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12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
great little stove Aug 19, 2009
By Umblevable
This stove works so well, it is almost too hot to fry something on top in a pan! I fill it with small chunks (cubes About 3/4" to 1") that I make out of old pallets, and this thing rocks! If you use sticks or twigs broken up they have to be DRY!!, and they don't gasify as long as my wood chunks do. We even cooked 14 ears of corn on the cob the other evening. It will boil water so easily.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Wonderful Aug 04, 2011
By S. Mayo
I got an XL for emergencies, but I pull it out occasionally in summer because it's fun to use. As promised, fuel can be twigs, dried bark, pine cones and just about anything else you can get to burn in a campfire. I've burned dried corn cobs and sawdust without problems. Once it's burning well, there's plenty of heat. It doesn't handle wet wood very well, and if you manage to choke out the fire you'll get impressive amounts of smoke instead of heat.
When you set the output to high (the fan has two speeds), you generally need to feed in more twigs as you cook, but the overall efficiency is little short of amazing. A few handfuls of twigs of thumb-thickness - or a few pieces at wrist thickness - will cook a simple meal. All that's left at the end is fine ash, and not a lot of that.
Note that it's fussier than a propane stove - you need to keep an eye on it and occasionally move the food to feed in a few more twigs, and the heat output tends to vary based on how much wood is left and what stage of burning it's at. Second, it needs batteries to run. You can buy a little solar charger from the company that sells it, to keep the batteries going, but it's a small and low quality charger. Third, getting it fired up takes practice - or a sized splash of lamp (paraffin) oil on top of the twigs, which works without fail, but brings you back to dealing with bottled flammables (since I use this outside my house, that's not a problem for me, but might irritate a backpacker). Finally, while I've yet to tip it over, I wish it had a wider base.
But it's much less fussy than cooking over a campfire, far more efficient, cleaner, and there's no fuel cost other than the occasional battery. No propane canisters to store or dispose of. It stows well and is simple and sturdy.
Addendum: Eventually I developed a problem with the solar power supply (the jack had a loose wire inside). I ended up replacing the cheap thing with a rechargeable 6v battery I had left over from another project, and a dozen or so 100ohm resistors in parallel. (6v without the resistors is probably not good for the motor, and produces a jet of flame that is not suitable for cooking.) This solution has worked wonderfully, and I've cooked dozens of meals on it. I love the fact that my property produces more free fuel (in the form of sticks and downed branches, and sunlight to recharge the battery) than I ever use. This is a great stove to own for outside cooking, and for emergency backup when the power fails.
As an added bonus, when the cooking is done and I put a pot of water on to clean with, most of the trash - napkins, most food packaging, even eggshells - can go into straight the stove, where they rapidly turn to ash. It makes for a neat and clean cooking solution.
Addendum: I routinely put this thing in a backpack (the XL takes up half of a small backpack, but there's space inside the unit for batteries, hot mat, lighter, spork and other necessities) and take short hikes in the Berkshires. The only time it's ever failed me was in a stiff breeze on a mountaintop - the fire burned fine, but the heat output was blown sideways by the wind, and it look a long time to cook breakfast. (Some aluminum foil around the stove may have solved this; I didn't have any.) Even the day after a rain, I can find enough burnable wood to cook.
As a backpacking stove, it's hard to know what to say about the XL. A single burner propane stove can be as light as 2 ounces; this weighs much more. Hardcore survivalists will not be impressed. A propane stove can give you heat in under a minute. In wet weather, you might spend fifteen fussing with this woodgas stove (unless you cheat with some white gas or paraffin oil). The heat from a propane stove is easy to adjust. The XL has two speeds (three if you count removing the power), and the kind and condition of the wood affect the heat output. And the propane stove doesn't need a battery, and a small canister of propane will last you a few meals easily. The only thing the XL (and better, the LE) really has going for it is if you're going to backpack for a month, dragging canisters of propane with you is more weight and annoyance than you would like (and you can't leave them behind, like you can a handful of wood ash). But I don't do that kind of backpacking.
But it's the XL I grab for short trips into the Berkshires, or cooking on my deck. I cook dinner over it, for me and my wife, every decent summer evening now, and with practice I've gotten to the point where I can pull off stir fries, stews and soups, pancakes, egg dishes, rice dishes, store mixes, as well as the usual burgers. A coleman toaster (intended for use with a propane stove) works well on this thing. I have a cast iron frypan I use for everything except eggs, and it's a perfect match for this stove. My wife couldn't be more pleased by this arrangement, and I really enjoy the fact that with a solar recharged battery, and free, deadfall branches from my property, I pay zero in energy cost, including hot water to clean up.
Maybe I like scrounging for my own fuel. Maybe it's knowing that it can't leak propane at me. Maybe I like fussing for a few minutes to get the fire going (though in dry conditions there's no fussing). And maybe I like knowing that if I got lost in the Berkshires for a month, and I could only wish to be that lucky, I'd be surrounded by free fuel anywhere I walked. But this is what I like to use. My propane stove is gathering dust.
Typical meal prep: cut up small pieces of a dry branch with a handsaw. Green Ash wood works fine. Pine works well but burns quickly. Dry oak is perfect.
Fill the XL 1/2 or 3/4th full, with some paper and twigs on top, and (if impatient) a splash of paraffin oil on that. Light, add the cross pieces, and as the flame starts to catch, put a pot of water on top. Once the flame seems established, start the fan. If the wood is dry, the fire will be too hot to cook on for a few minutes at least - which is why I start by boiling water for coffee or for later cleanup.
Once the fire settles back, it's frying pan time. A cast iron skillet is perfect, but I use light teflon pans when backpacking. You control the heat by adding small pieces of wood as needed, greener for less heat, drier for more. I occasionally find I have to move the frypan off the heat during cooking. Bacon fat and olive oil from cooking can be poured into the stove, a little at a time, but it WILL flare up. If you stop adding wood, what you get is glowing coals in the bottom, perfect for finishing up most meals. These turn to fine ash if you keep the fan going.
For cleanup, I put any burnable trash in stove, a piece of wood, and reheat water as needed for washing up. When done, dump the ash, blow out any remaining dust, and put in wood for next time. The residue heat dries out the wood and leaves you ready for the next meal.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 A Very Good Wood Stove Mar 13, 2011
By Pope Zeke IV
"There ought to be a Nobel violence award"
This Wood Gas Stove (WGS) is well worth having. If you like camping, then you should definitely consider having this. WGS burns clean, produces a lot of calories (boils 2L in less than 8 min.), and the fuel is, well, free (unless you are addicted to wood pellets). You can use from twigs to pine cones, even the BBQ charcoals.
It has a learning curve, so it takes a few attempts to run it smoothly, if you start with fire starters. If you use igniters, then it is no problem, just wait a few minutes, until the fuel catches a decent fire. Then you cook.
It can be used as the outdoor 2-person fireplace, and since it hardly produces smoke, when connected to the battery power, it is quite convenient. It transforms into a mini-BBQ, with the appropriately sized grill. If you do solo camping, LE should be good enough. XL is large, and it should serve multiple campers.
The construction is of an acceptable quality. Constructed of a thin gauge stainless steel, the stove is sufficiently strong and light. The stove is held together by aluminum rivets throughout. One problem: one of the aluminum rivets that hold the inner bowl to the outer shell could not handle the repeated heat stress. This happened after about 4-5 times of use. The rivet failure created a gap between the inner and outer shell, and the air leaked out, thus reducing the air pressure inside. I had to drill out the three aluminum rivets, and replace them with steel rivets. I doubt any of these three will ever pop again.
One thing was left with a room to be desired. The battery pack housing is of a shabby quality. For the price of the stove, the manufacturer should have invested a more quality material. I would have expected it to be of more heavy-duty construction, and offer a degree of water-resistance. If it get wet, I doubt stove would perform as intended.
Still another is the way the anchor for the tongue is attached to the stove body. Only two aluminum pop-rivets hold it flimsily to the side of the stove. When you grip the anchor with the tongue to move the stove, the purchase with the tongue does not give a solid feeling, and you can see the sheet metal bending around the rivets. I will probably add a couple more steel rivets, before it separates.
The motor and the fan are located at the bottom, and I was able to view its innards, courtesy of the broken rivet. Right above the intake hole through which the fan blows air, there is a 2.5 inch diameter steel ring of ½ inch height with the perforations along the circumference. It is through the perforation the air is forced up the side of the fire bowl. A cloth of steel mesh is sandwiched between the ring and a patch of fiberglass for insulation. Then the fire bowl presses down on the whole thing, which, in turn, is held down by the three, aforementioned rivets. So the motor is pretty well insulated, but I would make sure to run the motor a few minutes after dumping the ashes, in order to cool it down. Who knows what R value the patch of fiberglass has.
The WGS is constructed in India, and I believe the original manufacturing cost could not be more than a fraction of the retail cost. Although I feel the stove is sold at far above the reasonable price, its utility value is still well worth having one. Get one.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Good product Nov 04, 2008
By Biomass Guy
"Biomass Guy"
I bought two of these stoves and cut the bottom out of two walmart charcoal grills. I put a 14" square griddle on one of them and even made pancakes. Works very well on wood pellets.
The stainless steel handles repetitive abuse and the stove puts out the heat advertised. Lightweight, easy to handle and easy to light with starter gel. A useful piece of information is that butane lighters don't like to light when frozen, so if you plan on using this as emergency heat, get old fashion wood matches and starter gel.
A very good, versatile product. If you use it daily, get the AC power adapter or the solar charger, as you will go through a lot of batteries.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Impressive Heat Output Jul 04, 2010
By Stuart Kim
Just got the LX unit after watching a youtube video. Didn't know what to expect but this thing is really powerful for such a small unit. I first had some trouble learning how to get the thing going because I was using tinder that was not totally dry, but after I used some crumpled up newspaper for tinder, it worked great. I decided to test the heat output by boiling some water. I put about 2 cups of water and set the fan on high and I was shocked at how fast the water started to boil (definitely faster than my home gas range). I would definitely recommend this to a friend.
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