Twig burning stoves?

I have two wood-/twig-burning stoves: A Sierra Zip Stove and a Pocket Cooker. Both are commercially-made devices.

Sierra Stove (now $57.00 from zzstove.com):
Sierra004.jpg


Pocket Cooker (from The Sportsman's Guide, ~$14):
RI06008.jpg



The Sierra Stove is a forced air stove. The fan on mine is powered by a AA battery, and has two speeds. When packed, it probably occupies as much space (volume) as a Jetboil PCS, but I think the Sierra Stove is lighter weight. Once you get a fire going, this stove can boil 16 oz of water in about 4.5 minutes; maybe less. It's a good little stove, but looking at the website now I feel it is a little pricey.


The Pocket Cooker is basically a folding hobo stove. It works best with a slight breeze aimed into its open feed door. If I remember correctly, I think the Pocket Cooker boiled 16 oz of water in the neighborhood of 7-8 minutes. My memory may be fading on that, so don't quote me. I like this stove because it folds flat and takes up little space. The stamped steel it is made from isn't too flimsy, either. I like this stove, too.
 
An intresting stove i came across today on a kayaking website. It seems that some of the guys over there put it thru its paces and they like the stove very much.

sasha
 
dogstar said:
I made a hobo stove out of a progresso soup can. I'm able to boil water and heat up soup with it, but it sure leaves lots of creosote on the bottom of my pots.

Make one and try it out. They cost almost nothing to make and it's always fun to try out something you made.
Click to expand...

My father showed me a good trick to solve scrubbing creosote and black off of pots way back in cub scouts....

Rub a light even coat of liquid dish soap over the exterior of the pot stopping a 2 or 3 inches from the top

the heat cooks it on dry and ashes, creosote adhere to that layer and not the pot

you can still wash it between uses just don't submerge, and have a bag or stuffsack for storage in the pack for soot issues

at the end of the trip cleanup is a snap as it all washes away easily without adding extra soap or scrubbing like crazy
 
The other nice thing about the Backcountry Boiler, is that whilst the water get's hot, you can utilize the chimney effect to cook or heat even more water.

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Credit: ulgoods.exblog.jp

Here's a video showing how a little strip of chicken wire can make a useful pot support. This video also shows the use of hexi tabs in the Backcountry Boiler.

http://youtu.be/8B8-7dGDbmk
 
kgd said:
I love my twig stove. Demo'd in my video below - skip to the 6.00 min mark.

[youtube]TBZmKzyrbCw[/youtube]
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip Kgd! 10 bucks later, including shipping, and here we are.

img20110428123654.jpg


works like a champ, even in the rain :) also, it weighs 5.7 oz for those curious.
 
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I love twig stoves....Heres mine I made. I bought a couple stainless canisters, but I had everything else on hand. I have never made a hobo stove before, so I just kinda winged it. Im happy with it, and I cant wait to use it a bunch. The pot is a nice size, and it all nests together nicely.

I first plotted out all my holes and marked them with crayon..
Picture001.jpg


I made a bail for the pot next.
Picture002.jpg


Cut out the grate for the inside. This grate was in a roasting pan I bought at a yard sale awhile back.
Picture003.jpg


Made all the cutouts and drilled the holes. Then made the pins for the grate to sit on.
Picture005.jpg


Needed a lid for my pot. It came with a glass one like on the left. I broke the glass out and cut a metal lid and snapped it in place. Then made a loop for the lid.
Picture008.jpg


Heres the finished setup.
Picture009-1.jpg


All packed up
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So now it was time to give it a try. Decided to make some spuds. Im not able to get out to the woods today so I did it right on my shop floor. With door open of course.

Fire it up!!
Picture010.jpg


Not a bad lookin setup.
Picture011-1.jpg


Freakin 2 cups of water boiled in no time. Like 4 minutes.
Picture013-1.jpg


Waitin on taters.
Picture014.jpg


Done
Picture015-1.jpg
 
Here's a question.

assuming a fire ring or some other way to block the wind do the non blower driven wood cook stoves boil water any faster than just hanging a billy can or one of the Bush Pots we discussed over the same amount of twigs/sticks and letting it go??

I normally just cook over the fire using what's now called the Bush Pot.

When I'm actually going to possibly COOK something rather than just adding water I might bring along the Sierra Zip stove that has the blower on it because it does seem to me to cook a little faster than an open fire.

So has anybody compared one of the non blower wood stoves to a fire w/o any container other than rocks? How much of a difference is there??
 
Hi joshuabl,

Just FYI, that utensil holder you purchased is larger than the one KGD has. I wandered around the store holding on to that one until I realized they made a smaller one :)

Not that it matters, as long as it fits what you want. Just letting you know.

B
 
hollowdweller said:
Here's a question.

assuming a fire ring or some other way to block the wind do the non blower driven wood cook stoves boil water any faster than just hanging a billy can or one of the Bush Pots we discussed over the same amount of twigs/sticks and letting it go??
Click to expand...

I would definitely think so - a wood burner that directs the heat up to a pot has to be WAY more efficient than a fire that projects heat outward in all directions. If you have plenty of wood then you could use MUCH more wood for a camp fire and warm/dry several people while also cooking food, but if we are talking about the same amount of twigs/sticks . . .

My home made woodgas stove has no fan and can boil a couple of cups on water with what is essentially just the tinder & kindling that you would use to get a camp fire started, you would need to add a few larger pieces of wood to that fire to be able to boil that same amount of water.
Your Sierra Zip Stove is probably faster than my woodgas stove, but the efficiency wouldn't be that much different.
So the open fire with the same amount of fuel would be too inefficient to boil the water at all therefore is infinitely slower than whatever wood stove you are looking at.
 
hollowdweller said:
Here's a question.

assuming a fire ring or some other way to block the wind do the non blower driven wood cook stoves boil water any faster than just hanging a billy can or one of the Bush Pots we discussed over the same amount of twigs/sticks and letting it go??

I normally just cook over the fire using what's now called the Bush Pot.

When I'm actually going to possibly COOK something rather than just adding water I might bring along the Sierra Zip stove that has the blower on it because it does seem to me to cook a little faster than an open fire.

So has anybody compared one of the non blower wood stoves to a fire w/o any container other than rocks? How much of a difference is there??
Click to expand...

I'd say in practice no, its just a lot less mess and fuss making a fire in a twig stove. No real scarring of the ground except maybe a little ring where the stove was and the stoves burn really efficient and fast so at the end you are usually left with just ash. You also don't have to take the same kind of time making a fire ring as you would with a twig fire. In a twig fire sometimes you get an efficient burn, but more often you are trying to shove the little ends back into the fire.

When I'm all set up and at camp, I'll make a nice fire and cook directly on that. The twig stove is great for busting out when you don't feel like committing to a fire. In quite a few cases, rangers don't mind a twig stove when there is an open fire ban (other places do). So, its nice to be able to stare at a twig fire at night if its allowed where a firepit fire can't be had.
 
Not my best photo :(
P3180006.jpg


Old coffee can, cut down to size. The top (cut) edge was slotted and folded down to 'hide' the sharp edge.
I ran a 'church key' can opener around the bottom to provide a vent.
The heavy duty hanger pot holder pieces go thru the can and anchor in holes drilled in the church key flaps.

The stove, a 35mm film can of PJCBs and the waxed thread and emergency triox all fit in the pot shown.

Sure it'll get your pots all black but who cares?
Stuff it in a ziplock and it's fine.
This little stove is fine for boiling water for Ramen or coffee.
Either of those two will be done before the vent holes fill with ash.
The down side is that it can be tipsy on an uneven surface.
The pot holder wires have since been replaced with inverted "L" shapes, simpler and less ambitious than the original interlocking plan lol

Total time invested, 45 minutes... tops.
 
I have used old brake drums with an old BBQ grill with good results. The stud holes allow just the right amount of air to create an even bed of coals which can be used to BBQ or to hold a cooking pot.
 
Brian Andrews said:
Hi joshuabl,

Just FYI, that utensil holder you purchased is larger than the one KGD has. I wandered around the store holding on to that one until I realized they made a smaller one :)

Not that it matters, as long as it fits what you want. Just letting you know.

B
Click to expand...

I bought the taller one so that when I find the pots I want, I plan to cut tabs around the top and fold them down to the right height for the pot and make a ring of tabs for setting the pot on.
 
hollowdweller said:
Here's a question.

assuming a fire ring or some other way to block the wind do the non blower driven wood cook stoves boil water any faster than just hanging a billy can or one of the Bush Pots we discussed over the same amount of twigs/sticks and letting it go??

I normally just cook over the fire using what's now called the Bush Pot.

When I'm actually going to possibly COOK something rather than just adding water I might bring along the Sierra Zip stove that has the blower on it because it does seem to me to cook a little faster than an open fire.

So has anybody compared one of the non blower wood stoves to a fire w/o any container other than rocks? How much of a difference is there??
Click to expand...

HD,
I think there is a little difference but the reality is who cares if your water takes a minute longer to boil. It might be a not so interesting experiment to try a side by side comparison maybe one day.

For me it comes down to convenience. With my twig stove I can set it up anywhere and boil water with it. My latest version has legs so it doesn’t touch the ground. I can setup it up on any surface and the only things left behind are some ashes.
 
if your building a fire anyways no real need for a wood stove, it's going to take longer to boil simply because getting a fire ready and going takes longer than breaking up some twigs and lighting them in a stove- clean up is longer as well, but like I said- if your building a fire regardless- leave the wood stove at home

where the wood stove shines is when your not going to be building a fire (time, fire danger, privacy, lack of wood, you fill in the blank)
 
I bumpin this one up to the top. I am really interested in twig stoves and I would love to hear anything you would like to add to this thread.

Although I hear lots of good things about Emberlits and others, have you made something other than what these gentleman have? What did you use?

I would really like to get/make something that nests with a cup and bottle OR folds flat.
 
I wrote a review about my twig stove, the Künzi magic flame here:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/916054-Review-of-my-new-Hobo-Stove-(lots-of-pics!!)

I have had it for over a year now and it works very well and reliable. One of its great advantages is, that it folds into itself (no fiddling with constructing the different parts into one another) and can be used in different sizes - fantastic design. It is quite pricey and it's made in switzerland, so our friends in America would have to pay extra shipping costs. In my opinion, it is worth every penny (euro cent). :thumbup:
 
if you're looking for something small and light (and that will nest in a small pot) check out 4 dog stoves offerings, built of titanium so they are light and strong; they are also multi fuel and can be used w/ Esbit tabs when wood is wet, there is a fire ban or you're above timber line
 
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