The great folks over at Solo Stove recently sent out a Solo Stove and Solo Pot 900 for testing and review. I was excited to get these in and couldn’t wait to get out and test them. Like many of you I’m sure I have way too many camping cook stoves. I’m obsessed with them. I’ve made hobo stoves before and little alcohol stoves. I have a jet boil and a pocket rocket. I’ve spent hours looking at stoves online. So when the chance to test a stove came I jumped on it. Let’s get right down to it then.
The Specs
Solo Stove
- Weight: 9 oz
- Height: 3.8″
- Diameter: 4.25″
- Material 304 Stainless Steel, nichrome wire
- Fuel: twigs and other biomass, also will accommodate an alcohol stove
- Boil Time: 8~10 minutes* ( My actual time was 12 minutes)
The Pot
- Weight: 7.8 oz
- Height: 4.5″
- Diameter: 4.7″
- Volume: 30 fl.oz
- Material: 304 Stainless Steel
Starting It
Me and Mike fooled around with a frensal lens on a cloudy day trying to start it. It was fun but didn’t work. I used my lighter and a cotton ball soaked in Vaseline and it took right off. I filled the stove with twigs and placed the cotton ball on top. It was awesome to see the smoke get pulled down into the stove to reburn. It really does burn the woodgas like the marketing say. Heated air in the double wall design rises and enters into the burn chamber through the small vents at the top of the stove. The improved air flow allows for more complete combustion of the material and less smoke.
The Burn
The burn on this really surprised me. I was comparing it to my hobo stove and pit fires. Also I was thinking it would perform like a rocket stove. I was wrong on all three. It performed like a solo stove. It burns much cleaner than other hobo style stoves. You need to get one and watch the smoke get pulled down into the burn chamber. It kind of hovers on the top of the stove like a cloud. I’ll have to shoot some video for you guys. For some reason I was thinking it would take less fuel than it did. Which is not saying was much. I in all burned maybe two handfuls of twigs during my testing. I started getting much longer sticks and feeding them in because it was so hot the smaller twigs would almost instantly incinerate.
Boil
The box says between 8~10 minutes for boil. I used water from a garden hose on a fairly warm day and got boil at the 12 minute mark. I did lift the lid a few times though. I would have to try it several more times to get an average but at 12 minutes for as little work as it took is great. Also so I don’t forget to mention it had rained recently so the wood was not perfectly dry. I was very surprised by the handle and lid on the pot not getting hot. The lid was perfectly cool and the handle was warm but not uncomfortable.
Clean Up
As with all wood stoves your stove and cook pot will become covered in soot. It wipes off better than most pots though. So make sure to bring something to clean it off with you and keep the nice sack it comes with. I don’t want everything in my pack covered in soot. A trick many do is to coat the pot with soap to make cleanup easier. One more thing is that it burns so well when I was done I only had a tiny amount of fine ash in the bottom.
Final Thoughts
I love that the stove nests inside the pot. It’s a great fit. You could toss in an alcohol stove and some fuel as a backup. I do love that the stove and pot combo as so light but may choose to swap out the solo pot with my Power pot to get some power while boiling. I may do a test to see how long and how much fuel it takes to fully charge a cell phone. I also like that you eliminate having to carry fuel with you. I give it my endorsement fully what a great little product.
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