No Backpacking Stove Fuel
I've had my eye on wood gas stoves for a while because I Iike the idea of having a stove where you don't have to carry fuel. If you're going to be out for 4 or 5 days the amount of denatured alcohol or isobutane canister fuel you need to carry can really add up. What better way to eliminate this weight by using wood scraps from the forest around you?
But on hindsight, there's a catch, and I've concluded the advantages of a wood stove do not outweigh its disadvantages. Let me explain.
How Wood Gas Stoves Work
If you're not familiar with the principle behind a wood gas stove, it's simple. Normal camp fires burn from the bottom up, while a wood gas stove burns from the top down. Wood gas stoves are typically made with two cans that draw air from holes punched into their bases. As the fire burns down, it heats the air between the cans. This hot air rises and is vented into the inner can just above the burning flame, creating a bellows effect and a secondary phase of combustion that optimizes fuel consumption, producing a more efficient and hotter flame.
Here's an excellent training video from J. Falk, maker of the Bushwhacker Wood Gas Stove, that illustrates these points.
There are a couple of wood gas stoves available on the market today that people like. These include:
- The Honey Stove '09, which is popular in Europe and the UK. It weighs a maximum of 11.8 oz (339 grams), but can be broken down into smaller components and stores flat, a really nice feature in my opinion. It's available from Backpackinglight.co.uk for 34 British pounds (about $50 USD).
- The Bushbuddy Ultra, another second generation wood gas stove weighing 5 oz, manufactured in Canada and popularized by Ryan Jordan. It's available for $115 CAN (about $93 USD).
- The Bushwhacker Wood Stove (shown above) from J. Falk at Trailgear.org which weighs 6.7 oz and costs $28.50 USD.
Of these, I decided to buy the Bushwhacker because of the price and not because it was the lightest one available. All of these stoves have a lot of interesting features, so check them out.
Enough preamble: here's the downside of using a wood gas stove.
Problems with Wood Gas Stoves
Cooking with a wood gas stove is slow. This is my biggest beef. I try to maximize my daylight when I hike, often waking before dawn and hiking until close to sunset. With a wood stove, I need to spend a lot more time making a fire and I need to babysit it until it finishes burning. This means that it will take significantly longer for me to break camp in the morning if I want a hot breakfast and that I need to allow more time to make a fire and cook at night, reducing my daily range by several miles each day. I'm not willing t make that trade-off. Using an isobutane canister stove, I can boil water in a few minutes for breakfast and dinner and pack my gear or set up camp while my stove is boiling water. It's a much faster and more efficient system, despite the extra weight of a fuel canister.
Wood fires create soot on the stove and on your pot. You can reduce this by wrapping your pot with tin foil but you're still going to have to segregate your stove and pot from anything you want to keep clean with a stuff sack. What a hassle. I don't carry soap or a camp towel and I'm not about to start.
These factors have really cooled my initial enthusiasm for using a wood gas stove.
Am I being too critical? I know many of you have switched to wood gas stoves. Do the benefits outweigh the issues I've listed?
Most Popular Searches
- wood gas stove plans
- woodgas stove plans
- wood gas stove
The one downside of a woodgas stove i the time to light. It does take more time and more effort.
The positive of these stoves are: environmentally friendly (if you hike/camp and you dont care about that you shouldnt be allowed outside a city), near unlimited fuel – unles youre hiking everest you should be able to find organic matter to burn. Unless you're in the amazon there i dry wood.. you just have to know where to look. And they burn HOT and are more efficient than jet stoves.
The downsides other than time people have mentioned imho arent. Yes you should carry a knife. If you dont carry a knife in the forest youre a fool. Forest fires: liquid fuel are MUCH more likely to start a secondary fire. You spill a wood stove and your boot or dirt put it out. You spill burning alchohol and its going to burn til it out. RE soot yes they get dirty but suggeting having to carry a microlight bag to toss it in is a burden is crazy. As to time. Beyond the first day we can assume you build a fire at night. Theres no reason you cant have these stove simmer overnight. Simply radically decrease the air available and you will probably wake up with hot embers to start your fire with.
I also think however if youre doing serious hiking/campign you should carry a small "soda can" alchohol jet burner and a couple ounce of fuel as a backup. If youre in the snow and ice even if you want a wood fire the alchohol fire will quickly give you warmth you may need on an emergency basis.
Lastly you shouldnt use ANY of these stoves in a tent. First of all theres the fire danger from a non tent-stove. Secondly you're tired in your tent with a small warm fire, you fall asleep and suffocate in your sleep.
I think you should reconsider your stove. It goes againt the very idea of getting off the hiking to carry the stuff you use into the woods. Admittedly the Actual difference environmentally is miniscule in the scale of things but there is something to be said for thinking natural.
I have enjoyed this discussion. It’s good to hear other peoples views and ideas, weather you agree with them or not. I use a wood gas stove (a dog food tin and tin foil) in the mountains of Andalucia (southern Spain) when hiking alone in the winter, and many miles from the nearest tree (see Youtube Mulhacen in winter). It’s tricky finding fuel when the snow is down, but during the afternoon, I can often pick up a few dead roots from the spiky ground cover that grows here. In the summer I hike with two friends, and they would mock me for being so high tech. We make a tiny fire with grass seed heads, dead thistle heads, and a few dead roots, to boil our water. It takes the three of us a while to collect enough fuel, but we’re not in a rush.
Enjoy your hiking, and stay safe.
Regards Steve.
Wow! What about the 180 Stove (just over 10 oz.) or the 180-VL (under 6 oz.)? I have a 180 Stove and it boils 16 oz of water in under 6 minutes. Yes there is a little smoke on the parts, but it makes a pocket sized case that keeps the smoky parts INSIDE.
The cooking surface is as big as my burner on my stove at home and easy to feed fuel. I love this thing!
You may be putting your pot on too soon or using wood that’s a little wet. It really shouldn’t be too sooty that a small towel and packing everything into a bag shouldn’t handle tho.
If your all about the miles and saving time then yes, a gas or alcohol stove are quicker, but you can cut down the time with practice. For me tho the extra time and real wood fire help me relax after hiking and perk my spirits in the morning, kinda a primal thing. But free fuel is a nice bonus.
I pack both a woodgas stove and a small alcohol stove for convenience and backup. The little extra weight of the small alcohol stove and some fuel is negligible. Also most places that won’t allow an open pit fire will allow a contained fire which was why I started using them in the first place.
i think you should all stay in the city. if you cant hunt, cook and survive without carrying a stove into the woods you should stay the heck home.
Like most backpackers I have a collection of stoves, but the two I now take on most trips is my DIY wood gas and my DIY alcohol soda can stove(s). When I get into camp I fire up my soda can first and get water for my coffee,tea,cocoa heating up while I gather wood for my Wood gas stove to cook dinner. After dinner, I prepare the Wood gas stove for breakfast and setup the soda can stove for my hot tea, coffee, cocoa so it is ready within a few minutes of waking up and drink that first cup while sitting in my down bag while the wood gas stove begins heating my water for breakfast.
Like everybody knows each and every item has its drawbacks.
Stop criticizing without even able to do things right, stop talking about things or people if you do not know what it is all about.
I taught mz students and friends to light a small stealthy cooking fire with dry and dead leaves, twigs and dead but non-rotten wood which you have already collected on the road within a minute or two which burns first nearly, then almost without smoke. Native Americans said one who lights a fire that can be seen needs to be seen (needs help), is stupid or a white settler.
Dry the fuel if necessary, collect the right stuff, know how to get the fastest fire going on the trail your on and have a backup.
It’s all about preference of the user and up to his mastership, trail, weather, equipment.
Adapt to your enviroment.
Learn, get taught how to do things right. Find out tricks of the trade. Train. Get a master of the things you do.
Leave no trace.
Respect man, we all bleed when hurt. Respect earth, it’ s the only place we can live.
Do your best, take care of yourself.
nuff said,
Like most campers I have tried several of the gas stoves and found them to be OK till they break down and they manage to do that when they are needed the most. So i moved away from the gas stoves and to wood burners. Pick up the fuel as I walk along , no more liquid fuel sloshing around in the pack.
Switched to the Zip Stove and by using the fan you can control the fire but make sure you have spare batteries.
To get away from the batteries and lose some more weight I have been using the Trangia Alcohol stove when camping.
To get back to the wood burners I have gone with the Solo Stove ( The poor mans copy of the Bush Buddy ) and have the Trangia with some alcohol as a back up. The Trangia will fit inside the burning area of the Solo Stove and used as the heat source for cooking. The best of both worlds.
This double set up allows me to cook when the wood is wet or when I am just plain lazy and want a quick cup of coffee. Plus I still have some of the alcohol along as a disinfectant for any cuts or scrapes.
That is a pretty nice setup. I like the trangia because you can save the fuel you don’t need. The solo stove is also a really good value, I think.