Firefly wood stove (2.7oz) - totally badass

[Hosaphone]

Rather than add to the on-going discussion in other threads, I wanted to give this its own thread as kind of a mini-review.



First Impressions:

Got my FireFly stove in the mail today. This is my third wood stove, and I'm fairly certain it will be my last. I started out with the Ti-Tri caldera cone, got the inferno insert for it, picked up a bushbuddy, and just got this FireFly.

My FireFly weighs in at around 2.7oz with the flexport side option. The reinforced tyvek pouch QiWiz included weighs in at nearly 1/2oz so I probably won't use it. Luckily, the stove came in a great USPS tyvek mailer! I have also found that it fits perfectly on the bottom of my pot cozy underneath my 900ml pot. That would be the ideal way to store it for no weight penalty, but I'm thinking about changing to a smaller pot so that may not be possible anymore.



Had time to do ~5 quick burns in it today and am super impressed with this stove so far. I took it apart and put it together again in between burns just to try to gain more experience with it. Soot on the fingers is a complete non-issue. You handle the sides along the edges, and they basically just fall right into place when you're assembling it.

Feeding wood through the top with a pot on it is easy enough - par for the course, pretty much. The flexport is cool to have but I don't really see myself using it all that often. Kind of wish I had gotten it as a 5th side so I could just use the basic stove, but it only adds like .2 of an ounce so whatever.



Using it:

The thing I was most excited about with this stove is the fact that it has a mesh grate on the bottom. Theoretically this would make it easier to light because you can get at your tinder from the bottom. I have to say that this feature FAR surpassed my expectations. It is so ridiculously easy to get a fire going in this thing. It takes off like a rocket compared to my BushBuddy and Ti-Tri/inferno.

I think the tinder just has a lot more air available to it due to the open bottom design of the stove. For instance, in the BushBuddy when lighting tinder, if everything wasn't extremely dry I would often have tinder burning on one side and then have to work it over to the other side to get everything going and it was very precarious and a hassle. In the FireFly, all the tinder ignites very quickly, and burns much more intensely so it gets the kindling going faster too. Starting fires just feels much more "secure" - there isn't as much fiddling, huffing and puffing required because the fire can grab so much air, and all that air is feeding it from the bottom. It's a bit hard to describe but it just feels completely different from the other 2 woodburners I have used. I'm sure this is not unique to the FireFly and there are other stoves that are this easy to light, but compared to my BushBuddy and Ti-Tri it's an amazing difference.

With the BushBuddy I found the top-down burn technique to be the easiest because it was so hard and annoying to light tinder in the bottom of the stove. With the FireFly, though, I can just turn it on its side and easily light the tinder with a lighter. I found I could throw some wood shavings in the stove, light them, throw a few twigs in haphazardly, and immediately put the pot on while continuing to feed twigs through the top. With so much air available through the bottom grate, there is really no way to smother to flame this way. With the BushBuddy I need to wait several minutes for the flame to establish itself and start burning down before putting the pot on.

I know everyone loves the top-down method, but I find it to just not be very effective unless you have dry wood and excellent tinder. For 3 season hiking in New England, this is often not the case...


Boil with one load?

One thing I was hoping I'd be able to do with this stove is load it up once with wood, light it, and set it off to the side and have it boil 2 cups with no further feeding. The idea being that I'm at a shelter or something and it's raining, and I want to use wood. I want to be able to put the stove out in the rain, far away from people so the smoke won't bother them, and have it boil without me needing to sit there and feed it twigs.

I tried twice and was moderately successful. I put some wood shavings in the bottom and loaded it up with sticks as tightly as I could, lit the shavings, immediately put the pot on, and walked away. As expected this produced a ridiculous amount of smoke, but thanks to the grate on the bottom providing tons of air it didn't get smothered and go out like would happen if I tried this with my BushBuddy.

I was able to get weak boils both times I tried it in 30* temps with some wind and semi-rotten wood. No rolling boil, but it easily got the water hot enough that I could have cooked up a pasta side. I imagine I'll get better at loading the stove with more practice - I was kind of throwing sticks in wherever I could fit them. Can probably fit more if I turn the stove on its side and stack the pieces in vertically like that. Or I could just walk out and add a few twigs when it's halfway through burning.

It took around 6-7 minutes to get that weak boil after I lit it. It takes longer from start to finish this way since you need to carefully load the stove, but this technique could be useful from time to time.


Alcohol?

I decided against the multi-fuel option on my stove. Basically the multifuel option is just a couple little wires attached to support a wind screen, and an aluminum stand to raise the height of the alcohol/esbit burner.

I was aiming to be able to cook meals with 1/2 an ounce of alcohol. I figured this would require either the windscreen or a reflectix cozy. Since I wanted a cozy anyways to protect everything from soot on the pot, it seemed an easy choice to ditch the wind screen. This seems to have been a good decision.

I'm getting wimpy almost-boils with 1/2 an ounce of alcohol in a 12-10 trail designs burner, 25* temperatures on my back porch. I made my own little burner support to bring the burner closer to the pot. I will have to experiment more with other types of alcohol burner, as the trail designs one may not be the best choice here.

One trick for cooking with less fuel is to use less water. With less water to heat, the water you have will get hotter. You can also put your food into the water before putting it on the heat, which gives it more time to cook. I cooked up a pasta side this way. About 2 minutes in the magical reflectix cozy afterwards and it was perfectly done.



Conclusion

I'm very happy with this stove. I can only think of two possible improvements: It would be nice if it had hinges, although maybe not because that would add more weight. If a very minimal hinge design could be used and the weight kept under 3oz, it would probably be worth it I think. However I'm not sure if that's possible... I think it could also get away with using thinner titanium. My Ti-Tri seems to use a thinner material and does just fine burning wood. I don't know much about the properties of titanium, though, so I could be wrong there too.

The two main reasons I was interested in it were the low weight (one of the lightest wood stoves available) and the mesh bottom. It surpassed my expectations here and I already appreciate how much easier it makes bottom lighting.

...Anybody want to buy a BushBuddy?

[zelph]

Nice review, thanks for sharing your new found joy. Any container we buy to burn wood in should be a joy. Once we learn how to build fires in these little containers we'll be off to a good start. Only 3 ways to learn....practice, practice, and more practice.

[Starchild]

My question and concern is on the grate on the bottom, how would you expect that to hold up? I have experienced that any metal grate that is used to hold up solid fuel will eventually disintegrate, it's just a question of how long. Any thought to that?

[Old Hiker]

2nd question on the grate: (assuming hot coals and ash will fallout of the bottom) is it necessary to place the stove on a fireproof surface?

3rd question: how long do any coals last after the water boils for use?

Thanks.

[zelph]

...Anybody want to buy a BushBuddy?

Don't get rid of it till you learn how to make the firefly work. You have to be able to get the stove going well enough to be able to put a pot on it with out it going out. By the time the firefly gets to that point you may only be able to boil 1 cup of water. You may come to a point where you'll want the bushbuddies larger fuel capacity and better pot support. Videos of a stove in action are worth billions of photos We want to see how long from lighting with match to placing pot onto the stove without it going out. we want to see the smoke

[Hosaphone]

My question and concern is on the grate on the bottom, how would you expect that to hold up? I have experienced that any metal grate that is used to hold up solid fuel will eventually disintegrate, it's just a question of how long. Any thought to that?

Well I can't speak from experience, but the website says the mesh is made of stainless steel. I believe the bottom grate of the BushBuddy is also stainless steel and I haven't heard any bad durability reports there. I'm not really concerned about it at all and expect it to last for many years. I suppose if I'm wrong and it gives out after a couple years I can buy/make another one.

2nd question on the grate: (assuming hot coals and ash will fallout of the bottom) is it necessary to place the stove on a fireproof surface?

It's mostly just ash that falls out the bottom, and the coals stay inside because the openings in the mesh are pretty small (1/4 inch). QiWiz recommends putting it on a fireproof surface and/or using a piece of aluminum under it. This seems wise if you're on pine duff or other flammable stuff. I didn't use a ground shield and didn't notice any scorching. I'll probably forgo the ground shield and just be careful about where I use the stove.

3rd question: how long do any coals last after the water boils for use?

I didn't really have much time to experiment with this since I was in a rush and just wanted to start a bunch of fires and boil a bunch of water. I did pretty quick burns using a lot of little stuff that burned completely, leaving not much behind. This is one area that the BushBuddy may have an advantage in, I'm not sure. There tends to be a lot more "hot stuff" that accumulates in the bottom of the bushbuddy, though much of it is probably ash and not coals necessarily. But I think that the BushBuddy would probably stay hot longer because of its more enclosed design.

One thing you might be able to do if you want to cook things slowly or simmer, is to use the flexport and feed in just a couple bigger pieces of wood. This gives you a consistent, small flame.

I can experiment a bit with coals next chance I get - I never really waited for the coals to burn themselves out completely, just dumped the stove over and started again.

I know QiWiz also makes a solid floor which might be better for collecting coals. The Emberlit stove has a solid bottom but weighs 2+ ounces more.

Don't get rid of it till you learn how to make the firefly work. You have to be able to get the stove going well enough to be able to put a pot on it with out it going out. By the time the firefly gets to that point you may only be able to boil 1 cup of water. You may come to a point where you'll want the bushbuddies larger fuel capacity and better pot support. Videos of a stove in action are worth billions of photos We want to see how long from lighting with match to placing pot onto the stove without it going out. we want to see the smoke

So the thing about the FireFly is that I've been bottom lighting it. I literally just toss tinder in the bottom with a few little twigs, light it, add a few more twigs, and then put the pot on. It's like 30 seconds from lighting -> pot on top. I'm basically getting a flame started and then slowly building the fire as I go, rather than "loading it up" before lighting. The smoke is definitely worse doing this compared to top lighting with a BushBuddy but it's not too bad. I also have to wait like 5 minutes or more before putting the pot on with the bushbuddy unless the wood is really dry and/or small.

The times I fully loaded the stove up to try to burn in 1 load, I also bottom lit. Packed it as tightly as I could, lit the tinder on the bottom, and immediately put the pot on top. Because the tinder has all the air it needs from the bottom, it doesn't go out. It does produce an incredible amount of smoke, but in the situation where I would use this technique that doesn't matter. I wanted to be able to get the fire going out of the rain, and then put the stove outside with the pot on top once lit to avoid smoking out a shelter or tarp. This wouldn't be possible with a top-down burn because with the tinder on top you can't put the pot on too early or it chokes out the flame.

I expect that if I loaded the FireFly for a top-down burn, it would not be as effective as a top-down burn with the bushbuddy due to the small firebox and the fact that the only air comes from the top and the bottom grate whereas the bushbuddy has those "secondary combustion" holes near the top. I think you are correct in your assumption that by the time the stove gets going to the point that you can put a pot on it, it will have already consumed a lot of the wood you loaded.

However..... Here's a video of a top-down burn with the firefly using pot supports to keep the pot up a bit higher. I imagine this allows you to put the pot on much sooner and thus make better use of the wood. I will have to play around with this. There's also a shoutout to you, Zelph, at 5:50 in the video:

[msupple]

I also have a FireFly and always get a good boil from one loosely packed load. The difference is that I rarely boil more than 12oz of water. I also am a fan of the top down burn for two reasons. One...I think it lasts longer and two it's les smokey if you allow it to burn cleanly prior to placing your pot on the stove. Frankly I can't thing of ANY meal that I cook that needs more than 12oz of water. Most commercial meals are too soupy if I put in the recommended amount of water anyway. If I do need to boil more water I only need to put a few more sticks in under the pot to extend the burn time. The other thing is...I rarely if ever cook under a shelter. If I did I'd probably break out whatever backup fuel I would be carrying....normally an Esbit.

BTW...the supports for the Esbit and alky stove that are sold with the FireFly, work VERY well. He has obviously experimented with the distance between the fuel source and the pot as I am getting very efficient boil times with both Esbit and alcohol. I use one of Zelph's Starlites with the pot supports removed when I'm in alky mode. At this point my backup is Esbit. I can boil 12oz of agua with half a tab. Of course when in Esbit/alky mode a windscreen greaty increases efficiency. The windscreen supports weigh almost nothing and work great.

I think the FireFly is an awesome little stove and highly recommend it.

Cat in the Hat

[QiWiz]

I am always pleased when folks like their FireFly. Thanks for the positive feedback.

I had always lit my wood stoves from the bottom, taking advantage of the chimney effect of air flow though the stove. Then I kept hearing about the advantages of top lighting. Zelph is rightly a big proponent of this. His advice and others' (yes, you, Medicineman) made me try it and it can work well with less smoke, and if you load the stove up well, you can bring 3 cups of water to a boil on one load of twigs, even with a relatively small UL stove like the FireFly. The video included a couple posts higher (post from Hoseaphone) shows this technique.

But for you bottom lighting fans, here's a video I made very early on, right after I switched to 1/4" stainless steel mesh for the standard floor.


You can see that it is smokier, but works just fine and gets a hot fire going quickly if you use your tinder to get a loose mass of twigs lit, then feed the fire with more twigs as it gets going. This IMO is the best bottom lighting technique. If you want to pack the stove with twigs and hope to cook with just one load, you are better off using a top lighting technique. If your wood is damp or of poor quality, a bottom lighting technique might be the best approach, though you will get lots of smoke in the first part of the burn as the fire gets going.

So what do I do now with my own FireFly? Most of the time for a dinner, I use top down lighting with an open FlexPort that lets me feed longer twigs into the fire to keep it burning. In the morning, I usually just make quick fire with the Port closed to heat up water for coffee and hot cereal. I'll use top lighting if my twigs are dry and bottom lighting if they are not. So there you have it!

[QiWiz]

My question and concern is on the grate on the bottom, how would you expect that to hold up? I have experienced that any metal grate that is used to hold up solid fuel will eventually disintegrate, it's just a question of how long. Any thought to that?

The bottom mesh is welded (not woven) stainless steel with 1/4 inch spacing. Should last a good long while, and can be replaced if it does wear out. If you want a stove floor that lasts forever, I do have an optional notched titanium floor, and a perforated stainless steel plate floor.

[Hosaphone]

It's been raining off and on for the past 3 days, so I figured it was a good time to go out and do some more testing!

I didn't get the same "BLAST OFF!" effect with damp tinder and kindling as I was getting with dry stuff a few days ago, but it is still trivial to light compared to my BushBuddy. I just love starting fires in this thing.


However, I did find that even using all small pieces of wood, I was getting an unacceptable amount of smoke today. Even once the fire was going well, as soon as I'd put the pot on, it would just smoke like crazy. I haven't encountered this problem before with the stove - previously it seemed that no matter if I put the pot on right away, the fire was still able to suck up enough oxygen from below and it wasn't an issue. Not so today.

I'm sure damp wood didn't help the smoke issue, but I think that was only part of the problem. I'm pretty sure that for whatever reason - either due to the type, dampness, greenness or rottenness of the wood - the bottom grate was getting clogged up. I noticed I had a much more solid bed of coals in the bottom than I did in any of my previous tests - probably not a good thing in this case. I tried opening the flexport and that helped a little but I was still getting too much smoke.

It eventually occurred to me to use the large pot supports to put more space between the pot and the flame. Doing this pretty much solved the issue and brought the smoke down to BushBuddy levels, but it makes the whole thing less stable and I'm sure it's quite a bit less efficient (using my small-ish pot) if it's breezy. The loss of efficiency doesn't really bother me, but I'll have to make sure to find good, flat spots to put it.

I was hoping to avoid using the pot supports because it's just one more tiny piece to lose, but it seems like they might be necessary or at least very helpful in some situations. I suppose using them would also allow me to do top-down burns more efficiently, so maybe I should have been planning to carry them anyways. Maybe I'll see if I can buy a 10-pack of them from QiWiz if I develop a habit of losing them

Also, today further confirmed my finding that soot is a total non-issue. Had some very smokey fires and plenty of soot on the inside of the stove, but I've refined my method for putting it together and taking it apart and got almost nothing on my fingers. Due to the way the sides fit together, none of the outer edges are inside the firebox. This gives you a good surface for handling it. However, I often got a tiny bit of soot on my fingers when opening or closing the flexport door. You can do it with a stick or knife, but it's pretty stiff and is kind of a pain to do it that way.

All in all, still digging it. Easier to light, capable of bottom lighting OR top lighting, the flexport is actually pretty handy, and it saves me 3oz over my BushBuddy setup. Downsides are that it does produce more smoke unless you use the large pot supports, takes 30 seconds to put together, and has parts you can lose.

[MuddyWaters]

This is my third wood stove, and I'm fairly certain it will be my last.

You are obviously in denial of your problem.

[zelph]

but it makes the whole thing less stable and I'm sure it's quite a bit less efficient (using my small-ish pot) if it's breezy. The loss of efficiency doesn't really bother me,

Yes, he's in denial.

Any reason QiWiz doesn't design the stove so the pot supports are higher????

Are these stoves handmade or are they lazer cut cnc?

[1azarus]

Yes, he's in denial.

Any reason QiWiz doesn't design the stove so the pot supports are higher????

Are these stoves handmade or are they lazer cut cnc?

hello all. i have been enjoying the firefly -- have just top lit it so far, but will try bottom lighting when using wet wood next time. about the height of the pot above the flame-- i use a heine pot with the lowest pot holder rods that qiwiz supplies with the stove. the heine pot is so small it leaves plenty of air space... do you think there would be any advantage to having a heine pot higher on the stove? i also find it so easy to add wood from above with the heine pot because the corners of the stove aren't blocked by the pot.

[Hosaphone]

You are obviously in denial of your problem.

It's true... I have to admit I'm already pondering how I could make a Ti-Tri work better with wood. I love how ridiculously stable the cones are, how weight efficient and fuel efficient with alcohol they are... But man I just love how trivially easy it is to get a good flame going with the FireFly. I also find that I need substantially less tinder with the Firefly than I need to get my BushBuddy or Ti-Tri/inferno going.

It might work to weld together the grate/stand/inferno cone, because then you could pick it up and light from the bottom as you can do with the Firefly, and you don't have a bunch of tiny, invisible-on-the-ground-in-the-dark, easy-to-forget-they're-even-there parts to lose. But you'd probably lose the ability to store it in your pot if you did that. Maybe have have the grate part of the inferno attach to the cone with a slot+tab system like how the Emberlit floor attaches to the sides - this would allow the inferno cone to assemble into 1 part and eliminate the need for the grate stand. Now there's an idea...

But this thread is about the FireFly....

Yes, he's in denial.

Any reason QiWiz doesn't design the stove so the pot supports are higher????

Are these stoves handmade or are they lazer cut cnc?

Not sure how it's made.

Not sure why the built-in pot supports aren't higher. I guess you lose efficiency, assuming the fire is getting enough oxygen at their current level. Making the built-in supports higher would mean that the stove doesn't do as good a job at being a wind screen for alcohol, though you could counteract that by bringing an aluminum one. Would add a tiny amount of weight, but make the stove take up a little bit more room.

In theory, if the stove works as-is for most people, including pot supports as he does is a good solution, though I hate little parts that can get lost.

There could be some problem with my technique or something which was giving me lots of smoke. Maybe I shouldn't have jammed as much wood into the flexport or clogged up the corners with sticks.

hello all. i have been enjoying the firefly -- have just top lit it so far, but will try bottom lighting when using wet wood next time. about the height of the pot above the flame-- i use a heine pot with the lowest pot holder rods that qiwiz supplies with the stove. the heine pot is so small it leaves plenty of air space... do you think there would be any advantage to having a heine pot higher on the stove? i also find it so easy to add wood from above with the heine pot because the corners of the stove aren't blocked by the pot.

Interesting point. The pot I've been testing with has a ~4.5 inch diameter. The Firefly is only ~4.5 inches across on the diagonal so a more narrow pot probably doesn't block off as much air. If the flame is getting enough oxygen, I don't see any reason it would be useful to raise the pot further away from the flame...

Waiting to receive a new pot that should have around a 3.8" diameter. May work better with the firefly sans supports. The built-in supports are ~3.25" apart, so a 3.5-4" diameter pot may be just about optimal if you want to forgo using supports. Just speculation, though.

[zelph]

Hosaphone, get yourself a heine or foster pot like 1azarus uses on his stove. Then you can ditch the small parts. I sell some kick-ass foster pots with ridges and flat bottoms that are known to be stonger than the heinekens Also have a few esbit/alcohol burners to use as a companion to your stove. Easy to place it through the stoves side port.

[magic_game03]

This whole forum is as getto as a trailer park downtown. I'm lost in so many ways that I've made myself dizzy. After a long hard day of hiking the last thing I want to do is spend a half hour looking around for twigs, prepping a small fire. I watched the film and who ever geewiz is, it took him 17 minutes to get some bubbles on the bottom of his pot (and he already had the twigs ready). And that appeared to be under ideal conditions; no rain, dry twigs, fire was on stone, no wind, no adverse issues. So here are some of my questions...

What are you going to do at the shelter? burn on the table or in the shelter, or are you going to cook on the ground and keep stooping to check your food? What if it's pouring down rain and very windy are you going to use it in your tent or in the shelter with a dozen other hikers? what if it's one of those 40mph windy days? What are you going to do when you enter an area that doesn't allow burning except for stoves, you can claim you have a stove but a ranger is not going to see it that way when he hands you a $250 ticket. What if you're hiking and you just want a cup of tea, do you really expect to go through all that to get some hot tea. What if you want tea on top of a summit and there are no trees around, do you now have to pack in twigs? Why not just build a little camp fire with a high rock fire ring? I've used little fires my first thru hike and it seemed to get soot everywhere, am I to believe that soot is no issue? Where ever you put your pot it's going to rub off and eventually get on other things, yes? can you show us a video of how long it takes to boil in the rain? or after a big rain when everything is wet? or on a very windy day, like it often can be at, above 3,000ft? And tell us where you expect to start this fire (shelter/tent)? What happens if you need to boil something for a while, can you show us the video of you cooking a meal (and not ramen)?

sincerely,

Confused and Baffled

P.S. I don't doubt it's workable, in the middle of the summer I'm sure it's a champ, but it's raining hard here right now and I just can't imagine giving up my butane stove for that, especially like it is now.

[Hosaphone]

It would be hard to argue that a wood stove is "better" than alcohol, esbit or canister. You can save a substantial amount of weight by not needing to carry fuel, but the additional hassle factor is probably not worth it unless you're a bit crazy or just enjoy it.

I would also add that I'm not a thru hiker (yet!). I'm not sure if a wood stove would be a good fit for me on a thru-hike... I'd have to try it and see. It's possible that I'd get tired of the hassle and go back to using alcohol. On the other hand, maybe having a mini campfire for a few minutes while eating dinner would be a great way to end each day and would boost my morale. Thus far, for the shorter trips I do, I'm not the kind to want to eat and pass out as quickly as possible. That could very well change, I don't know.

That said:

I watched the film and who ever geewiz is, it took him 17 minutes to get some bubbles on the bottom of his pot (and he already had the twigs ready). And that appeared to be under ideal conditions; no rain, dry twigs, fire was on stone, no wind, no adverse issues.

Under reasonable conditions with twigs ready to go, you can go from stove setup -> boil in less than 10 minutes pretty easily.

What are you going to do at the shelter? burn on the table or in the shelter, or are you going to cook on the ground and keep stooping to check your food?

Find a place to sit, use it on the ground most likely. I haven't noticed any scorching and you could always put a piece of tinfoil underneath if you wanted to use it on a table or something, though the smoke may bother other people so maybe not a good idea.

What if it's pouring down rain and very windy are you going to use it in your tent or in the shelter with a dozen other hikers? what if it's one of those 40mph windy days? What are you going to do when you enter an area that doesn't allow burning except for stoves, you can claim you have a stove but a ranger is not going to see it that way when he hands you a $250 ticket. What if you're hiking and you just want a cup of tea, do you really expect to go through all that to get some hot tea. What if you want tea on top of a summit and there are no trees around, do you now have to pack in twigs?

I use a tarp, so if it's raining I can put it outside a bit and tend to it fairly easily while staying dry and without killing myself via CO or burning down a tent.

Worst case scenario - rain, other hikers, no wood, burn restrictions, just want a quick cup of tea, etc - you can carry a couple ounces of alcohol and an alcohol stove. 1/2oz plus a cozy can easily cook a pasta side or similar meal.

Why not just build a little camp fire with a high rock fire ring?

I think some people do do this... But it's a hassle, takes time, doesn't heat the water as efficiently and requires more wood, isn't LNT, much tougher in the rain, and it's about 200% easier to start a fire and cook something in a wood stove like this than it is to do it on the ground.

I've used little fires my first thru hike and it seemed to get soot everywhere, am I to believe that soot is no issue? Where ever you put your pot it's going to rub off and eventually get on other things, yes?

Soot is a complete non-issue. I have a reflectix cozy that helps for using alcohol more efficiently. The pot spends all of its time either on a stove or in its cozy. Keeps your food hot and your pants clean!

can you show us a video of how long it takes to boil in the rain? or after a big rain when everything is wet? or on a very windy day, like it often can be at, above 3,000ft? And tell us where you expect to start this fire (shelter/tent)?

Again worst case scenario alcohol is always an option. You can almost always find dry wood and tinder if you look in the right places, it's just more of a pain if it's been raining for days. One option is to carry a gallon ziplock and collect a bunch of tinder if you expect rain, or vaseline cotton balls will get even damp twigs burning. Once you get it going, the stronger the flame gets, the less it matters if you feed it damp wood.

What happens if you need to boil something for a while, can you show us the video of you cooking a meal (and not ramen)?

This is actually an area where wood stoves excel. Your fuel supply is basically infinite, so boiling something for longer is no problem - just keep tossing wood in. You can also control the flame by how you feed it.

P.S. I don't doubt it's workable, in the middle of the summer I'm sure it's a champ, but it's raining hard here right now and I just can't imagine giving up my butane stove for that, especially like it is now.

Can almost always find dry-enough wood. If nothing is readily available, you can grab any chunk of wood that isn't completely water logged/rotten and start a fire with it using a firesteel in the rain... It's just a question of how long you want to spend preparing fuel.

It's certainly not for everybody... I have a feeling after a month or two on the AT I would tire of it and switch back to alcohol, but it's hard to say. For the trips I do right now, a wood stove is fantastic. And you can always just use alcohol if you don't feel like going to the trouble.

[Hosaphone]

I have this habit of making ridiculously long posts

[Hosaphone]

I mean heck, my FireFly cooking setup weighs ~8oz for stove, alcohol stove, pot, cozy, big ziplock and tiny piece of towel. Could switch out the pot for a Fosters/Heinie can and drop that down to less than 6oz (though I wonder about the durability of a beer can pot when used on a wood fire?). Make the cozy out of Tyvek instead of reflectix and you're down to 5oz.

The lightest possible alcohol setup is probably around 2-3oz for stove+pot+wind screen. The Caldera Cone ULC with an 850ml pot is around 5oz for stove+pot+cone.

At 8oz for everything, even if I were to use alcohol 100% of the time, it's not a terrible setup for that and would still come in at less weight than many canister stove setups.

[MuddyWaters]

I think its great to play with different methods , and like reading about it. Thats how learning and improvement occurs.