Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me start this review by saying that I bought this stove with no small amount of trepidation. First, the concept of a lightweight biomass burning stove sounded too good to be true. Secondly, Solo Stove has been accused of doctoring their public reviews. For these two reasons, I was hesitant to make my purchase. Lucky for me, it turned out to be the right move. I am an experienced outdoorsman as well as a sincere reviewer, and this is absolutely my new favorite stove. This will be an in depth review. If that is not your thing, I will lead off with the summary: I tested this stove on a 2 week camping trip in Southern Colorado. During this time, a comrade and I cooked no less than 35 meals. The stove performed beautifully. We both found that the construction is high quality, the design is effective, and the engineering is admirable. Although there are quirks and intricacies inherent to the system (detailed below), the convenience of using biomass far outweighed the drawbacks. I have had the pleasure of using everything from ultra-compact backpacking stoves to high end car-camping stoves, and I can honestly say that I am struggling to imagine a use for either in my future. I love this stove. Now to the nitty-gritty details, which I have organized into pros, cons, and general tips/impressions: Pros: 1. The stove accepts biomass. This eliminates the need to carry fuel, which is heavy, toxic, and impossible to replenish in the wild. The significance/convenience/awesomeness of this is difficult to overstate. 2. When used properly (discussed in cons), the stove cooks food as well as any gas stove I have used. I have had no problem cooking rice every night in a normal amount of time. Switching from fuel to biomass does not mean that you have to sacrifice cooking power. 3. The 1800 mL pot is excellent quality. One could surely find a comparable pot for less money, but for myself personally, the extra price was justified to have a pot that mates so well with the stove. Cons: 1. Burning biomass creates soot. Whatever pot you use will become caked in soot, and if you use it regularly, utterly encased. This is a mild inconvenience as you may get it on your hands or clothes from handling. If you are inclined to periodically service your pot, you will find that a steel scouring pad and 15 minutes of honest scrubbing will restore a bright stainless finish. (The second picture was taken midway through this process to show contrast) 2. This stove must be fed and tended to for the duration of its use. Unlike a gas stove, you can't light this up, sit back and watch your meal cook. Using a Solo Stove requires you to be attentive and engaged. Failure to provide the stove with a steady supply of fresh biomass will result in loss of the secondary combustion and a dramatic drop in cooking heat, effectively adding minutes to your cooking time. Depending on the density of your biomass, you may need to feed the stove several times per minute. Solid chunks of hardwood will allow you to wait several minutes between feedings. 3. The stove gets HOT. Don’t expect to pack your stove up immediately after cooking. It could be an hour or more before your stove is safe to handle. 4. Because of how hot the stove gets, the corrosion resistant properties of the steel are diminished. Rust is a common occurrence in the stove itself (not the pot). Since discovering this phenomenon, I have discussed it by email with the manufacturer. They confirm that rust is normal, and should not hinder long-term performance. Tips: 1. When cooking full meals, this pot and stove set will comfortably feed 2 hungry men, possibly a 3rd. 4 men would be too many. 2. Process your biomass before you start cooking. Depending on your fuel source, it may be impossible to process fuel while keeping your stove fed (and possibly juggling food prep). In my experience the stove functions best with a leaves or grass as initial tinder, twigs as a transitional medium, and thick chips of the hardest wood you can find as the main fuel. I don't start cooking until I have each of these gathered, processed and ready to go. 3. Although fast burning, pinecones are a pretty convenient fuel source. 3. If you are able, remove rust from the stove with oxalic or phosphoric acid. This will help preserve a protective chrome oxide layer on the metal and minimize future rust. 4. Keep a sealed bag of dry tinder and twigs in case of rain. Starting this stove with wet biomass is very difficult, but once you get it going, it will burn anything. One day I was caught in a rainstorm while cooking lunch, and my pile of pine-wood chunks was absolutely soaked. The stove (which was already fully lit and burning) burned them with zero difficulty. I hope that information is helpful to you, as well as the pictures. Please feel free to ask me questions, I will read and answer them. I stay up to date with my reviews, so if you are reading this review months or years down the line, you can assume that my impressions of my stove have not changed with time. If they do, I will edit my review. ***4 Year Update*** Well, I've abused the heck out this stove over the past four years. Many hundreds of uses. It got left outside for a few months in the Colorado winter, so it got frozen and thawed dozens of times, and was buried in snow. Its still rusty. One of the wires in the mesh at the bottom broke. But for now it still works properly. And I still love it. I have realized by now however, that this stove will probably not last forever. No metal product can absorb such radical temperature changes forever and not lose integrity eventually. But I'm still happy with my purchase. I've saved enough money on fuel to buy a replacement many times over, and if and when this one fails, that's exactly what I will do. I've been curious to try out the smaller size anyway. In summary: I still give this product 5 stars. Its still my favorite stove. It has come to my attention that through years of heavy use, it will probably fail sooner or later. But considering the amount of money I have saved on fuel, I still think I am coming out way ahead. Also, if you take better care of yours than I do mine (or just use it less), it may well last a lifetime.