[Stoves] twig snapper and the Chinese ebay stove revisited.

neiltm at uwclub.net neiltm at uwclub.net
Thu Feb 18 16:50:59 CST 2016


On 18 Feb 2016 at 12:00, Paul Anderson wrote:

> 
> If you have any experience with the "stick snapper" from Biolite (or any
> equivalent) please tell us about your experiences.   The direct link is 
> below, and the full BioLite announcement is below that.
> 
> http://www.biolitestove.com/products/sticksnapper

For some reason this reminded me of my all time favourite 'capitalism 
trying too hard' merchandise, the battery operated revolving tie rack, 
not that I have ever owned one of those either, LOL.

Quickly looking up 'anvil secateurs' on ebay, even the best quality come 
in at a bit less than this 'device', and I cannot imagine how it could 
possibly be superior in fettling sticks!  My pair cost me nothing, I 
inherited them from my Dad, older than me with the return spring long 
gone they are ideal for the purpose in question.  As I have numerous 
bottle openers for opening bottles, that added functionality doesn't 
quite do it for me at £8.05p I'm afraid.  And apparently the biolite 
stove takes forever to charge a smart phone!  And when I asked them what 
the expected life of the thermocouple was they never replied.

Getting a bit more real and keep it simple I decided to invest in a 
second of the cheap Chinese wood gas stoves for our intended extended car 
camping forays this summer, a snap at a couple of quid more than a 
biolite twig snapper, but this time I went for the one with the raised 
pot support to see what difference that made to a stove that impressed me 
so much when it was our only stove for a month in the Pyrenees last 
May/June.  It still collapses into the same small space.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wood-Gas-Stove-Wood-Burning-Stove-Solo-Camping-Sto
ve-Outdoor-Portable-Camp-New-/321680915312?hash=item4ae5ad3b70:g:AnsAAOSwk
NZUeyh-

I can report that I think it is an improvement over the one with the fold 
out supports, apart from possibl stability issues from the smaller 
circumference of the support points which I shall remedy with some home 
made slot ins if it becomes an issue.  By raising the pot further above 
the concentrator it seems to result in less smoke as well as providing 
good access for refuelling without removing the pot.  It still soots up 
the pans terribly, but my solution to that is simply to accept blackened 
pans and to use one of those green pot scourers to remove the surface 
soot at the end of the washing up water and leave the more hardened 
carbon deposits alone on the basis that if they are hard work to remove, 
then they won't endanger very much anything they come in contact with.  
As a camper I can say this system works very well, and storing the pan in 
a plastic bag makes sure of keeping everything civilised.  Its a small 
price to pay for the advantages over the much cleaner emissions Reed fan 
stoves, but of course these stoves are no solution  for improving indoor 
air quality, and really should only ever be an outdoor stove.

Because this stove utilises so much more primary air, that it makes sense 
to talk of it having a grate as opposed to a closed pot with some small 
primary air holes, it has the advantage that a stir with a stick easily 
loses the ash that would otherwise choke the primary air, and so it can 
be kept going indefinitely.   I have also come to realise that it also 
solves the problem of turn down.  After early experiences of using it as 
a TLUD resulting in a towering inferno that would catch a frying pan 
alight I found the best way to control it was instead to use it as a  
BLUD with little fuel and keeping adding to it.  I found that I could 
have a fire of lesser intensity, more suited to cooking requiring a lower 
heat. It is still a gasifier, and as such so much cleaner than an open 
fire could ever be. There is nothing I won't contemplate cooking on it 
now that I know how to control it. Because there is so much primary air, 
unless there is no glowing char left, it is so much easier to revive with 
fresh fuel, whereas the Reed woodgas campstoves tend to smoke horribly if 
you try to revive them many minutes after pyrolysis has finished.  Now I 
can eat, and afterwards revive the flame under the kettle for coffee in a 
more relaxed way.  These stoves are just so much easier to use.

As a TLUD though it is impressive in power.  With dry woodchip stored on 
the top of our boiler it will boil a 2.75 imperial pint kettle of water 
in a mere 10 minutes, which is how long pyrolysis lasts.  With the higher 
moisture content of outside air dried wood it still burns very well and 
for a bit longer, not being nearly so fuel fussy as the Reed fan stove 
which always struggles with found wood in temperate Britain unless 
enjoying prolonged dry and sunny weather.  I suspect that most of the 
stove work done here assumes tropical or near tropical conditions for 
found biomass with minimal moisture content.  I love my Reed stoves and 
have used them ever since they came on the market, but have found them 
much easier to use at home where I can easily keep wood very dry than 
camping in temperate wet Britain where even with a bag full of home dried 
chip it can often be problematic finding good enough fuel that can take 
over lower down the combustion chamber.  I have had such transitions lose 
the flame entirely at worst.

I tried to make a disc insert for the grate that would turn down the 
primary air, but couldn't make the holes and retain sufficient flatness 
to the disc to make a meaningful seal.  I can see a simple way in which 
such a disk could be controlled from the outside of the stove through a 
slot such that the primary air could be controlled successfully as a TLUD 
and without adding much complication to manufacture, but whether the 
camper market would be sophisticated enough to appreciate the facility is 
perhaps doubtful.  What made me realise this was viewing a youtube 
reviewer of Dean Still's combined stove and light where the guy with the 
best will in the world, wanting to like the product only succeeded in 
making smoke.  He thought he knew his way around these sorts of things, 
but it was clear to me at least from the video that he had no concept of 
preparing a bed of packed fuel for TLUD operation and just lit some long 
sticks in it.  

I hope there is some value in food for thought about the experiences of a 
non scientist but keen user and informal practical experimenter a bit off 
to one side of what most of you guys are doing and which I follow as best 
I can with interest and admiration.

I would be interested to hear how those of you who bought one of the 
Chinese ebay stoves after I last wrote got on with it.

Best wishes,   Neil Taylor




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