[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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