here

staehpj1

Isn't that the one that is supposed to be able to charge your phone?

Btw, those wet windy days might be the best days to try it out. That is what you need to be able to deal with when on the road. Well maybe not the first time trying it out

Let us know how it goes. I could see myself wanting one for backcountry canoe trips especially if the phone charger actually works.

Bearhawker

Yeah - it supposedly charges at 3W with a roaring fire. Maybe not earth-shattering power but basically free.

If you have all afternoon with nothing to do but toss in pine cones or something it will give you at least a 1/2 charge. Sure beats nothing And it will make tea or coffee the whole time, so it won't be wasted time. lol You just won't be able to bring your phone back from the dead just while making a one-pot meal. But again - free power is always a bonus.

I will try to make some time tomorrow during work to fire it up and see how I get along with it and report back here.

This is as good a cause as any to take a break from work...

staehpj1

If the phone is just turned on once in a while to check or send texts or to check the location on the GPS it might keep up with not much cooking. For sure I wouldn't expect to use it in anything but airplane mode very much of the time with the stove as the only charge from the sound of that.

Bearhawker

Ok - in the interests of science, bikes and forums (IE: playing hooky from work...) I fired up the BioLite stove and made some tea.

Wood used - scraps of kiln-dried softwood (I was too lazy to cut up some oak off-cuts but that WILL be my next test...)

From the time the lighter was lit, in minutes:
1:40 - the fan auto-started
3:00 - I put my kettle with 1 liter of tap-cold water on (too soon I think)
3:30 - the fire went *completely* smokeless
9:00 - the water was warm enough for my tea but I resisted
11:00 - legit boil, if not rocking a 100% full boil
That's 11 minutes from the lighter being lit. 8 minutes after I put the kettle on, but to be fair it was NOT up to full heat at the 3 minute mark, AND I never cranked the fan up... it stayed on the LOW setting just to set a baseline. I will do more testing with different wood and different settings to see if it turns into a super-hero... lol

I used a minimal amount of kindling - it was super dry and once the fan kicked in it was ready for the "big" pieces as per the photo. The pieces were cut at 4" long to stay below the vents as the instructions say.

Loaded 5 pieces of that wood fuel, used maybe 2 or three. The stove ran for a while after I took the kettle off and made my tea. I didn't keep the timer running to time when it went into shut-down mode.


The wood I used

I never went above the default LOW setting for the 1st test. Lights: Green (right) battery level, Blue (middle) fan/blower speed, Red (left) fire temp - the hotter the more power being generated

Does it work?

YES

Is it the best stove for the purpose? No idea. Free power, so there is that. it weighs 2+ pounds so heavier than a canister stove (and slower) but you don't have to carry fuel if you don't want to. If I were in an extreme rush I would go canister stove or go cold brew

Having used it I am happy with it. Happy enough that I am now considering the add-ons for it : they have a kettle/french press and a grill. the grill especially intrigues me as most of my cooking, when I do it, is meat as my diet is extreme low-carb.

On the topic of soot - yes the bottom of my kettle has some soot on it but a surprisingly small amount. Not sure how much soot it would have had if I had waited longer... I intentionally put a cold kettle on a cold fire to see what the worst case scenario would be... and it was very little.

I've actually had a LOT more soot from my MSR whisperlite ... and don't even get my started about kerosene in that bugger for soot (pro tip - use someone ELSE's pots!). lol

I will clean up the kettle and try again the next time I get a few minutes for hooky, err science

staehpj1

Is that plywood? It looks like it in the picture. If so probably not the best thing for the test. Not even real soft wood sticks given no continuous grain and lots of glue joints throughout. Not sure how much difference it makes, but I bet it does make some difference. Anyway thanks for the report and I look forward to any followup testing. I have always been curious about that stove. I probably won't buy one, but it is interesting and I do have a stove addiction so you never know.

Bearhawker

A couple of bits of plywood got in there - *not* what I was going for but appears they got in anyhow. Might even have been the sooty part lol

I would not likely ever have bought it - it was completely off my radar - but it was a gift.

Turns out a gift that I'm happy to have.

indyfabz

My MSR Dragonfly worked flawlessly this morning and evening. Boiled water for coffee in a few minutes without it being on high to keep the noise down.

Colorado Kid

To answer some questions, I would pack it up and UPS home to avoid TSA. This is the model I am thinking of. https://www.amazon.com/Ohuhu-Camping...ustomerReviews What do you think?

staehpj1

Packing it up to ship it home is a fairly big hassle in my mind. Given the low price of this stove I might risk the loss as long as I wasn't worried that the'd confiscate an expensive pot(s) too. Stuff that needs to be done at the end of a tour always seems especially heinous to me. I usually just want to hop on a plane and fly home to the extent that I pay a bike shop to pack and ship my bike at the end of the trip. Alcohol and some canister stoves are also cheap enough to not worry about confiscation and generally clean enough to not trigger a search or confiscation.

I asked the question earlier in the thread and no one piped up to say that wood stoves or wood soot coated pots triggered a TSA search. I wonder if that means the risk is low or just that no one who knew saw the question or bothered to answer.

I am kind of fascinated by wood gas stoves, but doubt I would tour with one. I might backpack or canoe camp with one in certain conditions. The thing is that they seem to fit a very limited set of conditions where they are okay in a lack of fire bans and have an advantage over liquid fuel or canister stoves. Still, I am tempted to buy one for no apparent reason. Maybe it would live in an emergency go bag possibly in the car along with a few other emergency supplies. Heck, these purchases don't have to make perfect sense. I'd have $18.99 worth of fun playing with it on the patio if it never went on a trip. It might even cook some meals during those multi day power outages we seem to get here once or twice a year, not that I don't already have enough stoves that I can't even remember how many (probably less than a dozen).

staehpj1

BTW, I have often found USPS cheaper than UPS for stuff like that. Also paying for and printing your label online at myusps.com is always cheaper than walking into a post office. You might need to print it from home before you go since you probably won't have access to a printer. I think you can pick a shipping date when you buy the label and you may need to since the label may expire if bought too far ahead, not sure. You can still drop off your self printed label at a post office. Also if you wind up not using the label you can get a refund within some reasonable amount of time. I have only done that when I was mistaken about who I was shipping to so I have never requested a refund more than a day or so after purchase.

I think UPS is similarly more expensive when you walk into a UPS store as opposed to buying and printing a label online, at least it has seemed so in my experience. The cost difference can be quite a bit. Twice I walked into a UPS store to ship something and both times the shipping cost seemed exhorbitant, but I was in a hurry and in a bind to get it shipped. The cost was actually worse as far as I could tell than places that ship stuff for you acting as a middle man and making a profit. That includes postman plus type places and even bike shops who included packing the bike for me in the cost. They obviously must get a break on the shipping.

staehpj1

Are you on tour? Or are you weird like me and sometimes fire up the camp stoves at home?

That bolded part is one thing that I read again and again and just can't relate to. I find that soft roar of my white gas stoves charming. It just tells me it is doing what it is supposed to. It apparently bothers some people enough that they switch away from white gas for that reason. Thinking about that sound actually makes me nostagic for times in camp with my SVEA123. Good times.

Trevtassie

The Dragonfly is pretty damn loud on high, and pretty damn hot. I once pumped one right up and used it to boil 12L (4 gallons) of water, didn't take long, but sounded like a small jet plane taking off.

staehpj1

I haven't owned or used a Dragonfly. I know that people complain about the Whisperlite and the Svea123 though which I find quite pleasant. I guess maybe the Dragonfly is much louder. I just have a hard time imagining noise being a major deal. Then again as I said I haven't used a Dragonfly. Maybe, it would annoy me too. Otoh, I sleep fine next to the highway or railroad tracks where folks say the noise keeps them up all night. I read about places where people say it was impossible to sleep and remember sleeping like a baby there. So maybe I am just pretty tolerant about noise