Does anyone have experience with these?

Solo Stove

vargo
i have this, same concept, put twigs in, light, heat water. i use alcohol stoves, and bring my vargo as a back-up, or just to play around with.
i have read great reviews on the one you are looking at. just need dry twigs.

I purchased the Solo Stove Titan a couple of months ago. I fired it up a couple of weeks ago and tested it in my backyard. I also purchased the Solo 1800 pot to go with it. I filled the pot just over half full with 1 liter of water and placed it in the stove. It was a fairly windy day. It took about 6 minutes to a rolling boil. I was impressed. I may bring it as my only source of cooking on my next trip. I also purchased a Flame Stower electrical charger to use with it to top off my DeLorme In Reach, camera (phone), etc.

With the Solo sale going on right now you can't beat those prices. 30% off the advertised price once you add something to your cart.

If you at all like to "tinker" do a google search for diy wood gas stove. If you look at images you will see a pdf document on how to make your own using a 1qt paint can. I've made a couple of them and they work quite well, but..... The disadvantage to these wood stoves, in my opinion, is that you have to have access to really dry twigs (which isn't always easy), and you cannot always light it and expect to have boiling water without adding more twigs once or twice. In other words, they have to be monitored pretty closely. The other consideration is that wood stoves like this get your cookwear dirty. They are also quite bulky. I've also made a couple of folding or breakdown styles and they also work with the same caveats mentioned. The wood gas style does seem to burn a little hotter once they are heated up good. I will sometimes bring my breakdown wood stove, as a backup and use it when I'm not in a hurry to get moving and have access to dry tinder. Honestly, they usually get left behind though as I'm not willing to make the jump to have a wood stove be my "only" stove.

I use a littlbug Jr. twig stove. Different design than the one mentioned in the original post as it's only single wall but I love it. I do all my cooking on it and only bring a small alcohol stove as backup.

It takes such a small amount of fuel in the first place I'm dubious of the efficiency advantage of a double wall and since the entire inside of the littlbug is open there's more room for sticks and it looks like it's easier to feed than the double wall models. Lightweight and packs into a thin little package that fits inside my cookpot with more than enough room left over for my cup and folding spatula.

Alan

I went ahead and bought it. (75 total for stove and pot) We do a lot of cooking over fire so the primary use will be for morning coffee. Maybe a side.... I never used a fuel stove, always a propane bomb and burner for coffee/sides. I hope this is an upgrade.....

Ah late again. Was going to,and will mention another interesting wood gasifying stove, TOAKS TITANIUM BACKPACKING WOOD BURNING STOVE

Have some Toaks cookware and like them. I do not use a wood burner but experiment with home made versions. This one interests me.

butthead

I'm another one who uses the Vargo Ti stove. Works well. I take it with as a backup and especially in the winter when out snowshoeing to heat up some water for tea, coffee or soup.

This is on my x-mas wish list. From my reseach on wood gasification stoves, everyone doesn't light/use them the way they were intended to be used. The larger chunks of wood go on the bottom and your kindling goes on the top. The point is to not over load it and to have a slower burn that has the secondary burn. Theroretically, if done right you shouldn't have to add any wood at all if you're just boiling water.

Funny thing was that of all the YouTube videos on these, only the foreign ones use them correctly. Here's a good video example of how the are ment to be used.

Proper use of Woodgas Stove

Brux, thanks for the link to the video. That is exactly how it works,

Just when I thought I was going to make it through a month without buying any new gear...thanks a lot!

Seriously, this is pretty interesting. May have to play around with this on a solo trip next spring.

Are any of these wood burning or alcohol stoves hot enough to fry fish?

I would say that the SoloStove Titan is capable of frying fish. They boil water fast but they are a little fussy to control the temperature with. You would want a thick-bottom pan. Have everything prepared and ready and watch it close.

I bring this as my backup stove. $4.99 at Walmart. I use wood instead of Sterno. Works great.

I just received my solo today in the mail. I am well pleased already. I'm going to take this and an alcohol stove on my next solo trip. I'll use my solo as the main stove. Also, I bought a two nesting pot set in the camping area in Walmart for $6 which includes a nice mesh bag and the solo fits perfectly inside the larger pot.

quote Canoe42: "I bring this as my backup stove. $4.99 at Walmart. I use wood instead of Sterno. Works great.
"

ditto

I have a solo stove and used it exclusively on a 5 day solo trip last year. The wind blew and it rained 3 of the these days but I still managed to cook all of my meals with the stove. When it was windy I did have to make a wind block with rocks, but that would be the same with most stoves. There is usually enough twigs, sticks, and pine cones around the fire grate to fill it up. Not only does it fry fish, but also the side of potatoes. I gathered a gallon zip lock bag of dry fuel the first day so that the rain wasn't a problem. A zip lock bag of small sticks doesn't weigh much in a pack. The solo stoves construction appears to be superior to many of cheaper versions. I did not buy the pot, it seemed over priced. When it was wet I would start the stove with my dry bag of twigs, then I would shave larger sticks to feed the stove (which is necessary if you are going to fix more than one item). I keep an emergency kit in my life vest with a couple of those white cubes that start fires (can't remember their name right now). I used one of these to start it once and it worked great when it was wet, but I didn't bring enough of them to use every time.

I love my solo stove and highly recommend it.

I got my solo wood stove for Christmas. I tried it out yesterday. It took me three tries before I got it to fully work. Once it finally took off it worked great. I do worry that if you needed water boiled very fast this wouldn't be the best stove to use, but if you were having a nice lazy afternoon this would work great.

I bought an Emberlit stove a few years ago and I always take it along. Like other twig burning stoves, they cannot be used during fire bans, so I use another stove as well. The nice thing about the Emberlit is that it packs away to about the size of a CD. It's like carrying nothing! I've never tired to fry fish, though I'm sure it would be fine. Great little twig burner!

Dave

I made one out of a coffee can, less than ten bucks versus ninety bucks, works great, used it this last weekend camping on the North Shore.