Hi folks, I’m a long time lurker, and this is my first post. I bought a Tigoat small Wifi stove in December of 2018 for use in a Seek Outside Silvertip. There are no reviews that I could find that are specific to the small Wifi, so I thought I’d post my impressions here.
The small Wifi has an oval body with a flat, rectangular top and bottom, all of titanium, and measures 11” x 5” x 8” tall. It sits on aluminum legs 4” off the ground. The small Wifi uses a 2-3/8” diameter stovepipe that comes with a damper. Standard stovepipe height is 4’, but I opted for a 6’ in order to keep the chimney top well away from my tent, to avoid spark holes and facilitate draft. I also purchased a bottom spark arrestor for the same reason.
The stove comes in a black nylon bag, with the top and bottom held together with nylon screws in order to hold most of the rest of the components inside. The oval body and foil chimney are rolled into a nylon carrier tightly enough to fit the spark arrestor on the end. The legs also fit outside the stove pan. My stove weighs 32 ounces in its bag, which sounds heavy until you compare it to other stoves on the market. Because of its flatness, it fits easily into the back of my pack.
For the most part the stove goes together easily once the chimney is heat treated with a first firing. The oval body slots together before fitting into slots welded into the top and bottom, along the long sides. Then it’s simply a matter of dropping the threaded legs in from the bottom (with the firebox upside down) and screwing them in place. All that’s needed is some attention to make sure it lines up nicely. The stovepipe is held in shape with cable rings and an interior ring at each end, with the spark arrestor serving as the ring for the bottom end. Before the spark arrestor goes in, the damper pops into place by ovalizing the pipe on the end with the pre-drilled holes for it.
The toughest part of putting the stove together is fitting the stove pipe into the firebox. This is a very tight fit, and the first time it took me several minutes and some anxiety over possibly damaging my new stove. It’s gotten much easier with practice and perhaps the pieces have worn in a bit. It’s easiest to push the top of the pipe through the tent’s stove jack first for support. The pipe rests on the damper’s wire crossbar once it’s in place.
I’ve been building fires inside and out of woodstoves for 45 years. To start a fire, you need fuel, oxygen, and heat. I find that it’s often easier to start a fire and keep it going in an enclosed space, especially with wet fuel, because it confines and concentrates the heat needed to boil off the water and combust the fuel. This seems to be the case with this little stove. Access to the firebox is small, a hole about 3” in diameter. A fire starter such as waxed wood chips, followed by tiny twigs to start, has worked best for me. It takes patience, and like any small fire, you can’t leave it unattended for long or it will go out. Best to be a firebug if you’re going to use a stove like this. Once a bed of coals are built up, I’ve found that wood up to an inch or so in diameter can be added, and the stove can be minimally attended for 10-15 minutes at a time. If you’re hungry for dinner, this isn’t a great way to cook it, but it’s an excellent way to while away the hours on a long winter’s night. The flat top makes it easy to cook on (or at least boil water). Since I don’t want to infuse my tarp with cooking smells, I cook outside on an alcohol stove and use the woodstove to make hot beverages, which is a lot of fun!
This is not an airtight stove by any means, which is one of the reasons it won’t hold a fire long. The door is simply a curved piece of TI with holes strategically placed for air and a hook on the back of it. To use it, you simply hook it onto one of three holes arranged vertically on the stove face, thus adjusting how much of the stove’s opening is exposed and how much air the fire gets. There are also holes along the bottom of the stove below the main opening. To move the door there’s a springy TI handle on it which never heats up. The stove is capable of burning very hot and fast, in which case lowering the door and simmering the burn down is a good idea. The other fire control is the damper, which is hugely important. Dampers constrict the chimney, forcing the burn to slow down. This is what you’ll fine tune your burn with. It’s like a little dance: before opening the door, you open the damper wide, or else risk dumping a bunch of smoke into your tent. Open the door, add wood, shut the door, then dial in the damper. Repeat as necessary.
A cheap, very useful addition to your kit is a 2-3 foot length of 1/8” clear plastic tubing. Ever blow on a fire to get it going? Using this tubing will keep you from hunching over the front of your stove repeatedly. It will fit neatly into the stove’s air holes (not too far or you’ll melt it) and allow you to direct the air where it will best rev up a dying fire. Often I can get a fire to burst into flame again when it’s trying to go out.
As for performance, it isn’t difficult to get patches of the stove red hot. My SO Silvertip is 70 sf, and the Wifi heated it to 70+ degrees F effortlessly in 30 degree weather. I live in Middle Tennessee, so sub-zero temperatures are rare, but it is supposed to get down to 18 d later this week. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see what the small Wifi can do in colder temperatures.
Hot tenting may not sound very ultralight, but it uses almost no fuel compared to a campfire, and is much warmer. My last trip’s base weight was under 20 pounds, stove, tent, and all, which isn’t bad considering it was January (okay, January in Tennessee aint much compared to what a lot of you folks do). Wood fires are our most time honored way to keep warm, and besides, it’s fun.
Do you have a lightweight tent stove? What do you think of it? How do you use it? Are you thinking about getting one? I look forward to your comments.
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