I expected that the stove would be OK, I didn't expect that I would love it. I have not tried green wood in it but there was no smoke with the seasoned wood. I mean NONE. The heat was about like 2/3 of high on my gas stove at home so there is less worry about burning. I mean my propane stove has two settings, off and high. On high it is easy to burn stuff so I have to watch it like a hawk. With my Zoom Dura I went and did some camp chores on the second night I cooked with it. I kept an eye on it but I didn't mother hen it. I got the Zoom Dura, the model without doors, as I belong to the school that says the less moving parts the less there is for me to break. Without the door of the bigger model controlling the temperature was easier than I expected and one 8 inch square of firewood a foot long could cook two meals.
The stove fits perfect in a 5 gallon plastic bucket, although I am looking for a steel one now, and I have a lid for the bucket that is a seat. With my small folding table I have the perfect cooking station where I can set on my rear and cook at eye level. And it all packs up and stays clean in my rig. I am slightly worried that some camp grounds may make me not use it during fire season. In my youth I fought forest fires, I learned to pay particular attention to the sparks and potential problems I might expect in the woods. Only in a heavy wind would there be a problem. The firebox does a real good job of combustion and in the morning there was hardly any ash left. That is expected as it burned hardly any wood.
I love it when a product is even better than I expected. Just in case you were wondering I have no affiliation with the company, they don't know me from Adam.
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JUNE 30TH SIX WEEKS LATER:
OK, I have just returned from a month on the Columbia and Snake rivers camping and fishing and have become intimate with my stove. I love it even more now that I have 30 or more meals under my belt. I have found that if I double the amount of wood I can get my wok really hot. The river bank supplies all the 1/2 inch sticks sun dried that I can use. Fire season is underway so no wood fires. In this zero tolerance society, we live by rules and no longer use common sense, even though the river was getting record rain the fire season that started June 9th prevented wood fires. So I got a bag of charcoal that I set next to the stove as charcoal is permitted but continued to burn wood. I used the charcoal bag as a red herring and so far I have not been caught. I have some pretty nifty camping gear but this is my favorite purchase in the last few years. I love it even more now than I did when I did the review above. Smokey the Bear will have to pry it from my dead fingers. I give it 6 stars.
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OCTOBER 14 SIX MONTH LATER
Well I am back from fishing for half a year, and all this time this was my main stove. I have cooked on it hundreds of times now and it fits my needs like a glove to a hand. The Charcoal ruse worked everywhere and I never once burned a single briquet in it. The only problem that comes up is the carbon that it puts on the bottom of pots. If you are not careful you can get it everywhere. Here is how to solve the problem kind of. take a small squeeze bottle of liquid soap and put a few drops on the bottom of your pot before you cook. After dinner when you go to clean up everything will wash right off. I then keep my pots in a large plastic bag just on the off chance I missed some spots. Carbon won't be a problem. I generally wouldn't go to this much effort to review something 3 times but I love my stove so much I just had to come back and give you all the carbon/soap tip. Good Luck.
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As a Scout leader I've found this stove useful since nearly anywhere we camp there's plenty of fuel to feed it. With this stove there's no reason to pack fuel. We use a large Dutch oven on top and cook our meals in that. It also works well with large cast iron fry pans, which distribute the heat nicely. You can also get a steel wok that fits nicely in the center for stir fry. Keep the kids not working on the meal busy by having them gather the fuel ;-)This model is the best one of the series, it has the 6 pot supports and both a fuel door and a lower door for controlling the burn rate. This is a stove you have to tend to. The fuel chamber is pretty small (which helps it burn so clean), but this means that in a matter of 15 minutes it'll burn out if you don't tend to it and constantly feed it sticks. You don't have to put many in for it to be hot, but you do have to lay them out on the feed rack and keep them feeding into it. Don't think you can fire it up, walk away for an hour like you can with charcoal and come back to a cooked meal. This is not that type of stove. You can use it with charcoal and coal and then it'll burn for much longer.
I like knowing I have this stove in my garage since in any kind of emergency I can get a very hot fire going and there will be fuel. For the Zombie Prep group, it's also a covert way to cook, because the flame is contained (not visible) and there's essentially no smoke it burns so cleanly. In nearly every emergency, there's wood of some type around that would be freely available to fuel this stove.
An easy way to light this stove is to place a small chunk of fire starter (sawdust packed with wax) in the burn chamber on your first few sticks and light that. In a few minutes it'll be hot and burning well. Kindling works well too, and once the burn chamber is hot it'll keep everything going nicely. Open the bottom door all the way to increase the air flow at lighting time, close it partially to control the burn rate once you have your fire going. You can also change between the 2 included grates depending on the size of your fuel and how your wood burns. One grate has wider openings than the other and smaller pieces tend to fall through if you use the larger grate.
This stove design is called Rocket Stove due to the swirling action in the burn chamber. The creator has opened up his patented design to help enable impoverished countries get these at less cost and improve their cooking conditions.
*** Nov 2012 I was asked about using coal in this stove. The only coal I have tried is Charcoal, which works great and lasts longer than wood. I don't have lump coal to try but it does come with a coal grate and says it works well with coal too.
4 stars for a great stove that cooks with nearly any wood source, not 5 since it's high maintenance to keep the fire balanced.
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