FeatherFire stove

I just recently purchased one. I have not used it in the field yet but have done a few tests in the kitchen. I bought it primarily for the adjustment feature which works great. I have used it to bake biscuits and muffins in my Snow Peak 600. The simmer setting makes this possible.

How sturdy is the heat adjustment control? It looks a little flimsy based on the website pics.

Look forward to reading a longer review from you.

Dale, Did you notice any "flame-loss" up the sides of the SP 600 mug?

Paul

The flame control works smoothly and easily as long as you have a pot with water sitting on the stove for weight. I have not tested it with a full flame on my SP 600. I have so far only been testing some different baking configurations using it on the low simmer setting. Maybe I will get a chance to test it over the holiday to a full boil with my SP 600, an MSR .85 pot and a Heinekin pot. I will post the results.

I can bake a biscuit in my SP 600 with a homemade style bakepacker in about 15 minutes with less than 3/4 oz of fuel.

This little stove is VERY well built. Should last many years. including the adjustment feature.

Just used mine for the first time this weekend in the Sierra's. I boiled 20 ounces of water for two meals and it I took 8 minutes to reach a boil. I used a Evernew titanium kettle which the stove supported pretty well. I have tested it on a Snow Peak 600 mug and noticed no flame loss either. Folks this is a great stove!!!

Ken, you're a bad influence on me. I ordered a stove today:):)!!
Paul

it does look very nice, like some of the Japanese stoves in all their handcrafted splendor we've seen on this forum.

Will it take a Heine or Fosters Pot? Or is a Snow peak 600 or a Firelite 500 as small as would be efficient on it?

No problem Paul!!! I have the same disease!

As for Heineken cans I am not too sure. Again I just used a kettle and a Snowpeak 600 on it and both worked very well. Fuel comsuption is great too by the way.

Here is a review that was given on whiteblaze.net by: Dirtygaiters

:Featherfire alcohol stove

I bought a Featherfire stove through ebay back when I was first getting into ultralight gear (and didn’t have the confidence to make my own gear). The stove has a good design which obviously has a lot of thought and ingenuity put into it, and solves two problems alcohol stoves commonly suffer from: fuel recovery and simmering water. The Featherfire, nevertheless, is limited by slow boil times and poor performance in bad weather (like other alcohol stoves), and did I mention it costs thirty smackers?

The advantages of the stove’s design are pretty major. 1) Easy flame adjustment from outside your windscreen, which allows you to bring 2 cups of water to a boil, then simmer for an additional 15-20 minutes using about 1-1.5 oz of fuel for the entire cooking session; 2) fuel recovery (dial the flame back to minimum and blow it out), and 3) a built in pot stand.

The disadvantages are 1) for an alcohol stove, it’s ****ing expensive (for less than $30, I probably could have used my own empty soda cans and my own ingenuity to replicate this design at home); 2) the built in pot stand is unweildy if I want to store it somewhere besides my cooking pot; 3) although not a serious problem, the moving parts stick slightly after several months (I dabbed a little white lithium on them recently and it seems to work just fine now); 4) slow boil time: I just tested this on my patio with 2 cups of water in a 0.9 L titanium pot and it took 11 minutes to boil. Manufacturer says 5 minutes with 1/2 ounce of fuel but I’ve found that this is not possible without a windscreen in good weather or with a windscreen in windy or cold weather–it is possible if conditions are just right, and you have a windscreen set up, though.

Overall, I do think this is something worth checking out if you want the option to cook real noodles, regular rice, or pancakes, whatever, on an adjustable alcohol system. It doesn’t weigh too much more than the average alcohol stove, but is so much more versatile.