Spot of Tea: A Review of The Folding Stove

 A problem you will have while hiking, trekking, or even while hunting is needing a good fire for a hot meal. I know out in the woods sticks are aplenty. However, in some conditions you don’t have time to get enough for a good fire, or enough time for a cooking fire, and sometimes you just can’t get a fire started period. This is an often overlooked problem that can be the difference between life and death for any of us who go out into the woods. Fortunately, I don’t just present you with a problem without giving you some solution. I recommend for those of you worried about this situation to pick up a folding stove. I purchased the “Folding Stove with Fuel” by Ultimate Survival Technologies, around the end of March. I don’t have the receipt with me anymore, but as I remember it was between $6-$9 from Walmart. The only goal of purchase being for “blog material”. However, after using this simple device I became quite the fan of them. While it is not 100% perfect, or multipurpose-able it still has earned a place in my pack. Before I break down my

experiments with this gear I must state the following.

“I am not being paid to endorse this item. I paid for it with my own money under my own volition. My review is genuine and accounts are from my, and mine alone, experiences with this item.” And with that, let us get on with it.

Out of the box you get this. The instructions and fuel folded into the metal box. It weighed in at 0.8 oz, which can be found on the back of the box. It folded together in a semi-locked fashion. Not water proof by any means, but capable of holding items on the inside of it. On the back side of it are holes I assume for airflow. My first experiment was to assemble the stove without reading the instruction. My reason is, items too complex require more practice and sometimes skills to use them. With fire we want the most streamline process possible. It was as simple as pulling open the center and revealing the fuel for the stove.

To my best knowledge you could use other fuel types here without any problem. With both of these results, the stove passed the simple mechanics test.

After opening it up I decided to proceed to my next experiment, lighting of the fuel. Like with my homemade fire starter criteria, I wanted to see what range of ignition sources would light the fuel. I first started with the magnifying lens. Unfortunately it was unsuccessful.

I then attempted the ferro rod. I was able to catch sparks on the block, but I was not able get it lit. Even with a little char-cloth, the ember wasn’t successful enough to catch. I skipped the flint and steel, because if the ferro wouldn’t work neither would the flint and steel. My last attempt was just a flick of the Bic. I did the recommended five seconds of flame and it caught in no time. Unfortunately, failing to light by any other means except the lighter makes it a bit harder to light. Of course, I could’ve used a fire starter. However, I felt that it could be a bit better. With both of these results, the stove failed the ignition test. After lighting the fuel I waited until it held a large flame and resembled a roasted marshmallow. I began the “one bottle container” test. The one bottle container test is using only one bottle to cover the container requirement in survival situations.

With this my fuel must heat the water in my bottle to purify it for cooking or drinking. These are the items you can see in the picture. It would not increase the temperature of the water in the bottle, let alone boil it. This test was a failure. Even trying to balance it on the teeth of the stove was unsuccessful. With this result, the stove failed the “One Bottle Container” test.

I switched to a tea kettle for two reasons. First, it would tell me when the water was boiling by sound off. Second, it was close to the size of my mess kit I keep in my pack. However, with the failed attempt of my water bottle, I burned up too much of the original fuel. Now having to add a fuel block to this made for a bit of a challenge. I decided that using the open flame on the first block with a new one would be the best result. Using my knife like a spatula I placed it next to the other one.

 I waited till it caught fire and begin timing it. My last experiment was to check the burn time and quality. It should be able to boil water in five minutes and at least go for ten to twelve. It took about six minutes to get the kettle to whistle and it burned for about ten minutes. While it didn’t hit the mark, like horse shoes and hand grenades, it was close enough for me. With these results, the stove passed: the adding of fuel test, the time to boil test, time to burn test, and heat distribution of my mess kit test.

I had a few final notes to add before passing my verdict on this piece of gear. First off, being an alcohol based stove it does put off a smell. I would recommend not using it in the process of roasting or for warmth. The fuel could be a fire starter if need be.
It does extend burn time and if it’s wet it will light. I would again recommend waiting until the smell dissipated until roasting on it. I even was able to dig out some charred material once it had burned all away. Though, when I tried to strike it with a ferro rod, nothing happened. While I don’t think user error was behind this fail, I don’t know exactly what caused this. Since I didn’t expect it, it washes itself out, no pass/fail.

Finally, after much more research than what has appeared in this blog, I have determined that this is in fact… A GOOD buy for one’s backpack. The test scores came out to five to two; pass to fail. I believe it is great for a quick fire. With this stove becoming more and more popular you should go out and pick one up and try them yourself. Click here for an Amazon page for the item.

Be looking forward for some cool stuff coming to the site in the following months. Next time we will be looking at a cheap and simple method for fireproofing a water bottle, you won’t want to miss it. As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.