EDIT: This is the newer style of Primus fuel bottle, with a matte finish instead of the glossy finish so ubiquitous in the fuel bottle market today. Continue reading
Stoves
Emberlit Mini Review
Base stats:
– BTU: 4-9K depending on wood
– Weight: 4.5 oz
– Stove comparison chart
The Emberlit Mini is an amazing stove.
As a multi-fuel stove, this rocks, fitting alcohol stoves, sterno fuel cans, esbit style fuel gels, charcoal, and of course wood. Continue reading
Quietstove Silent Cap – Primus OmniLite TI Review
The Primus Omnilite is a seriously loud stove. Pretty ridiculous, actually. For this reason I purchased the Quietstove Silent Muter Damper Cap, in the hopes of reducing decibels in the evenings. And it works ridiculously well. Continue reading
Short Folding Camp Stove Windscreen Review
Depending on how you use it, this is either a godsend or a waste of money.
If you plan to use it with a pressurized gas canister based stove, it’s pretty useless because the height of the wall is just too low. With most of these setups, the stove portion fits on top of the gas canister so right there, the flame is above the reflector wall. no stars for this use. Continue reading
Soto Windmaster + 4Flex Stove Review
Base stats:
– BTU: 11K
– Weight: 2.3 oz
– Stove comparison chart
Truly the best of the best of compact stand-alone LPG gas canister stoves. It has become my goto.
While it’s too bad that it doesn’t fit in a cup along with a gas canister and utensil, which would be ideal, this gas canister based unit has one incredible advantage in addition to the wind resistance, and two small negatives. Continue reading
Soto Compact Foldable Stove Review
Base stats:
– BTU: 11K
– Weight: 5 oz
– Stove comparison chart
This thing is truly a work of art.
It’s hard to believe that a stove setup could be this small.
This stove has two critical advantages:
First, it’s so small that when all folded up, it can fit inside a GSI Halulite mug (solo) sideways. SIDEWAYS!!! This means that I can have a gas canister, silicone pot holder, tiny folding utensil, AND this stove in the GSI mug and still completely close the silicone lid. Continue reading
TALL Folding Camp Stove Windscreen Review
I’m a huge fan of wind screens. Even the tiniest breeze can dramatically affect cooking times in the outdoors. and wind screens act both to stop heat stealing wind, as well as reflecting heat, which further increases heating efficiency. When you use liquid fuel or pressurized gas, where fuel consumption is calculated in minutes instead of hours, every tiny bit of heat efficiency is the absolute order of the day. Continue reading
Jetboil PCS Hanging Kit Review
Woah, didn’t realize how well this thing worked.
Light, incredibly compact, but highly useful on uneven ground.
The Jetboil Sol is such an efficient system that a simple (ingeniously simple), triangular rod and steel wire setup like this works very well. Continue reading
Primus OmniLite Ti Stove Review
Base stats:
– BTU: 8900
– Weight: 2.6 lbs (including pump and bottle and bag)
– Stove comparison chart
(Long Term use update at bottom)
I own most of the currently sold liquid fuel stoves as well as quite a few older ones, and to my mind, the Primus Omnilite is the best choice of a fairly good sample of liquid fuel stoves for flexibility, compactness, fuel efficiency, and reliability, though, it has couple of small negatives.
Continue reading
180 Tack 180 Stove Stainless Steel 10.4. Review
Base stats:
– BTU: 4-9K depending on wood
– Weight: 16.2 oz including snow and ash pan
– Stove comparison chart
EDIT:
First off, 180 stove sent me a replacement because they wanted to analyse the warping.
That warping was pretty easily cleared up as i was essentially over-abusing the stove, both in terms of going way too hot and cooling things down way too fast. Continue reading
Solo Scientific Aurora FireStarter Review
To start with, I don’t know very much about magnesium or other fire-starters, so my review here might be moot for those more experienced.
There are a few main advantages to becoming skilled at using magnesium starters. First, piezo igniters, often used in gas canister stoves, is basically a crystal that is charged electrically and they begin to fail (work intermittently) at around 10k feet and hardly work at all at around 13k feet, whick means jet lighters won’t work either. Neither will regular flinter lighters like cheap bics. As they are pressurized and don’t work well in cold weather or high altitudes. Continue reading
UCO Grilliput Portable Camping Grill Review
Base stats:
– BTU: 4-12K depending on charcoal
– Weight: 2lbs (32 oz)
– Stove comparison chart
SHORT ANSWER: Great idea, Kinda Meh.
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Here’s the short review: If you can deal with the extra lb, this device is a good device to have in a pinch.
It’s highly compact, weighted well indicating a reasonable level of quality, and because something is better than nothing, I highly recommend this for when wood burning campfires are your only option. Continue reading
Esbit Pocket Stove for Solid Fuel Tablets Review
There really isn’t that much to say about this emergency stove. It is what it is.
The photo shows the walls vertical at 90 degrees, but there are notches in the hinge that allows the walls to lock at 45 degrees, which is better for smaller items like a cup instead of a kettle, and probably helps in windy situations. Continue reading
Camping Stoves and Other Gear Reviews 