Not a gasifier, but it is light.Originally Posted by take-a-knee
I thought it was a gassifier.
Skids
Insanity: Asking about inseams over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein, (attributed)
I love fire. Safe fire's at least. I like to practice seeing how big of a fire I can make but yet only start it with one single match and no fuel. It's an art. I'll even practice with a flint but I don't carry one while I hike.
No fuel, huh? I'd add a little bit of wood, maybe. Otherwise the match tends to go out pretty quick.
Build the teepee of wood and light it with just one match. Tinder takes then the smaller sticks and so on.
I carry a Zelph alky stove and a titanium Nimblewill Nomad type wood stove.
The wood stove gets far more use. I use the alky stove on cold wet mornings so I don't have to get out from under the shelter until I have a hot drink in me.
Using found fuel(wood) takes practice. The people who think it is an inconvenience, haven't done it enough to gain the skill to make it easy.
The mistake that most make is to not use enough tinder before lighting the fire. This is especially important when it is damp and/or windy out.
I used to only use open fires, but the wood stove is quicker and more efficient. So I don't need nearly as much fuel as an open fire. This is important when it has been raining for days.
Of course, if the situation allows, an open fire is the way to go.
"If we had to pay to walk... we'd all be crazy about it."
--Edward Payson Weston
Chances are, where there is nice dry tinder, kindling, and wood. . .there are nice dry snakes PO'd that you bothered their hiding place.
I guess I'm "lazy" and would rather spend my down time eating and resting instead of foraging for fuel. It's not that I can't do it. It's just my preference.
I never once had difficulty finding wood for my Zip stove during the six months and three days I was on Appalachian Trail in 1993 -- nor in many days of hiking before and since, for that matter.
Nor do i do much foraging for fuel at shelters, aside from scanning the fire pit for burnt ends, and scrap paper for tinder.
As I walk along during the day I just pick up proper sized pieces broken by hiker boots and stuff them into a zip lock bag, or when it's raining break off dry twigs protected by blowdowns, or higher branches.
I usually had hot water as quickly as anyone when I arrived at shelters, especially if I had found a supply of downed birch bark during the day, which happened on most days once I got north of Georgia. Better yet, I had hot water for as long as I needed it -- enough for several hot chocolates, cooking regular rice, concocting my "Lipton Dinners" from scratch....
BTW. I never soaped the outside of my pots. Soot never bothered me. I welcomed it for aiding the transfer of heat from the flames to my food. I always washed the inside of my pots each evening -- usually by putting a scrap of ivory soap in a pot of water and heating it on my Zip Stove. A few swishes with a stick and a little rinsing and the pot was usually clean. Ready to be placed into one of those thin plastic bags that every store along the trails insists on giving you.
Mornings, after eating my oatmeal, I would swish the pot with a little water, and it would be clean enough for heating water for my morning coffee. And clean enough to last until that final evening wash up.
As simple as this process was, I was not adverse to bypassing the Zip occasionally if someone had a good fire going in the fire pit and there were a few hot coals for setting a pot.
From time to time, my pot would get an extra thorough cleaning, like when I used it for washing a pair of socks, a hankerchief, or a tee shirt when I had enough food for another day or two and wanted to avoid a town stop just to do laundry.
Weary
Snakes? Where do you normally look for dry tinder? Living in a relatively wet region, I typically look up rather than down as deadwood on the ground tends to be damp and deadwood hanging off trees tends to be dry. Unless there are a lot of tree snakes in your region, you've got nothing to worry about.
I've used gas stoves, alky, and wood. The wood is more fun, but can be a hassle when you get a prolonged rainy period. Some mornings you wake up in a cloud of fog (I don't mind rain, but I hate sleeping in a cloud!), and it can be a real challenge getting a woodstove going. Much simpler to bust out the alky stove and have your porridge ready in 10 min.
Correct, it most definetely is a gassifier.
I found no where on the site stating it was a gasifier. They talk of secondary combustion, which I'm sure they get some of, but going by the site, instructions for use, descriptions, and reviews I do not think it is a true gasification stove.
I do like the weight and it's the closest thing to gasification under 8oz.
re. starting the fire.
I am carrying alcohol. DOH!! a quick splash and I'm good to go.
Also, I can't remember a day on the trail when I didn't see a birch tree with bark hanging in shreds. A small piece of that lights immediately, without fuss.
Little bitty twigs mixed with little finger sized wood to start,then add bigger wood, (up to thumb sized is pretty good). I stand the wood on end. It can't take five minutes til the pot is on the fire.
With a hot fire, the bottom of the pan is more like black enamel than soot. Not very smeary at all.
Grinder
AT hiker : It's the journey, not the destination
Well, I own one of 'em and it leaves ZERO carbon anywhere on the stove. So explain that if it isn't a gassifier. There is nothing left but a little white ash, because every H-C bond has been broken and turned to heat.
I really don't understand the take both an "alchy AND wood stove to get the benefits of both" thinking.
I am not by any stretch a UL hiker....but even I wouldn't bring redundant stoves.
The benefit of an alchy stove is it is light. Add in a wood stove and now things are heavy again.
The benefit of a wood stove is you don't need to carry fuel. But you are also carrying an alchy stove and fuel.
Love people and use things; never the reverse.
Mt. Katahdin would be a lot quicker to climb if its darn access trail didn't start all the way down in Georgia.
Obviously YMMV depending on fuel used, conditions. A quick google search will provide reviews of people very happy with the performance, but many complain about soot on pots and wind problems. My gasifier does not leave any soot anywhere nor has any problems in all but hurricane force wind conditions.
Like I said, the BB is getting secondary combustion, which is better than most hobo type wood burners, but the percentage of gasification of the entire burn appears limited.
I've been contemplating pulling the trigger on the BB ultra. 5.1 oz is a lot better than the the 28.0 oz of my woodgas stove. Especially if you are getting that kind of efficiency.
I've heard the bushbuddy fits inside the titan once you turn the titan lid upsidedown. I have a BB. Great stove. You can sit it on the ground and it doesn't burn the ground. 6.5 oz,,and small,,3 3/4 H x 4 1/2 W,,something like that, check the site. I carry an alky stove for backup
I own a BB as well and have been very impressed with it.I don't know whether its a true gasification or a secondary burn stove but i know that there's only white ash left after a burn. Weighs only 6 1/2 oz and as far as i know is the most efficient wood stove out there in its weight class. Beats anything i've made hands down. A bit pricey but excellent craftsmanship and stainless steel to boot.
The BB does not fit well in the MSR Titan, it sticks out the top. Get the Trek 900 it was designed for or the pot from BPL.
lol
I'm a bad hobo also. I've made alot of bad hobo stoves. I've done the small open fire with 3 rocks thing, the swiss corked flash cooker flask cooker thing, the kelly kettle thing, and a few hobo stoves in various shapes. I've used spruce sticks, birch bark, with and without some beeswax or canola oil. I've done it on warm days, cold wet days, and as cold as -20F. Ambient temperature really make a difference, partly because it is hard to tell if your fuel is dry, or just frozen solid. A big hobo stove is fairly easy. A small hobo stove is alot harder. It's fun messing around with hobo stoves, or rock stoves also for that matter. You can shape them into little furnaces on the beach. Hard to get rocks when the ground is frozen though, and the beach is cold this time of year. So far I haven't made anything as fast and easy as my Kelly Kettle, but the diy hobo and rock alternatives are lots of fun. You learn alot hands on. It's great for me because I'm not really a hands on kinda guy.
Anyhow, I'll bet if you mad your bad hobo stove just a little bigger it would be an ok hobo stove. I would like to get mine down to the diameter that fits well in my side pouches, but it is harder to get them to work well in all conditions in that size. More height helps, but then they get tippy. Keep the faith.
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