[pct-l] wood burning stove

[Sean 'Miner' Nordeen]

>> 3) They can be more efficient by directing the fire energy to the
>> bottom of the pot. So you don't have to gather much fuel.

>I don't think this is true, at least not by my personal experience.  
>With a stove, I have to constantly lift the pot and put in another  
>couple of sticks. This ends up limiting the time the pot is in  
>contact with the heat and expanding the number of sticks I have to  
>use. With a fire, I just place the stove on the sticks and the water  
>is hot really super fast. Even better is to wait for coals.

I'd have to disagree with the disagreement here.  This may not be the case with all wood stoves as I haven't used very many different models.  But I have used cooking fires.  I also own the wood stove listed in the Original question (ie. the Bushbuddy stove) and it is more efficient then a small cooking fire (which is different and has less impact on the soil then a typical campfire as it doesn't burn as hot or use as much wood).  

In the case of the Bushbuddy, I need far less wood to cook with then an open fire and can easily use junk fuels such as dung or grass. A little fuel goes a long way and it completely burns down into a finer ash then I've seen in a small cooking fire as it burns very hot and completely due to its design (its attempting to to acheive gassification). And there is no moving of the pot to feed more sticks as there is an opening for that very purpose in the pot stand.  However, due
to its small size and the small size of the wood used (ie. figure diameter or less), you do have to feed it often.  The stove bottom is insulated enough from the flames that it doesn't heat up the ground under it and thus not killing the soil.
In fact, if you are very careful, the stove can be moved while its burning by touching the bottom area only.

The bushbuddy is a well built and thought out stove design, though perhaps not worth the money I spent on it, since there are many good designs on the web that can be built at home that even if they aren't as efficient or nice looking, they still get the job done.  Another interesting stove is Titanium Goat's TItanium version of the alcohol Caldera Cone as it allows for wood burning.  It isn't as efficient at burning wood as the bushbuddy stove and it will leave a tiny scar on the ground since its only a little better then an open fire, but it does allow you to use esbit,alcohol or wood in one stove and thus might be better for a thru-hike if burning wood part of the time is your thing.

-Sean "Miner" Nordeen


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