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Product Description
Featured in Backpacker Magazine, Gear Junkie, and Survivalist, the Solo Stove Lite runs directly off biomass for a cleaner, more efficient burn. Using a unique gasification and secondary combustion process, it requires less fuel and produces less smoke than petroleum-based alternatives Read More
Every time I see one of these wood burning backpacking stoves, I am intrigued. I'm always looking to shave ounces and in theory not having to lug around fuel SHOULD lighten my load. However whenever I delve into the details, I always end up sticking to my Jetboil. On the surface, stoves like this seem like a way to shed a lot of weight (No fuel to carry!). You have to add a decent pot to the weight of the stove. The weight of a pot and this stove is just an ounce less than my Jetboil Ti AND small fuel canister (about 17 oz). I can go a week cooking breakfast/dinner and come home with extra fuel. I think this stove could be useful on longer treks. Other cons in my book: others have said it's messy...that's a no go for me. My backcountry cooking consists of boiling water because I don't like clean-up....so if I'm dealing with a sooty stove and pot I'm not going to be a happy camper. Finally…we've all been caught in nasty rainstorms etc. where all the wood is wet. Good luck with this stove in those situations. Jetboil is just too easy and leaves me more time to fish, sleep, take photos, smoke cigars, look at stars, etc.
JhuggsI've been having similar thoughts. I do enjoy experimenting and occasionally doing something different though, learning new skills, and maybe I have a fear of missing out too. There's a lot to be said for the the speed and convenience of practically any other stove over this one, but maybe, if the weather forecast was favorable and/or I didn't mind the extra time and work involved, a stove like this could be fun. Maybe that's all, just fun, could it ever be my primary go-to? If I don't mind cold meals occasionally I guess it's possible, I've ran out of fuel before and managed, cold-soaking is OK on occasion. Maybe one of these days...
Brett919Agreed. The "fun" factor can't be overlooked and the fact that it does require bit more skill adds to the experience. Good point with cold soaking too...sometimes I think we forget that if our stove failed, there is an alternate method to getting those calories. Not ideal, but your'e not going to die ;)
I love Massdrop and I love small scale gasification, but this design needs work. As you can see in the illustrations, when full of fuel, there is way too much flame, and the deep orange color indicates that it is not very clean. This is because the mesh bottom allows waaaaaaay too much primary air. If this air flow were more restricted, gas would be combusted far more efficiently, feedstock would last a lot longer and soot on the pot would be greatly reduced. You can do better with a 1-qt paint can, a 20 oz pineapple can and a side-cut can opener.
These are on sale on the Solo Stove site for $70, buy one get one free right now, if you got a buddy that wants one it's quite a bit cheaper than here. Also kind of a bummer massdrop can't do better than $50 when the manufacturer is essentially selling them for $35
I did some follow up after seeing so many comments that didn't add up to Fritz Handel/Bushbuddy. He gave an interview to Hiking in Finland. https://hikinginfinland.com/2009/11/interview-fritz-handel-from-bushbuddy.html
Mr. Handel NEVER held the patent on a double wall design And wood gasification was always public. In fact the patent to the double wall design was held by John Hall a prof at Portland State Un. Futher Mr. Handel didn't even initially own the name Bushbuddy, again Pr. Hall did. The fact is Pr. Hall let his patent go public domain, and anyone can make these types of stove.
Not sure why people keep spreading misinformation about this. Mr. Handel seems very content having more work and income, and at least during the interview was worried about hiring someone to help. He didn't seem to have a problem with others producing these types of stoves (at least Four Dogs). So if you feel guilty about buying the Solo, don't.
ChicagoWayMy understanding is he left the Bushbuddy design open source and didn't care if other people made it, and he's got more work already than he can handle. My only problem with Solo Stove is their early marketing included search keywords like "bushbuddy" and "bush buddy" etc and that's just rude, directly stealing net traffic from the guy that let you use his design. I own both and honestly they work identically. It really just comes down to, the Bushbuddy is like 30% lighter but more expensive so, do you want to pay more or carry more?
Just as an aside, it would be nice if the 2 minute promotional video actually showed the product for more than 10 seconds...
I own about 10 woodburning stoves, the Solo stoves are pretty good but not my favourite.
Pros: Easy to setup and use, stacks nicely, solid design
Cons: Smallish burn chamber, must (in practise) remove pot to add fuel, medium difficult to light, medium wind resistant, medium weight
dchu101It depends, there are many great options out there. The Solo is not bad, though!
My favourite "pack flat" stove is probably the CORE 4 or CORE Recon from mysurvivalpack. The cylindrical stoves....probably the Toaks.
Just my $0.05 of course.
Yeah we have a review: http://engearment.com/camping/solo-stove-lite-review/
Ignoring the politics for a moment, the stove works. It burns things and burns them cleanly. It boils water.
On the flip side, there is absolutely no temp control outside of controlling how much wood you put in it. It's a bit heavy for what it is and you should do the math as to whether or not it saves weight for you given your style, how much fuel you carry/use, etc. Obviously, above treeline (where a lot of Colorado camping takes place), it's not the best option. The optional pot is also heavy. Spend an extra $3 on the Keith 900ml pot Massdrop is selling: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/keith-ti3209-900ml-single-wall-titanium-mug