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Thread: What is it with mini-wood stoves.

  1. #21
    Wanderer DuxDawg's Avatar
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    Some of the better vids about the EmberLit SS and FA.

    http://youtu.be/_exG7f12sas

    http://youtu.be/kZOdwJPiqnQ

    http://youtu.be/8sqSLCWA5zA

    http://youtu.be/ddp2fu7IOGc

    Quote Originally Posted by FishyFolk View Post
    But take a celebrated item like the humble Zebra billy can. If you boil water in it, it's almost impossible to pour the hot water into a cup without spilling half of it, and/or risk scolding yourself in the process And that useless handle takes upp tons of space. Yes you can modify it or bring or make a tool to hold it with.
    A rag to tilt the bottom works for me. True, not having a pour spout means a lil more care and attention are needed. I easily replaced the silly stock handle with a wire bail. I enjoy steaming wild edibles in my Zebra in a DIY stainless steel mesh basket (from a grease screen) or wet baking bannock in the included lil pan all the while boiling for tea or stew. Haven't seen many other pots those things can be as easily done in. In short, love my 12cm Zebra.

    But why not just get a tea kettle instead? One width a big lid so you can also cook your stew or noodles or what people cook in their billy cans.
    How about the GSI Glacier Tea Kettle?

    I found the epinion review here worth expanding and reading.

    http://www.epinions.com/review/GSI_O...172025988?sb=1

    http://www.gsioutdoors.com/products/...kettle_-_1_qt/

    http://www.campsaver.com/glacier-sta...kettle-1-quart

    They say the shape is to hold a canister and its stove inside the kettle. I don't use canisters so I cannot speak to that. My Glacier has served me well for years. Boil, pan fry, etc. The opening is large enough but the bottom is bit thin for pan frying over wood. Works but my thick bottomed fry pans work much better. Lose a little volume due to spout being below lip but being able to pour easily and accurately counterbalances that. Much easier to pan fri in Glacier than Zebra. Glacier is not quite as bullet proof, not quite as packable. For me Glacier sees more use on dayhikes or single nighters. Zebra and small fry pan are more likely to be brought along on multi nighters especially when winter, canoe or car camping.

    Cheers.

  2. #22
    Ent FishyFolk's Avatar
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    Like I said, modifying it works. But after a couple of trips using it, I got myself *drumroll* the GSI Glacier tea kettle, for excactly the reason that it has a proper spout a good a handle and that enourmous lid opening :-)

    So I carry that and a folding handle frying pan. In the GSI kettle I stuff a small cotton bag with some salt, pepper, sugar, tea, and some instant hot chockolate and some instant soups. Also the GSI and my wild wood gas stove clone fits perfectly in the main compartment of the little molle shoulder bag I carry for few hours out. Alternatively I can throw in my meths burner and cook kit. It's jjust a little bag that I carry my brew kit in, + the Leuku fits nicely under the lid, secured with a carbine hook. Also got a map and compass, and my hi-tech fire kit and a rudimentary first aid kit in there, plus a small dry bag with a slingshot, ammo for it, and some basic "survival" items...but my survival tactic is to go home...failing tayt....call 112, so I will never actually use it, lol...it's just for fun.
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  3. #23
    Quick update, after the discussion here I went out and bought an emberlit (full size) in SS. Gave it a first run today and on the whole I liked it. It is about as small as I would like to go and wood out here seems to me to be always marginal and definitely damp. The side window feed will take some practice and it suffered like all stoves from needing to get properly hot before it could cope with bigger stuff. I started out using my Swiss army knife and ended up splitting a birch log with an axe for chips but once you got it going it went well and boiled my kettle in no time. With one relight and resort to the axe the whole process took an hour. I am thinking of some simple mods to have it take a trangia burner; I am not buying a fire-ant; nor would I want to go any smaller. For the time being my clickstand is safe in my brew kit but I will definately be giving the emberlit further outings.

  4. #24
    Ranger OakAshandThorn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Old Dog View Post
    Quick update, after the discussion here I went out and bought an emberlit (full size) in SS. Gave it a first run today and on the whole I liked it. It is about as small as I would like to go and wood out here seems to me to be always marginal and definitely damp. The side window feed will take some practice and it suffered like all stoves from needing to get properly hot before it could cope with bigger stuff. I started out using my Swiss army knife and ended up splitting a birch log with an axe for chips but once you got it going it went well and boiled my kettle in no time. With one relight and resort to the axe the whole process took an hour. I am thinking of some simple mods to have it take a trangia burner; I am not buying a fire-ant; nor would I want to go any smaller. For the time being my clickstand is safe in my brew kit but I will definately be giving the emberlit further outings.
    You probably won't need to mod it...those two cross-pieces that form the "x" on the top of the stove can make a pot stand, the bottom square can be a priming platform, and the three walls can be connected to make a wind shield .
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  5. #25
    Wanderer DuxDawg's Avatar
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    Post

    Having spent more time with my SS EmberLit, FireAnt and a Firebox Gen2 Nano, I've figured out a few more things. I also see even more clearly the wisdom in the first four posts in this thread.

    Let's start with a few thoughts and experiences with thise three stoves.

    Having trouble finding anything good to say about the Nano. The holes in the bottom are so big the coals drop out. I cut a piece of hardware cloth to cover the bottom which helps a lot. The "cross feed" system flat out doesn't work. The ports are so small and so high off the ground you can't keep enough wood in there to have a continuous burn going. Another huge mistake was wasting all that space between the legs and the stove. Between that and the part of the legs that act as a pot stand, there ends up being 1/3 the stove walls that there could be. A key point to not overlook here is that it is the stove walls that do all of the work in channeling the heat to the pot. By comparison the FA is about the same size and vastly outperforms the Nano. Boiling with the Nano ends up being: pack the Nano with sticks, light the Nano, maybe get two cups to a boil, Nano goes out. Repeat. The manufacturer should have figured all of this out before bringing the original to market, much less as a Gen2.

    The FA is better for dayhiking than multi night camping. It is small enough that it actually is more likely to come along when a boil is a possibility, rather than planned upon. The FA is an excellent windscreen for meths stoves. Packs smaller than most and can be used with other fuels, such as sticks, if you only brought enough meths for a boil or two and end up wanting to do more. A quick boil or two then cooling down suits it well. After boiling the third GSI nesting cup with two cups of water in it the very thin Ti walls get soft from being hot too long and bend easily. Even from something as simple as taking a GSI nesting cup full of water on and off. In my opinion the walls should be 3x thicker than they are if we're going to cook full meals on it.

    Ah, yes, my old stand by. Watching vids and reading about other stoves had me wondering if my tried and true combo of a SS EmberLit and SS GSI Glacier kettle were all I had come to think they were cracked up to be. Succinctly put: Yup.

    True, they don't pack as small as the FA and nesting cup. But they do a better job more quickly. (The boil times for the Glacier are typically about half that of the GSI nesting cup with equal water and any stove. Wide bottoms rule the boiling game!!) The EL burns just as many types of fuels as the FA, is just as good of a windscreen, burns wood much better and will cook as long as you want without getting weak.

    Lately I have been using a square of hardware cloth as large as will fit inside the EL with one row of squares turned down to raise it off the bottom. The top of the hardware cloth is barely above the bottom of the feed port in this configuration which means it doesn't limit the feeding of the stove. This nicely addresses the ash build up I get with the softwoods that I typically use. The rule here on public lands is if it's "dead and down" we can use it for firewood. Which ends up being mostly the branches of softwoods unless you want to do quite a lot of processing on the trunks of mature oaks. I sure don't!!

    Thus, dropping a bit of coin followed by a lot of cooking and experimenting has me back at square one. Quite happily so as it turns out. Cheers y'all.

  6. #26
    Tribesman Thumbcrusher's Avatar
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    Nice write up mate. Thanks!
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  7. #27
    Wanderer DuxDawg's Avatar
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    Much obliged kind sir.

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