A Winter Stove Suggestion

[300winmag]

Since winter camping requires heavier everything one way to save on fuel weight IF you're going to be in a forested area constantly ia a wood burning stove.

My 1st suggestion is a Caldera Cone Tri Ti wood. alky. ESBIT stove.
It takes large sticks of wood so does not need to be fed constantly as do other wood burners. I packs flat or rolled around a bottle. It's light and VERY efficient if made to fit your pot on a custom order or a standard range of pots available form the company. The CC Tri Ti has a clever interior inverted cone & grate system for improved fuel combustion.

2nd is the efficient Canadian made Bushbuddy. It's the most efficient stove at combustion but much less efficient than the CC Tri Ti at using that heat. Plus it needs to be fed small fuel sticks constantly. You can't step away from it.

3rd is the Zip Stove using a battery powered fan. Been around for decades and works as long as the batteries and motor does.

4th are various forms of "Hobo Stoves".

[Mountain Wildman]

Also, The Littlbug Junior or Senior.
I have the Junior and it is large enough to use finger size or larger sticks and breaks down into 4 pieces, It's un-assembled shape is half moon and will easily fit around a cooking pot, sleeping bag or pad etc...

[zelph]

I recently made one that works well. The compact folding Woodgaz stove.

These are videos:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/th_Video29.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/?action=view&current=Video29.mp4)http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/th_2008-10-27085434.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/?action=view&current=2008-10-27085434.mp4)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/th_woodgazstovedemo2.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/?action=view&current=woodgazstovedemo2.mp4)http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/th_FoldingWoodgazburndemo.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/?action=view&current=FoldingWoodgazburndemo.mp4)

[SassyWindsor]

My favorite is the titanium Sierra Zip wood-burner, it makes burning damp wood a snap and you can regulate the heat pretty well using the 2 speed fan. I can boil water very quickly with it. Next, I have and like the Evernew DX wood burner. I can use various pieces of cookware with it, but I use it car camping as a second stove to my zip. I have several other stoves such as a multi-fuel msr, esbit, ect, but I will only use these if wood/fuel is a problem where I'll be camping for an extended time.

[garlic08]

My wife tried the Sierra Zip stove (regular steel model) on her AT thru. I was with her part of the time. We liked the concept and the logistics were working out fine, but the stove rivets failed (from heat) after less than 1000 miles. The mfr honored the warrantee and we were thinking of upgrading to the titanium model. But then a fellow hiker field-made an alcohol stove for her from some discarded beer cans at a road crossing and we thought that was very cool so we've been using that ever since. But I remain a fan of wood-burners.

[laser58]

I have used the Sierra Zip stove and as far as the performance, worked great. I just got tired of cleaning the black soot off the stove and pots every time it was used.
Am currently using the MSR 'pocket rocket'. Advantages are size, weight and quickness to set up and start cooking. Disavantage is fuel canasters cannot be refilled so need to be recycled. Have not used it in freezing temps yet and heard that may be an issue.



If you don’t know where you are going … life will decide for you …. tim allen

[Del Q]

Check out the Vargo titanium wood stove, was going to leave today but knee is not healed from surgery 6 weeks ago, use fuel from the woods with zero carry weight and all that you want or need is out there!

[MedicineMan]

I've played with a lot of stoves over the centuries but never a Sierra Zip...
I'd like to ask Garlic if during those 1000 miles if one battery lasted the whole time, and for anyone else who's used one, just how much cooking time can you expect from that sole AA battery?
Thanks.

[garlic08]

I've played with a lot of stoves over the centuries but never a Sierra Zip...
I'd like to ask Garlic if during those 1000 miles if one battery lasted the whole time, and for anyone else who's used one, just how much cooking time can you expect from that sole AA battery?
Thanks.

It's been nearly ten years, but I don't recall ever changing the battery. We didn't use the fan much either, just mainly for ignition. And we only used the stove for one quick boil each day--not for coffee, purifying water, baking bread, etc--so YMMV.

[Roland]

I recently made one that works well. The compact folding Woodgaz stove.



Nice craftsmanship, Zelph.

[300winmag]

The Caldera Cone Tri Ti gets its "Tri" name from its ability to use 3 fuels, Alcohol, ESBIT and wood.

It has an alcohol burner, an ESBIT "Gram Cracker" fuel holder and the Inferno inverted cone & screen wood burner. This is the beauty of this versatile and very efficient stove. Plus it dissambles flat or can be rolled up for storage.

Since I dislike alky stoves I'd carry the nearly weightless Gram Cracker ESBIT holder and some extra ESBIT fuel tabs as a backup for wood.

Eric

[SassyWindsor]

I have used the Sierra Zip stove and as far as the performance, worked great. I just got tired of cleaning the black soot off the stove and pots every time it was used. .........


The black soot makes the pot(s) heat a little more quickly. Just place stove inside pot and place all in a small stuff sack. I also use the sack to collect wood or as a sandbag (if needed) when in camp.

[zelph]

Thank you Rolond:) My wood burning this year has led me to be a vertical stacking, top lighting convert. I used to bottom light.

I clean my pots once every year with liquid chaffing fuel.

My pots get a hard shell coating, not much soot. I'll see if I can do a new video of how I clean them.

[BlueRay]

I jut got a 'Svea 123' from Optimus, working white-gaz. It's not the lightest, but very reliable (!). Self pressured. I LOVE it!

[unclemjm]

I recently made one that works well. The compact folding Woodgaz stove.

These are videos:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/th_Video29.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/?action=view&current=Video29.mp4)http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/th_2008-10-27085434.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/?action=view&current=2008-10-27085434.mp4)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/th_woodgazstovedemo2.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/?action=view&current=woodgazstovedemo2.mp4)http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/th_FoldingWoodgazburndemo.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/obijiwa/Woodgaz%20Stove/?action=view&current=FoldingWoodgazburndemo.mp4)


Nice craftsmanship, Zelph.

+ 1 on the Craftsmanship

I have this particular stove as well as several other from Zelph's creative productions and they are all great.

The best part about the Woodgaz, beyond the cool factor of folding and lightweight, is that with one top load fire, I have boiled 2 pots of water, (2 cups per pot), in 6 minutes each and one more pot of the same volume to near boil, (bubbles forming on the bottom but not rolling), in 6 more minutes without needing to add any wood. (That last pot would have made it to boil in another minute or two I bet but half time was over and I had to get back inside to watch the rest of the football game.)

It's a great stove and I highly recommend it. :clap

[Tom Murphy]

SVEA 123R if we are talking about the deep cold.

[zelph]

+ 1 on the Craftsmanship

I have this particular stove as well as several other from Zelph's creative productions and they are all great.

The best part about the Woodgaz, beyond the cool factor of folding and lightweight, is that with one top load fire, I have boiled 2 pots of water, (2 cups per pot), in 6 minutes each and one more pot of the same volume to near boil, (bubbles forming on the bottom but not rolling), in 6 more minutes without needing to add any wood. (That last pot would have made it to boil in another minute or two I bet but half time was over and I had to get back inside to watch the rest of the football game.)

It's a great stove and I highly recommend it. :clap

Thank you unclemjm for the awesome feedback. The more you use the stove you'll be more inclined to find reasons to heat water.:) It was exciting to do the research this past summer on top lighting and how to stack the wood in order to get consistent ignition. The woodgaz is slighty larger than the BushBuddy and can get double+ the boiling capacity in one load of wood. I know many of the wood stove users claim to enjoy feeding twigs to get a boil. With the Woodgaz my twig feeding days are over. No more having to put up with getting smoke in my eyes.

Thanks again unclemjm:banana

Merry Christmas to all!!!!

[300winmag]

Murph,

For over a decade (70s+) I used a SVEA 123 year around with a SIGG Tourist cook set. Great little stove. Then I got an MSR Dragonfly so I could also bake. An even safer/better stove with its remote fuel tank and low simmer ability.

But a Caldera Cone Tri Ti with the wood burning Inferno inverted cone is very efficient for winter B/C the outer cone, which surounds your pot, conserves heat better than any other wood stove I know. Thus it would be fine at below 0 F. temps., especially if you had access to dead hardwood sticks, as you do back east.

Eric

[zelph]

Murph,

For over a decade (70s+) I used a SVEA 123 year around with a SIGG Tourist cook set. Great little stove. Then I got an MSR Dragonfly so I could also bake. An even safer/better stove with its remote fuel tank and low simmer ability.

But a Caldera Cone Tri Ti with the wood burning Inferno inverted cone is very efficient for winter B/C the outer cone, which surounds your pot, conserves heat better than any other wood stove I know. Thus it would be fine at below 0 F. temps., especially if you had access to dead hardwood sticks, as you do back east.

Eric

Hi Eric, do you have any favorite video links of the Tri Ti being demonstrated?

[JaxHiker]

Check out the Vargo titanium wood stove, was going to leave today but knee is not healed from surgery 6 weeks ago, use fuel from the woods with zero carry weight and all that you want or need is out there!

Do you have one of these? I've been tempted but haven't dropped the jack yet.

I like my Svea 123 for cold weather. As it's been said, it ain't light, though.

[300winmag]

Zelph,

Video links for the Caldera Cone Sidewinder Inferno exist under the Finnish backpacker Heindrik. Just search on YouTube or at Backpacking Light for Inferno videos.

As for the Vargo Tri Ti I know of no videos.

[way out there]

There's a new stove just out! it seem to be a multi tool for fire. it folds up to one third of an inch thick. it's a top load twig burner but can be set up for a alcohol stove or a wind proof isbit stove. very well made, stainless steel. A bit heavy but no need to carry fuel. this thing is so cool it's worth the weight to me. www.foldingfirebox.com the burn chamber is raised up and it has a ash pan so no trace. it also has a wind damper and these stainless sticks they call fire sticks these are used for many things including skewers for roasting food. anyway I love mine because it can be a big camp fire or a super efficient small flame stove. very versatile

[MedicineMan]

When I cannot find a stated weight within 10 seconds of scanning the main page I know
its not for ME or my backpack. The kayak yes, the paid Sherpa yes.
Yes there is a new stove for backpacking that can burn any fuel anywhere and packs even flatter.
There is a stated weight of 5.4 ounces in Ti and its spot on via my postal digital.
Emberlit

[Lyle]

I've use a Svea for 30+ years. 70's, 80's and 90's year round, since then for winter. Early on, the Svea wasn't considered a full-on winter stove, others were easier to keep pressurized. Did learn tricks though to make it work.
- Hold burning paper underneath briefly to warm it before trying to light it.
- Use extra priming fuel, sometimes need to prime it twice
- Place the stove in a small square of closed cell foam, just big enough for the stove - keeps the warmth from the tank from getting sucked into the frozen ground

Been out numerous time well below zero and never failed to have a hot dinner. Great little stove, but quirky, and they're all a little different. Have to develop a "relationship" but it's worth it.

[Tinker]

If you use alcohol in the winter, sleep with the fuel bottle and the stove will start much more easily in the morning and reach max. temps. more quickly (works with canisters and white gas, too). Sleep with your water bottle, too, for the same reason, regardless of what fuel you use. If you carry a metal water bottle (I carry a stainless 40 oz. one), you can set it by the fire (should you decide to have one) and melt snow until you go to bed. Put the bottle in an insulated holder or a heavy wool sock and take it to bed with you. It will keep you warmer the first half of the night (or better) and you will keep it warmer until you need to cook with it in the am.


One more thing while it comes to mind (I forget more often than I remember :\ ), titanium is a poor conductor of heat so it doesn't make a good alcohol stove. Alcohol stoves are very dependent upon a metal which conducts heat from the flame back to the liquid inside. Aluminum is the best, brass is next (copper would be excellent except that it's too soft). Steel (stainless or not) and titanium are not suitable when efficiency is important (since so much heat is lost to the air, extreme winter weather sometimes makes alcohol stoves very, very inefficient, making you carry way more weight in fuel than you would if you used white gas or kerosene).

[Wolf - 23000]

300winmag,

First rule of winter hiking is you don't play games. Bad things happen very fast. If you asking the question about stove then the also clearify where and when. A wood burning stove may work find in Nevada or the southern Appalachian Trail but try winter hiking in northern New England and you are asking for trouble. For serious winter hiking I liked the MSR Appex. It runs on gas burns hotter than wood and is needed to melt ice/snow.

Wolf

[English Stu]

If I was melting snow for water I would use my MSR Simmerlite.
I enjoy the BackCountry Boiler, I use it extensively in the UK and it now has a felt wick for use with alcohol. The chimney design means that soot is not a problem, a bit of a smell of smoke. I store in my pack after two polythene bags;one for the stove ,then the stuff sack and then another poly bag.You need to get into the swing of looking for dry wood ,especially in the winter.
I used a Bushcooker stove on the AT which is lighter and a fine stove, but I find the Boiler just beats it.

[way out there]

If you haven't seen this one, It's worth a look! It burns tabs, alcohol or wood and is variable output from a small flame stove to a nice size camp fire www.foldingfirebox.com (http://www.foldingfirebox.com) It's stainless steel

[Don Newcomb]

I've played with a lot of stoves over the centuries but never a Sierra Zip...
I'd like to ask Garlic if during those 1000 miles if one battery lasted the whole time, and for anyone else who's used one, just how much cooking time can you expect from that sole AA battery?
You'd be very hard pressed to find one, but the Markill Wilderness Stove had an optional solar panel to recharge the battery & power the fan.

[Don Newcomb]

One thing to keep in mind with all wood burning stoves is that they are very dirty. If there is a chance you will be forced to cook in the tent or vestibule, you will need another option, such as a small alcohol burner.

[Tipi Walter]

300winmag,

First rule of winter hiking is you don't play games. Bad things happen very fast. If you asking the question about stove then the also clearify where and when. A wood burning stove may work find in Nevada or the southern Appalachian Trail but try winter hiking in northern New England and you are asking for trouble. For serious winter hiking I liked the MSR Appex. It runs on gas burns hotter than wood and is needed to melt ice/snow.

Wolf


One thing to keep in mind with all wood burning stoves is that they are very dirty. If there is a chance you will be forced to cook in the tent or vestibule, you will need another option, such as a small alcohol burner.

These are some good points. My main complaint of the wood burners is the nasty weather often encountered whereby most of the cooking will be inside the tent vestibule. On my last trip (this October) I spent 8 days of the 18 huddled up inside my tent during butt cold rainstorms cooking up meals with my white gas Simmerlite. A wood stove would not have worked. Plus, in blizzard conditions you don't want to be a) digging thru the snow looking for twigs, and b) squatting outside in the wind and cold and spindrift nursing a woodstove to life and waiting for your stuff to boil or cook. This thread is about winter camping, right?

[Doc Mike]

[QUOTE=Wolf - 23000;1209771]300winmag,here is my .02

First rule of winter hiking is you don't play games. Bad things happen very fast. If you asking the question about stove then the also clearify where and when. A wood burning stove may work find in Nevada or the southern Appalachian Trail but try winter hiking in northern New England and you are asking for trouble. For serious winter hiking I liked the MSR Appex. It runs on gas burns hotter than wood and is needed to melt ice/snow.

Before gas stoves I assume it was impossible to camp in the winter. Or is that only in the northeast no one winter camped or went on hunting trips or spent nights outside before gas stoves. Not saying gas stoves aren't nice to have, I'm just saying because one way may be best it doesn't make it the only way.

example.
When driving down the interstate you don't play games. Bad things happen very fast. If your asking about driving then clarify when and where. A car with no airbags may work fine in areas of less traffic but in high traffic your just looking for trouble. For serious interstate driving I like the 12 air bag version. It is much safer when in an accident and is needed in case of dramatic roll over.

[Tipi Walter]

[QUOTE=Wolf - 23000;1209771]300winmag,here is my .02


Before gas stoves I assume it was impossible to camp in the winter. Or is that only in the northeast no one winter camped or went on hunting trips or spent nights outside before gas stoves. Not saying gas stoves aren't nice to have, I'm just saying because one way may be best it doesn't make it the only way.


Portable stoves have been around since 1850 and people have been using them for camping since then. Before that early human shelters, even portable ones, were designed to allow for an open fire inside the shelter, such as the early hide tipis and witu/wickiups. These shelters were also portable as noted, and so no, people didn't start living outdoors with the advent of portable stoves. The modern backpacker as a rule doesn't carry a shelter that can allow an inside fire or firepit or an open source woodstove, although with the coming of the enclosed woodstove came a real step forwards in survival using primitive shelters---see the Titanium Goat and the Kifaru tipis with their portable woodstoves and stovepipes, etc.

As for me, I won't have an open fire anywhere near my Hilleberg tent. In a long survival situation during the winter I'll just build a simple tipi and haul in a woodstove---otherwise my winter survival comes from woodstove replacement items: A dang good down bag, a high Rvalue pad, a four season tent, and ample goose down clothing for in-camp lounging.

[Don Newcomb]

Looking at old camping and hunting books; people did go camping and hunting in the winter, just not the way we do it. The use of pack animals was much more common so equipment could be heavier. Woodcraft was encouraged and people tended to build significant camps.

[Tipi Walter]

Looking at old camping and hunting books; people did go camping and hunting in the winter, just not the way we do it. The use of pack animals was much more common so equipment could be heavier. Woodcraft was encouraged and people tended to build significant camps.

Now LNT butts heads with the bushcraft types. This is a whole other subject with some controversy.

[Don Newcomb]

Now LNT butts heads with the bushcraft types. This is a whole other subject with some controversy.Of course, I'm not encouraging woodcraft, just stating that it was a common and accepted practice until rather recent times.

[QiWiz]

+1 on Caldera Cone Ti-Tri. Love mine!

[Snowman55]

The Stratus Backpacking Wood Burning Stove works very well for winter camping. Light, well made, nests with grease pot perfectly for transport and even provides heat for you to warm by if you keep it fed with wood.

[Papa D]

I like bushcraft and I like the craftspersonship of the wood burners - cooking with fire (or a wood-burner now and again) is good skill building but for a winter stove - and I assume you mean winter - cold rain, blowing snow, sleet, etc., the MSR Whisper-light (or similar gas stove) is my go-to stove. See Tipi Walter's post. Tipi carries an awfully heavy load sometimes (I've seen him out a good bit) but he absolutely "gets it done" in comfort in the worst of conditions.