Bush buddy mini

[dirtbag]

Since I have decided to ditch the freezer bag cooking in favor of eating my well deserved meals like a semi human from an actual bowl ( pot ), I obviously had to make a few changes to my cookset. My beloved 500 ml pot was just not going to cut it. Sure it boils plenty of water for freeze dried meals and my home made meals too,  just not enough room in the pot to add the food to rehydrate it and then eat from it.  I want to continue to use esbit,  with option for wood fire. I also will occasionally use my Soto Windmaster with gas canister fuel. I love my trail design cones for 2 other cook sets I have.. 600ml and 400 mil .. But.. I have decided to go back to the MSR Titan Kettle .85.  I had one years ago and sold it when I started to go smaller and less volume.  So back to the titan kettle. Its a perfect size to boil my 2 cups or so of water, dump my food in it, slide it in the pot cozy for a few minutes and let her cook. It was gracious to eat straight from that pot and I am pretty sure the food tasted better too!! Yes you were right, easy to clean also!  Not as bad a chore that I always dreaded and thought about.  I already tested this out with 2 different meals and its close to perfect.  So Trail Designs cone system is no go for me, as I would truly prefer it to fit inside the pot. I really do not want to have to add something else to my pack,  its bad enough my pot is now LARGER and slightly heavier. I decided to try the Bush buddy mini.. However its a long wait, but whatever. Trail Design is closed until January 1,  so either way I’m waiting. The Bush buddy mini apparently fits inside the titan Kettle. Has anyone used this before? Does Esbit work well enough with it? I also picked up a basic esbit folding titanium “wing” thingy to try, but then I need a windscreen too..  I am hoping the Bush buddy mini fits the bill for this,  if not then the search continues and it goes on my shelf with other stoves for another day.  Right now I have the Vargo Hexagon wood stove that I made a few mods too.. It works and it packs ( folds ) nice and slim and out of the way, I can slide it outside my pack in the mesh and wouldn’t even notice it there.. And for the esbit I just used the folding legs from converter stove with a kojin tin ( guts removed ) as an esbit tray, nestled on those folding legs inside the hexagon stove.. And it works ok. Not 100% ideal,  so I am hoping the Bush buddy mini works better.. Bonus points if nestles inside the kettle.

[dirtbag]

Evernew 500  cookset on left and Titan Kettle cookset on right.. Hexagon wood stove far right.

[dirtbag]

[Glen L]

you have some cool stuff there

I’ve used several wood burners but not a Bushbuddy mini. The one I like most right now is the Firebox Nano titanium and it’s about the same weight as the Bushbuddy mini. I have used the Titan kettle with it and Esbit and got a full rolling boil in 9:40, about 70° air and water. Here at 2700’ water boils at 207°. The Firebox Nano doesn’t nest the Titan kettle but it does fold and lays flat. The Nano burns wood too of course and I have the Trangia isopro burner that snaps into place as well as the Trangia alcohol burner that works with or without the simmer ring. So it’s quite versatile with various fuels and options. I made a full sized Bushbuddy out of a small paint can and a progresso soup can that burned and gasified like crazy. Got a ti-tri Caldera cone with wood burning but for the Snow Peak 1400. Have an Emberlit that I’ve used extensively too.

 

Good luck with getting your setup dialed and cooking.

[Bob Shuff]

Following to see how the Bush Buddy mini fits in the Titan Kettle. I don’t get to burn wood much in SoCal, so it’s esbit, alcohol or canister.  Maybe look at Flat Cat Gear for a windscreen option for the Titan. I like Jon’s alcohol and esbit burners.

[christopher witter]

I’ve tried a few other esbit options and by far my favorite is the flatcat gear focus fire. Small, super efficient, burns the cleanest out of everything I’ve tried. Pro-tip the height of the stove on its side is the exact height you need from the ground to the pots bottom, it makes setting the height of your stakes for a pot stand a breeze.

[christopher witter]

I should have added, with the Vargo setup you have you could cut a red bull or similar sized can to get the perfect height as a stand for the focus fire and ditch the kojin, overall a more effective and slightly lighter solution.

[Mole J]

For years , I used to use a Titan Kettle with a full height split cone (homemade, but TD do them) which fits all inside the Kettle with stove(Kojin – or Startlye originally) with a 300ml plastic mug, lighter, fuel bottle and folding spoon.

Not sure how to embed photos but here’s a link

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Lw1fVaz4uELD4Rwb7

A cone is going to be better efficiency and windproofing I think.

[dirtbag]

Cone will definitely be better efficiency,  no doubt!

@Christopher. . Cut a red bull can?  I cant picture what you talking about here..

I could always go this route if needing a fire too..with a titanium Purcell Trench grill. This is in my yard.. practicing getting a fire started after some heavy rains last night and this morning..

[dirtbag]

That’s actually stainless steel packers grill, not titanium.

[christopher witter]

Similarly to how you are using the  folding esbit stand inside the hexagon, you could simply cut a soda can to elevate the esbit to the right height. Here’s what I did to get the right height for the focus fire when using it with my TD cone.

[dirtbag]

Ahhh. Gotcha! I may try this. Thanks

[Brad W]

May seem like a silly question-does anyone drink directly out of the mug heated by esbit? I messed

around with this stove and fuel and it worked fine but left smelly residue on the mug. Made drinking from it seem as if the water had retained some of the chemical from the burnt fuel.  Lid was on during use. Is this common?

 

 

[dirtbag]

I drink from mine plenty of times. Now recently I also have been eating from it. The smell doesnt bother me.  I dont think im poisoning myself, lol. I feel great!

[Brad W]

Ha! Thanks.

[peter v]

ahh, the BushBuddy. 2019 we summer strolled across the top of Quebec (you have <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>never</span> seen so many rocks), and for cooking (means boiled water and noodles) used a BushBuddy of some form. no idea which model, i own three. does it work with esbit ? yes. like a champ. the deal is to not use the entire stove body, but just the pot support piece. i used the colgans fuel tabs instead of real esbit and it was completely good. a good move is to look close at how a fuel tab burns and notice that what is really flaming off is not the tab, but the ucky liquid that is melting off of it. so; you will need to fab some little plate/tub/bowl of thin metal for the tab to sit in whilst burning. ie – .003″ stainless, bend up the edges, call it good.

i brought along too many tabs. oops on me. caloric heat output is kind’a pathetic, so it wants a windscreen, and patience. i just lay in the tent and cook. so not much wind. still wants a screen.

one can use the BB to incinerate plastic zip lock bags and reduce trash bulk. be advised that abuse of this feature can result in a BB with a lower section flooded with melted-but-as-yet-to-be-torched plastic. a foolish old man i know came home and decided is was grand idea to burn off plastic (thusly lightening the BB) at home, on the gas range. ya .. well … sure it made some smoke, but it also ran so good that it bubbled the 60 yr old and previously immaculate enamel on the range hood. just a thought …

some long long time ago i think i did an Alaska thing running a BB. it was pretty cool, but … one might consider that on longer trips, fuel wise, the use of a BB rather/sort of, defines how your day is going to go to some extent. i think there was a Canol yo-yo in there too with a BB, and it was a damp summer that taught me to gather fuel when you can. both trips i should’a toted along a few tabs to make breakfast on wet mornings. that would have been sweet.

BB power tip : if you ever can get one really running strong, it gets hot enough to melt/incinerate a spam can. just drops them down to the size of a pea. that’s pretty cool.

of course, you’d have to actually eat the spam first, which is always, you know, read the label …”pork, with ham”. so, do the math .. eh ?

[DAN-Y]

Dirtbag, what’s happening to the absorbing material in your KOJIN burner???

 

[dirtbag]

That’s just esbit residue. I can scrape it off.. Which is what I did in the middle there. I have burnt many many esbit tabs in there,  using my 500 ml Appalachian set and I was checking to see if it started to burn thru the bottom,  but not yet.

I actually pulled all that absorbing material out of there and just use it to burn esbit tabs.  It fits perfectly inside of the 500 ml evernew Appalachian set.

[Thom]

[Thom]

Burn esbit on top store burnt esbit inside. Dan made the kit.

thom

[Author]

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