Lightweight woodburing stove

[Matt Swider]

During a recent hike I came across a hiker who swears by using a Sierra Zip stove. I have done a lot of reading the past couple days about wood burning stoves and feel like I am going in circles.  Lots of older posts on here about making simple single wall designs, dual wall designs, with fans, without fans, etc.

Hard to imagine anymore bringing a stove that weighs a pound and takes up a fairly significant volume (sierra zip).  I would be curious to hear from folks that are using wood stoves and what tradeoffs they considered before making/buying what they use.

thanks, Matt

[Kevin Babione]

I do most of my backpacking in Pennsylvania and surrounding states so access to small twigs is always easy.  I have an Antig Outdoors Woodgas stove (sadly no longer available) that is a double-wall wood stove that weighs 6.75 ounces.  I pair it with a 1L Ti Pasta pot (4.5 ounces) for a cooking system that weighs 11.25 ounces in total (the wood stove fits perfectly in the pasta pot in its bag).  Not too bulky and weighs less than my Jetboil Sol Ti and empty fuel canister (13 ounces).

Massdrop now has the FireAnt Ti Stove available for $58 and a claimed weight of just 79 grams (just under 3 ounces).  I bought one and a Vargo 750 ml Ti mug (4 ounces) to go with it hoping for a wood burning setup that would save me around a quarter pound.  Alas my FireAnt stove arrived and it was, due to manufacturing variances, one of the “heavy” ones – weighing 4.5 ounces in its case.  I haven’t used it yet in the field but may take it on a trip in a couple of weeks.

Burning wood is not nearly as convenient as a Jetboil – I usually only take a wood burner if I’m going solo because I like the little fire and don’t mind waiting a little longer for water to boil.  I also usually only need hot water at night so I’m not lighting a fire in the morning for coffee.  If I’m responsible for boiling water for others it’s inevitably the Jetboil that finds its way into my pack.

[Matthew / BPL]

I’ve got a first generation Folding Firebox Nano stove. It burns well but it takes effort and time that Esbit or alcohol don’t. It’s fun on a low mileage Boy Scout trip where I’m going to be hiking less and twiddling my thumbs more.

I’ve been surprised about how well it works with wet wood if you split the wood to get to the dry interior. With this stove I need to bring a larger knife like a Mora (instead of my usual tint SAK) so I can baton sticks into thinner pieces.

To be completely honest, I’ve only carried it once while backpacking and used it maybe four times while car camping.

[Matthew / BPL]

Oh, and I need fire starters. I’ve used wax soaked cotton face pads. Esbit would work as well but at that point it just seems so much easier to just bring my Esbit kit which boils 1.5 cups with two 8 gram tablets.

[David Thomas]

BioLite offers a non-USB-charging version of their fan-powered stove for $80 (versus $130 for the thermocouple-powered fan / USB port).  But it’s 1.5 pounds.  At least the rechargeable battery goes for 30 hours.

My experience is that the fan-powered wood stoves do burn significantly cleaner, with less smoke, and can take a slightly wider variety of wood (a little bigger chunks, a little wetter once started).  But you can also get that with chimney effect.  For car camping / boat camping, I’ve used a charcoal lighter:

$15 at Home Depot or on Amazon.  The air flow really gets ripping along, and I get a very clean burn.  A small steel spacer/grate on the top lets me place pots on top.  Alternately, I could cut notches out of the top edge to allow gases to escape close to the bottom of the pot.  I’ve also brought a small grate and grilled fish, bear meat, and veggies on top after it’s died down to coals.

Anyway, I’ve long pondered a BPing version out of thin-walled SS or Ti in a smaller diameter.  More height gives that free chimney effect, a larger firebox, requires less cutting of wood, gives more time for the wood to catch fire and more completely burns the smoke before it hits the pot / your face.

[Matt Swider]

Thanks for the replies all.  After the reading I have done and the replies above, I continue to sense that wood burning is a fun way to cook, but maybe not the best for a long distance hike, unless you are really into burning wood.  Thing is I love wood fires, and this seems like a great way to take advantage of renewable natural resources, and get by fire fix to boot.

Curious and interested in more opinions as well.

thanks, Matt

[Jerry Adams]

Maybe better than woodburning stove is three rocks.  Drag some coals over from a fire.  I’ve done that before.  It does get the bottom of your pot sooty though.

[David Thomas]

“maybe not the best for a long distance hike”

I think it is a great approach for long-DURATION hikes, but not for high-daily-mileage trips.  It takes time to gather wood, fiddle with the fire, and properly put it out afterwards.  And that’s fine on 5-10 mile days.  It’s a fun activity, especially if you have kids along.  But when you’re doing 25-30 miles / day, time is a resource which could be used instead to take a siesta during the hottest part of the day, take the climbs at a slower pace, push on a few more hours in good weather to compensate for getting pinned down at other times, etc.

[Matthew / BPL]

I should have mentioned that my little stove does provide the smell and ambiance of a campfire while having a very light LNT footprint. I use a piece of foil and a small square of plumbers insulation (that black carbon cloth stuff) under it. I’m left with no visible fire scar and I can disperse the very fine, totally combusted ashes into the wind the next morning.

[Russell Lawson]

if you need a new hobby and enjoy playing with fire, I suggest building your own.  this stove weights 2oz

and is made of a thermos cap .8oz, a 1cup stainless steel measuring cup .4oz, and the plunger to a coffee press .8oz.

it boils 2cups easy without adding additional fuel, but you got to push the wood in every 3 minutes or so.  Also the springs on the coffee plunger allows for the base to be raised up so you can move an alcohol burner closer to your pot.

[Matt Swider]

Sweet setup, but I suspect it would take awhile to scrounge the parts.

[Matthew / BPL]

So my $.02 is the reason my Firebox Nano works so well is that it has ports on two sides for the sticks. The crossfeed system allows great airflow and mimics how we lay wood into a campfire. If I were making a stove, I’d cut two ports rotated about 90° from each other. I’d make one of them a bit higher than the other.

[Matt Swider]

I finally got around to looking at the firebox nano today, that looks like a sweet little stove.  I like how small it folds, and how you can cook for a family of five without adding fuel  ;-)  But seriously, looks like a sweet setup.  Might be asking for this for a gift sometime . . . .

[Nick Smolinske]

We did 20 days of hiking on the CDT last month with a Bushcooker LT2.  Here’s my two cents:

Pros:

• Burning wood is fun!  I really did enjoy it.
• The Bushcooker has a great system for starting the fire with a small amount of alcohol (put a pan on the ground, dribble alky on it, light it and put the stove on top).
• The Bushcooker does a pretty good job as a pure alcohol burner on days you don’t want to do a fire
• Makes great quesadillas!

Cons:

• Hassle.  Not always easy to find good wood.  But if you plan ahead it’s not too bad.  For instance one time we stopped for a break in the afternoon and I collected some dry bark-free spruce branches.  When we stopped above treeline later I had all my fuel ready to go.
• Sooty pot!  Seriously, the smell of the pot was pretty strong after a while.  The stickiness didn’t bother me but it was smelly for sure.
• No weight advantage on shorter trips, where an alcohol stove is lighter.

No matter what stove you use, here are some recommendations for making it work well:

• Keep the fire small and hot and feed often
• Small, small, small diameter – I don’t ever use anything bigger than my pinky finger, and I have narrow fingers.  Go for number 2 pencil size.
• Get a stoker tube from your hardware store.  I used a 2 feet of vinyl tubing that fit into a 3 inch long brass tube at the end.  That way if your stove is going out but it’s full of fuel you can stoke the fire easily rather than crowding your stove with even more fuel.
• Good wood matters.  It’s worth picking up good fuel whenever you find it and carrying it to camp, rather than searching every night at camp.
• Splitting your wood helps a lot too.

So in conclusion, it was a lot of fun but I’m not sure we’re bringing it next year.  But I think I’ll definitely use it again.

[Matt Swider]

great assessment NIck, thanks a bunch.  This is exactly the sort of insights I was looking for.

[Matt Swider]

So I have done a bit of looking at different stove designs and am considering buliding a woodgaz style stove.  Best I can tell Dan does not make them any more, so I am considering giving it a whirl.  I considered using 1/2″ galvanized hardware cloth I have on hand.   but have stopped fo 2 reasons.  One is it seems rather flexible, but hard to get super flat.  Second, I have read (have not personal experience) that galvanized will not hold up well under fire, pun intended.  I have been several stores looking for stainless hardware cloth, but have found nothing but galvanized.

Where does one get a smallish piece of stainless steel hardware cloth?

[Matthew / BPL]

Heating galvanized metal results in toxic fumes, iirc. I think it’s pretty important to use stainless.

[Matt Swider]

good point, I meant to mention that also.  Although I believe that after one or two exposures to a hot fire it would all be gone.  All the same I am definitely looking for stainless hardware cloth, know where to finds some?

[Matt Swider]

BTw, I do have a firebox nano on the way as well, figured I could compare an industry standard versus the diy version.

[DAN-Y]

There was too much competition in wood burners. There was so much BS going on in the cottage industries made me sick.

I put a lot of work into this design…..Woodgaz Stove.  Made of stainless hardware cloth. Cloth purchased at McMaster Carr.

[Matt Swider]

Hi Dan, thanks for the tip on where to get the material.  It is rather pricey itself, so I think I may practice with the galvanized I have and get a design I am happy with before I buy the real stuff.  Also need to figure out where to get the solid side material, although I suspect McMaster Carr can provide that also, and how I want to attach it, was I don’t have a spot welder.

I was disappointed to find you were not making these any longer, seems to be a real sweet spot in terms of weight, small package, super easy to assemble, plenty of air, etc.

[Author]

Posts