has anybody ever used one of these before, if so have you any feedback...looks interesting
http://www.woodgas-stove.com/?gclid=CMfI_6ONx5ICFRvs1AodkyQLbg
http://www.woodgas-stove.com/?gclid=CMfI_6ONx5ICFRvs1AodkyQLbg
Woodgas-stove, anybody used one??
- Thread starter redneck
- Start date
Yep I have one of the pre sts st ones, very effficient to boil, but not good for simmer, plus they require batterys so good for a weekend say but unless you have a way of recharging....
They are heavy, badly made in India, and there are better products in the market. Don't waste your money, I know I did!
I haven't tried one but was looking at them and the Bushbuddy. Earth Huggers is a UK supplier and is selling the fan assisted stove (the one mentioned in the first post in this thread) for £35 (smaller version) and say they are going to stock the larger version at about £50 very shortly.
With current exchange rates, the Bushbuddy is retailing at not much more than £50, though you may or may not be stung for import duty, seeing they come from Canada, and as far as I can tell from reviews here the Bushbuddy is a much better product.
It also seems a little 'odd' to me for a woodburning bushcraft stove to require batteries, though I do understand the design reasons for this.
Just my humble thoughts (where did I get that quote from
).
Geoff
With current exchange rates, the Bushbuddy is retailing at not much more than £50, though you may or may not be stung for import duty, seeing they come from Canada, and as far as I can tell from reviews here the Bushbuddy is a much better product.
It also seems a little 'odd' to me for a woodburning bushcraft stove to require batteries, though I do understand the design reasons for this.
Just my humble thoughts (where did I get that quote from
).Geoff
hm well if your feeling environmentally conscious about it you could reroute it to a small solar panel and then store the power. Still need a battery though unless you only want to cook in the day light hours <grin>.
Honestly, when you take it apart you'll marvel at the engineering inside one. The 1.5 volt hobby motor, the resistor which separates the high speed from low speed, and the hand cut piece of tin which is bent to make the fan!
The Bush Buddy is by far the superior cooker. I have one and the workmanship is excellent, the efficiency very good, but it does a have a few limitations. The stainless steel is so thin it feels flimsy when you first get it, but it does the job very well.
In my opinion, and I think I have tried most wood burning stoves currently in the market, it is great value for money and there's nothing else to touch it. You won't be dissapointed. Don't forget the website is in Canadian Dollars.
The Bush Buddy is by far the superior cooker. I have one and the workmanship is excellent, the efficiency very good, but it does a have a few limitations. The stainless steel is so thin it feels flimsy when you first get it, but it does the job very well.
In my opinion, and I think I have tried most wood burning stoves currently in the market, it is great value for money and there's nothing else to touch it. You won't be dissapointed. Don't forget the website is in Canadian Dollars.
I was listening to your Nomad podcast on the bus on the way home tonight...how about a podcast on wood burning stoves (or might that be too commercially biased)?
Geoff
Podcast I presume your talking about the post about the zzstove ?
As to the woodgas stove, theres nothing flimsy about it, in fact its a bit over designed for the task, the engineering is precise, if it was'nt it would'nt work as a pyrolysis stove, which it does very well, the electronics are simple because to be frank thats all it needs, and I believe there is a solar powered option now as well.
Like I said before for me the limits were its battery powered, (it does work without the fan, but no where near as well), which is combated somewhat with the solar powered attachment, its great for boiling, not so much for simmer, even on low there is a lot of heat output, its quite heavy, for its size and its quite big.
Hmm Im sounding negative, so be it, its a nice bit of kit, Ive used it in the field, but only to boil water while my trangia/clickstand combo cooked the meal.
However HUGE plus is the very small amount of fuel you need, basically a handful, literally of wood will bring 1 litre of water to the boil in about 5-7 mins, and at the end theres nothing but ash. For me thats a low impact stove, so what if you have to bring batteries, who doesnt in some form or another ? add the solar panel, admitted limited in the UK, but they do work.
Wayland has raised a few very real points on his recent posts, ok so this stove may not suit all, but its a very good mixture of low impact and technology, I think these kind of stoves have a place, alongside the hobos, and box type stoves, with our community, leaving no trace includes not denuding the local area for our cook fires.
damn, sorry that turned into something else, not deleting it tho, to much effort went into it
Stephen
As to the woodgas stove, theres nothing flimsy about it, in fact its a bit over designed for the task, the engineering is precise, if it was'nt it would'nt work as a pyrolysis stove, which it does very well, the electronics are simple because to be frank thats all it needs, and I believe there is a solar powered option now as well.
Like I said before for me the limits were its battery powered, (it does work without the fan, but no where near as well), which is combated somewhat with the solar powered attachment, its great for boiling, not so much for simmer, even on low there is a lot of heat output, its quite heavy, for its size and its quite big.
Hmm Im sounding negative, so be it, its a nice bit of kit, Ive used it in the field, but only to boil water while my trangia/clickstand combo cooked the meal.
However HUGE plus is the very small amount of fuel you need, basically a handful, literally of wood will bring 1 litre of water to the boil in about 5-7 mins, and at the end theres nothing but ash. For me thats a low impact stove, so what if you have to bring batteries, who doesnt in some form or another ? add the solar panel, admitted limited in the UK, but they do work.
Wayland has raised a few very real points on his recent posts, ok so this stove may not suit all, but its a very good mixture of low impact and technology, I think these kind of stoves have a place, alongside the hobos, and box type stoves, with our community, leaving no trace includes not denuding the local area for our cook fires.
damn, sorry that turned into something else, not deleting it tho, to much effort went into it
Stephen
I brought one of the stoves from Earth Huggers and have used it a couple of times so far without any problems, though you do have to take time preparing the fuel for best effect.
It does need to have pretty uniform wood sizes to work best and the smaller the bits the better, so can take a while breaking everything up. It doesn't work at all well with gaps between large lumps of wood. Still, thats what makes it great, in that you only need a few twigs broken up.
As has been mentioned before with the fan on high power this thing is very hot (i've seen it rated online at 10000btu) which is great for boiling water but not so great for cooking unless you're having a fry up. You really need to use it on low power for cooking, which is a bit more sooty. Best thing to do for a simmer is just turn off the power completely.
The efficiency of the burn on the high setting is great though, and with dry wood theres pretty much no smoke at all and it wont soot up the pans. I've also used it quite well as a space heater in my tipi where it heats things up a treat.
For those interested, Phillips have won awards for a stove the same as this only they have a piezo electric device to directly generate power from the heat coming from the burner itself, so the fan is completely self powered.
http://www.research.philips.com/newscenter/archive/2006/060227-woodstove.html
Bolt on a sterling engine generator and you have free electric for whatever you want.
Should make for some interesting mods.
It does need to have pretty uniform wood sizes to work best and the smaller the bits the better, so can take a while breaking everything up. It doesn't work at all well with gaps between large lumps of wood. Still, thats what makes it great, in that you only need a few twigs broken up.
As has been mentioned before with the fan on high power this thing is very hot (i've seen it rated online at 10000btu) which is great for boiling water but not so great for cooking unless you're having a fry up. You really need to use it on low power for cooking, which is a bit more sooty. Best thing to do for a simmer is just turn off the power completely.
The efficiency of the burn on the high setting is great though, and with dry wood theres pretty much no smoke at all and it wont soot up the pans. I've also used it quite well as a space heater in my tipi where it heats things up a treat.
For those interested, Phillips have won awards for a stove the same as this only they have a piezo electric device to directly generate power from the heat coming from the burner itself, so the fan is completely self powered.
http://www.research.philips.com/newscenter/archive/2006/060227-woodstove.html
Bolt on a sterling engine generator and you have free electric for whatever you want.
Should make for some interesting mods.
Some very interesting comments there on the fan-assisted stove. It's interesting to see that there are positive comments as well as negative ones. My understanding is that it was designed for somewhere like India where the availability of wood and its burning efficiency is important.
No criticism of Podcast Bob's comments on the quality of the stove intended here, but are we in the affluent West too taken up with high quality, rather than adequate quality? However, if I was spending £30 to £50 on a stove I would be expecting reasonably good quality - maybe the problem here is the price at which the stove is pitched for the UK market, rather than the item itself.
Geoff
No criticism of Podcast Bob's comments on the quality of the stove intended here, but are we in the affluent West too taken up with high quality, rather than adequate quality? However, if I was spending £30 to £50 on a stove I would be expecting reasonably good quality - maybe the problem here is the price at which the stove is pitched for the UK market, rather than the item itself.
Geoff
Good idea about doing a podcast on wood burning stoves, and I am currently waiting for a development on that front, as there is something which will appeal to bushcrafters and outdoors folk alike bubbling under in the industry.
However I can't say much more, and I'm REALLY dying to!!!
Geoff makes a fair point about horses for courses, re costs etc. The BB is 'currently' the best on the market many reasons which appeals to me. I have a feeling this new one will get a very big following very quickly, however they are struggling to obtain British manufacturing currently, as everyone seems to have packed their bags and gone to China!
However I can't say much more, and I'm REALLY dying to!!!
Geoff makes a fair point about horses for courses, re costs etc. The BB is 'currently' the best on the market many reasons which appeals to me. I have a feeling this new one will get a very big following very quickly, however they are struggling to obtain British manufacturing currently, as everyone seems to have packed their bags and gone to China!
I seem to remember that it was something to do with getting rid of the left over gas that is important. With stoves being used in enclosed areas, unburnt gases (or somthing else) has a negative effect on health. Pyrolisis stoves burn everything and therefore don't effect health, plus are more efficient to boot.
At least, that's what I seem to remember....
Though giving us an idea of when you might be able to say a little more could help some members not retrospectively think " I wish I'd waited just a little longer"
My home made fan assisted Hoblow Stove is just good enough to keep me from spending on a BushBuddy or Woodgas-Stove. I'd probably be tempted if something better than them came along though.
As I understand it, once the manufacturing agreements have been set up, announcements could be made in about a month. I can tell you the product has been tested and compares very favorably with the products mentioned above, but is also incorporates several features which allows much greater flexibility and function for outdoors users. Just a case now of getting the material weight and the cost down to a reasonable level.
Best I can do at this stage.
Best I can do at this stage.
As it happens yes, things have moved forward in the last week as luck would have it.
With the result that 2 stoves are on the cards, just waiting for prices and to finalize a couple of tweaks. I'm really pushing to have something to shout about in time for Christmas.
I still think it would make a great podcast, possibly a video one to compare and discuss wood burning stoves.
Its getting to Podcast season as the nights are drawing in ;-))
With the result that 2 stoves are on the cards, just waiting for prices and to finalize a couple of tweaks. I'm really pushing to have something to shout about in time for Christmas.
I still think it would make a great podcast, possibly a video one to compare and discuss wood burning stoves.
Its getting to Podcast season as the nights are drawing in ;-))
