Hot Tent Stoves - Wood Consumption?

[McGruff]

I've been thinking about a hot tent setup. Modern gear is so light a small titanium stove and pyramid tent could be quite feasible to carry around.

Has anyone here tried one of the mini tent stoves, something around the size of the Pomoly T1 mini (about 30x8x6 inches)? Would love to get a rough idea how much wood these little stoves burn per hour. I figured about 1kg but I've no idea really.

Thanks for your help

 

[Ystranc]

It varies with air flow, flue diameter and height. It varies with how regularly and completely you clean the flue or empty the ash. It varies with the kind of wood or how well seasoned it is. What I do know is that several of my friends have hot tent set ups and while they’re really, really pleased with them they all seem to end up going for canvas instead of lightweight backpacking tipee tents

 

[Danceswithhelicopters]

I went with a lightweight OneTigris Iron Wall tent with a Ti folding stove by Woods walker. With seasoned pre cut wood on a minus 5 night our wood lasted from 1700 to midnight well tended Banked up it went to 0200/0300 ish untended and we had a morning blast for an hour.

Rough calculation, using the new world industry standard (that I believe should replace the 'cord or cubic metre) was 2 bags for life.

 

[Ystranc]

I went with a lightweight OneTigris Iron Wall tent with a Ti folding stove by Woods walker. With seasoned pre cut wood on a minus 5 night our wood lasted from 1700 to midnight well tended Banked up it went to 0200/0300 ish untended and we had a morning blast for an hour.

Rough calculation, using the new world industry standard (that I believe should replace the 'cord or cubic metre) was 2 bags for life.

What kind of wood was it? That seems like quite a lot, our fire basket is 30cmx30cmx60cm and keeps our household woodburner going around 24hours if we burn hardwood such as ash.

 

[Danceswithhelicopters]

Hardwood, well seasoned, we left just under half a bag behind for future visitors.

 

[McGruff]

It varies with air flow, flue diameter and height. It varies with how regularly and completely you clean the flue or empty the ash. It varies with the kind of wood or how well seasoned it is.

Good point.

From what I hear these little stoves can easily heat a tent so I guess it would be running at 1/3 or 1/4 power most of the time, and up to full power now and then for cooking.

I'd be burning foraged, windblown Sitka spruce which will have had a chance to dry out over the summer in a well-ventilated pile covered by a tarp.

PS: thanks for the tip about canvas tents.

 

[Ystranc]

In that case spruce would burn hot and fast, also because it’s a softwood you would need to clean any tar or creosote out of the flue regularly to avoid a build up which could create sparks. Even one or two sparks making it past the spark arrester can ruin a tent.

 

[McGruff]

Thanks for the tip. Sparks and lightweight nylon don't mix...

I had wondered about designing some kind of secondary spark arrestor using a fine metal mesh. A large cover for the standard spark arrestor rather than something inside the pipe which might restrict the flow.

 

[Ystranc]

There is another way, there is a Russian designed titanium folding stove where the build quality looks rough as rats but one design feature is a secondary burn box at the bottom of the flue that recovers heat and stops sparks. You can’t buy one right now for obvious reasons but the idea is sound.