Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review

Posted by: NIM

Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/19/08 12:14 AM

I just bought a bushbuddy from http://bushbuddy.ca/index1.html
(I'm not connected with the site and I am nothing but a happy customer.)

What I bought:

I chose the heavier (and more rugged) stove. Heavier of course being relative at 1.5 ounces heavier. It weighs 6.5 ounces (that is what the website claims). My cooking scale puts it at about 175 grams (a bit lighter even full of ash from my last tea). My scale may not be totally accurate.

Why I bought it:

I wanted a stove that was light enough for my BOB, used wood, burned that wood without leaving smoke and that was very efficient.

I had been looking at downdraft gasifiers but all of the ones that didn't use batteries were batch loaded and very large. Online reviews stated they were finicky.

Rocket stoves looked promising but they weren't enough of an improvement and I couldn't find one that was small enough.
Oh, and I'm a gadget freak and a bit of a pyro....yes, life is a complex tapestry.

Enough babbling -on to the preliminary review:


It arrived in a wood box and was light enough I opened it with some doubt as to whether there was a stove inside. I promptly went out back with a cup of water and set about looking for something to burn. I grabbed a few tiny dry twigs, a strip of birch bark and set about making the fire.

It lite with surprising ease (I didn't make a windbreak) and had a boiling cup of tea in UNDER 5 minutes!!!! I double checked my watch as I was thinking 12 minutes would be good. It burned pretty much without smoke and was incredibly efficient looking (the double walled vents really fed oxygen to it well). It was very easy to feed (even with the tea on) and burned incredibly hot.

After removing the tea I had a chance to look down into the fire chamber and was surprised to see brilliant glowing coals. I let the wood burn itself out and watched the glowing coals for a few minutes. Seeing some wet pine cones and needles on my deck I tossed a handful in. I was hoping to make a plum of smoke and smother it.

I was surprised when the cones and needles almost instantly boiled off the water and burst into flames. I spent the next 20 minutes tossing in pine cones and damp leaves. I could get it too smoke it I really stuffed it full, but evidentially it would burst into full flame.

As it was getting late I let the fire burn out and was delighted to find that the coals continued to glow red hot for 5-8 minutes more. Once the last coal had gone out I touched the side of the stove (at the bottom) and was pleased to note that it was cool enough to touch. I then slid the stove off of the piece of paper I set it on and discovered it didn't even brown it! Everything was totally consumed to white ash (including the pine cones and deck debris).

Every night (with few exceptions) I've repeated similar experiments. I still want to do more testing to see if it earns BOB status, but I'm totally pleased with the stove. There is no way I could have a campfire every night on my back deck without it! It is so calming and peaceful. The efficiency of the stove is what really gets me. One twig can have a cup of water (900ml) burning in less than five minutes.

I'll play with it some more and try to give my final review -yes, it will be shorter smile

Happy adventures,

NIM
Posted by: Nishnabotna

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/19/08 12:35 AM

Very similar to the Littlebug, which I got a year ago. I quickly found out I don't know how to make a fire. :p
What's nice, though, is that the Littlebug can come apart and be packed flat if needed. I ended up fitting it around my sleeping pad and it carried nicely there.
Posted by: BobS

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/19/08 01:09 AM

I made a stainless Steel gasifier (sp?) and love it.
Taking it camping this weekend and plan on doing a lot of cooking on it rather then my Svea.







Wood camp stoves make a lot of sense from the fuel point. In a disaster situation there will always be debris to burn. And just walking around the yard I can find enough twigs to cook several meals. In a BOB not having to pack a lot of fuel leaves more room for other things.

Even a hobo stove made out of a tin can works well.
Posted by: Nishnabotna

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/19/08 01:35 AM

Is that thing jet powered?
Posted by: BobS

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/19/08 01:51 AM

It runs on wood and 1.5 to 3-volts from 2 batteries. It really puts out the heat with the fan on high. what is amazing is how little wood it takes to cook with it.
Posted by: Todd W

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/19/08 03:47 AM

WOWZER!

That thing looks like a jet.
Posted by: dougwalkabout

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/19/08 11:20 PM

These look great. I'd like to make my own. Can you guys give me some detail on the inner liner of the BushBuddy and and the "BobS FlameJet Custom?" Are there air holes below the grate as well as above?
Posted by: leemann

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/20/08 04:03 AM

What we need is a link to some plans.

Lee
Posted by: Susan

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/20/08 04:22 AM

http://www.bushbuddy.ca/order.html

Ninety-five dollars?????

Back to the Pepsi can stove....

Sue
Posted by: Yuccahead

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/20/08 05:05 AM

I agree, $95 seems more than a bit steep considering what you get -- a fancy hobo stove.
Posted by: MedicineMan

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/20/08 09:44 AM

Thanks for the link to the Littlebug! I do like the Bushbuddy but nice to know of the bug too. The ability to pack flat is crucial in space savings. I'd like to see someone compare the two in a burn off.
Posted by: Nicodemus

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/20/08 11:04 AM

Here's James' homemade Sierra Zip-Stove on a thread at Outdoors Magazine. James even put together his own fan.

I'd like to try to build one of these some day.
Posted by: Nicodemus

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/20/08 11:10 AM

If you scroll down to the section "Wood Burning Stoves" at the Zen Backpacking Stoves Site, you'll find a number of plans for stoves of the wood burning/gasification kind.
Posted by: cistchap

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/20/08 01:40 PM

Check out the Wilserness Way magazine Vol 14 issue 2 pg 28

It shows how to make the Bushbuddy stove
Posted by: nursemike

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/21/08 08:08 PM

I took a big coffee can, dremeled a vee about a third of the diameter of the can with the apex 2 inches above the bottom of the can. Opposite the vee, I punched 6 holes at the bottom with a church key. I took an old piece of rubber tubing and stuck a short metal cylinder on the end to create a blow-tube. It burns twigs, pine cones, cardboard, whatever. It contains the heat and makes the fire easier to start and easier to tend. It does not gasify, it does not fold up, and it lacks, shall we say, elegance. But it is cheap, lightweight, and requires little skill to create. I suspect that it performs about as well as the commercially available units. and lots better than an alcohol stove. It is a messy thing to carry around, but fits nicely in a USPS tyvek priority mail envelope, which those folks give away. Notice a theme here-I am thrifty. And unskilled. This thing suits me well.

(I am sure that the plan was on the Zen stove site, but cannot find it).
Posted by: BobS

Re: Bushbuddy (Wood burning stove) Review - 09/21/08 08:18 PM

Originally Posted By: dougwalkabout
Are there air holes below the grate as well as above?