Customer Reviews

Woodgas Camp Stove LE

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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, making it almost as hot as a propane stove. But it doesn't tolerate wet wood very well, and if you manage to choke out the fire you'll get impressive amounts of smoke instead of heat. Keep substances that burn with low heat (wax, plastic) out of it.

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 will cook a simple meal. All that's left at the end is fine ash, and not a lot of that.

Why not 5 stars? First, it's a little 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, and even going all day in bright sun, I question whether it would really keep the batteries full, if the stove was used 3 times a day, every day. Third, getting it fired up takes practice - or a teaspoon 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. 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 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 hiked down to Tannery falls in the Berkshires. All we had was wet wood (it had rained the right before), and starting the stove took a little patience, some birch bark and a little olive oil. But once going it burned well, and the small stock of not-completely-soaked sticks we gathered boiled water, cooked a simple meal and then boiled water again for cleaning up. The total waste was a quarter cup of fine ash.

Now, 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. 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. 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 in my backyard. It might be that the kind of cooking I do is Guy Cooking, and I don't need fine control of the heat. Stew, soup, coffee, meat, pancakes (set the stove to Low!) and eggs is pretty much all I ask of it. 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 very little 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.

I tried my new LE Campstove out for the 1st time using wood pellets. I took a while to get the stove started and it smoked a lot during the process. Once it stared burning it worked grate. I was surprised how cool the outer case stayed with such a hot flame inside. The flame went out before all the pellets were used up and then more smoke. I thought the Hi/Low plug in was cumbersome and hazardous to use. The battery pack should have had a Hi/Low switch on it. With more practice using it and some modifications the Battery box this should be a pretty cool little stove.

I picked up a Woodgas Camp Stove LE to either supplement or replace my MSR Rocket Stove. I had a chance to test the stove out this weekend on a 3 day camping trip. The unit comes in a drawstring bag and is about the same size as my GSI Soloist Cooking kit.

For fuel I used twigs, pine cones, and wood chips left from previous campers. Lighting the stove was fairly easy. I put the fan on low, filled the unit with fuel, and lit a piece of cardboard and slid it in. The stove smoked a bit but once a decent flame was going, there was very little smoke at all. At that point I put the fan on high.

On high, the fuel was consumed pretty quick and required dropping in twigs and pine cones pretty regularly. My little pot of water didn't come to a full rolling boil for about 20 min. In comparison, my MSR Rocket Stove can bring the same amount of water to a boil in about 2 minutes.

As mentioned by another review, the amount/type of fuel makes a big difference. The denser the fuel, the longer the burn time and hotter the flame. I imagine the XL version is large enough to hold enough material to compensate.

The LE will work fine as a supplement which is my primary purpose since my MSR Rocket Stove pretty much only has one temperature... blazing hot. But I wouldn't want to count on the LE as my only stove. The XL would probably be fine as a primary, though.

I will admit though, that it is satisfying being able to use material lying around instead of relying on specialty fuel.

I have been interested in Wood Gas technology and this camp stove for a number of years. I recently got around to purchasing the LE model. The stove is stainless steel and very well built, and comes complete with a nylon stuff sack that will hold some other stuff if desired.

So far I have just run 3 tests on the stove to see what it would do. The stove is relatively easy to light. I filled the stove with fuel, then added a little tinder or pine needles over a small piece of paper, and poured on a little cooking oil and let it soak in. I was then able to light the top with a match, waited to the flame was burning on its own and then plugged in the blower on high. Starting this way takes a couple of minutes for the unit to really begin gasifying.

The first test was with some maple twigs from some branches I had lying around from last fall. This wood is similar to wood you could find in the woods and break into proper lengths with a little ingenuity and no chopping or sawing tools.

After it had burned about half way down (over 10 minutes) I added some barbecue pellets I had lying around for a couple of years, so they were not as firm as new pellets or probably real fuel pellets. I added enough to refill the gasifier. The temperature dropped but there didn't seem to be any problem with the stove and the new material. There was however enough smoke generated to become a smoke generator in a large smokehouse. It took about 15 minutes or so for the fire to burn back to the surface and probably another 5 minutes until there were just embers in the stove bottom.

For the second test I decided I would try some small charcoal chunks that I use with my barbecue. Since I figured this charcoal would burn hotter than wood, I placed a small aluminum pot on top with a liter of water. The charcoal burned for about 40 minutes of effective heat, but I could never get the water temperature above 170 degrees F. which occurred at about 30 minutes. After this failure I realized that wood generally burns at about 800 btus/lb so even though the stove was full, the lighter charcoal didn't have the mass to boil water.

So I then took outside a small electric hot plate rated at 1100 watts (3750 btus), so the testing conditions would be similar. It took the hot plate about 15 minutes to reach what I determined to be boiling for the liter of water, 17 minutes for a rolling boil.

For my third test I split some small chunks of seasoned douglas (red) fir firewood, which is the most common stove firewood in this area. The fire was started like before. By my definition the water was boiling in about 19 minutes and reached a roiling boil by 21. That rolling boil continued about 30 minutes until the stove began to lose heat. The wood supply lasted for about 40 minutes, but it was very well packed into the stove before it was lighted.

All tests were conducted using the high position on the fan. At that level the noise of the stove is comparable to a similar sized propane/butane stove. On low the fan was not heard over the outdoor background. With my infrared thermometer focusing on the gas flame it always maxed out the scale, (1000 degrees F, 600 degrees C.)

Gathering twigs to burn could be a hassle, especially in wet weather. You could probably cook a boxed or freeze dried meal with one filling. Twenty minutes to boil a liter of water seems like a long time, but not that much more than a hot plate, but it would probably take longer if your fuel supply was not well selected.

So in summary I would consider the stove well worth the money and on an extended backpacking trip, you would probably quickly reach a crossover point with store bought fuel. However you would probably desire a sawing/chopping/splitting device(s), which would counter your fuel weight. In general wood gas is more of a hassle than a regular propane/butane stove, and about the same as a white gas stove. Wood gas however will make you much more a really cool dude.

This is a great little stove and of good quality. Heats water to boiling in about 4 minutes. It is a little bit hard to light with a regular match but is doable with practice. Service was great, shipping was on time.

This is a very nicely designed little wood stove. As the other reviewers have said, the external battery pack is the unit's weak point. The wires appear flimsy and I'd be afraid they will break with no way to repair them. I use a solar battery charger for NiMH AA batteries, so there's not too much of a problem about batteries. One full charge should last a week of usage in any case (if the weather is bad and there is no sunlight). Feeding fuel can be a little finicky with the metal cross-piece in the way. With bigger chunks of wood you may have to lift off the cooking pot and remove the cross-piece with pliers or tongs (I use a Leatherman tool) to get the wood into the stove. With small sticks you should be able to feed it in through the side if you're careful. The payback of course is in never having to carry fuel (or at least only a minimal amount of dry fuel for emergencies). Hint: carry a plastic garbage bag (it serves double-duty as a carry sack for the stove) to collect twigs when it's dry. Also, don't forget to carry a small utility hatchet. Collect as much as you can and chop it into pieces small enouth to feed into the stove. Don't split the wood lengthwise. You are better off chipping it into small pieces with more surface area. Also don't forget a few extra spare AA batteries, just in case.

The other reviewers have noted that the heat output is low, even on high the stove has a relatively modest heat output, especially at altitude. I carry this stove in my car for emergencies, though fortunately, I've never had to use it other than for camping. Since it is a stove, this also gets you by the "no campfire" restriction at some parks, since it is an enclosed flame. All-in-all, not a bad idea if you don't like buying, and hauling, propane tanks around the countryside. And remember, you have to haul back the empty tanks, whereas with the wood stove the ash can be disposed of on-site without any concern.