Is This the BEST Backpacking Stove?? 

Hi Ernie Nice stove but like many first time users of woodgas stove you go wrong on the way to use it and I explain myself. Pyrolysis of wood is like charring the wood and burning the gases it produce somif you want your stove being really efficient without having to nurse it by keep on adding Wood to it just prefilled it and lite it on top that way once the burning chamber will have reach the right temperature ( arround 500-600 degrees) the gasification process will take place and you are good to go without adding fuel for lets say 15-20 minutes depending of type of wood. Other point it' sur good to keep the level of your fuel below the secondary air vents. I don't own a Solo stove or any other sold ones but I have DIY many of them and I really like the fact that when you use them In the TLUD (Top Lite Up Draft) configuration you don't have to refueled them to boil your water. You can also utilise them with wood pellets made out of recycled materials without binding additives and you will get a strong fire for up to an hour. Ciao from Québec ⚜

I love this stove, I tend to be an ultra lighter type but you nailed it, with the fuel issue and all. This stove does have its purpose. I've found that thicker pieces last longer, thumb size or better, I think may help a little with how frequently you feed fuel. thanks again foryour great videos:) Your awesome!

I own that SOLO Lite stove/pot bundle and also its larger brother SOLO Titan stove/pot bundle. Both are excellent! I tend to carry a small waterproof stuff bag filled with Hickory chunks as a backup for any rain soaked days. That way you can start the stove with the chunks and take some WET WOOD AND FILL THE POT WITH THEM as a way to "QUICK DRY" more wood to use later. That works really well for those downpours. Also, SURPRISINGLY I use a TRANGIA BURNER in it often! The stove makes a super effective wind screen for the TRANGIA and is super sturdy for cast iron use with a TRANGIA BURNER inside the SOLO STOVE. The SOLO LITE or the SOLO TITAN is the one piece of kit I ALWAYS carry in my car for emergency use. When used properly and well vented it can be a life saving heat source as well as a cooking source. Imho, Anyone who travels country roads, ranger roads, back country roads should be carring a SOLO STOVE in their cars or their packs. It simply can't be beat!

The Stanley pot with the solo stove works way better and lasts way longer. The Stanley mess kit works very well with this setup.

I absolutely agree! I've had my Solo Stove Lite now for almost three years, and think it is THE best backpack/survival stove on the market.

I made a couple of changes to my Solo stove lite and saved some weight. I switched out the stainless pot for a 900 Titanium Snow Peak. The I got a lid for it from Four Dog Night stoves. It has a nice wood button in the center so it does not get hot to the touch. I learned this from a RU-vid video , " Bushbuddy alternate fuel. " I tried it with mine and it does everything as in the video. I'm sure this is not recommended by the manufacture. The ash pan in the bottom will hold alcohol and become the alcohol burner. It does not take a lot , about 1/2 ounce works quite well. It makes a nice emergency alcohol stove for some quick boiling water. Only 2 stoves I know can do this , the Solo Stove Lite and the Bushbuddy.

I really like the Solo Stove. I think it's great for camping, backpacking and hiking! Lots of great uses and doesn't need a ton of wood to get a really good fire.

I have one of these and really enjoy it. Great video thanks for sharing

Okay I need to ask... I see lots of stuff on your channel about hiking and prepping, but very little about how it relates to Paleo. My wife and I are working on doing Paleo, and have a similar stove we use on camping trips, but all we ever see are instructions on how to boil water on them... How about showing us how to do Paleo with this stuff? Maybe some pointers for Paleo dehydrated stuff to DIY? Just a thought...

I like my Vargo Titanium Stove for that application. It's 4.1 oz and that stove of yours will handle any pot. I give you that your stove nests in the pot but the Vargo folds flat. Glad you like it.

Louisiana has lots of river birch which is a thinner bark but still has birch oil in it.

These are great stoves. Sure beats carrying a ton of fuel with you.

I like starting fires. I cracked up when I heard those words … for the same reason. 😂

Oh and we also don't have birch bark, but the city planted some at the courthouse so in a survival situation I'd grab some on the way out of town. Hehe.

I like them wood stoves too much...lol. They are fun and great...I don't have that exact model but do have a gasifier type that I like playing with...and you said it right about the extra length sticking out there...it will soot up the pot...but heck, that's also the fun of some good cooking...Thumbs up Brother from Next Door Louisiana...

Great Lil stove with a terrible Big price tag. Good review, thank you.

I bought it as my first bushcrafty item... it hasbeen oretty expensive but all in all it was the best thi g i could buy

nice combo, but the Gen2 folding Firebox nano is hard to beat. great video

3 things in a survival situation, Food, Water, and Shelter. The means of getting food, pack snares, fishing gear, and even better would be buy a air rifle. Water, a simple water filter will do, but it’s also important to have a container that seals to keep water in. The means of building a shelter fast, I would buy either a silky big boy 2000 or Silky katanaboy 500, plus you can cut plenty of firewood. This is long term travel in the woods. Lot of stuff that is for sale now days is made to last a very minimal amount of time. Also there is a tutorial on RU-vid on how to make a solostove for free with minimal work.

I have the Titan .....♥ my solo stove......nice video ...thanks bro ..Sven

Have to admit, that is a sweet little cooker ...

If I got a Backpacking Stove this is the style I would get though a cheaper version on Amazon that is about $26-$27 USA. Then I would get a pot from different brand to use since few other stove brands make a pot for there system that can be used like this or with solid fuel which I would have too for emergency rains.

I've great things about this stove and pot combo. I went with the Emberlit. Folds flat, and weighs practically nothing if you go with titanium. Nate

The Bushbuddy is nearly identical in every way and comes it at 6.4 oz. Just cost 30 dollars more.

Very good. Thank you very much

I know you have reviewed many stoves over the years , so three years and eight months later how do feel now about the solo stove now?

Good job on the video, first off. The Solo has the appeal of being easy to set up. Also, the pot fits over the stove kit, which is nice for packing. However, it is a Chinese knock-off of another brand - I forget which one - that is either Canadian or American, and that puts me off. That said, in my exhaustive search, I found the best gassifying stove kit in the world - The Ti-Tri Sidewinder, by Trail Designs. Pros: - very light for a gassifying stove - versatile, as it works well as an Isbit and alcohol stove, too - easiest to feed - can hold a tremendous amount of coals and ash (this is a huge advantage) - can be used as a highly efficient camp fire for warmth if stuck under a tarp in monsoon season (2nd huge advantage) - most-efficient burn (3rd huge advantage) - once lit, will easily burn wet wood, wet pine neddles, and wet pine cones - very, vey stable - works fantastically in wind - fastest boil times of any gassifying stoves in its class. Cons: - the titanium sheet metal that forms each of two cones is easy to wrinkle if you are careless packing it into its plastic case. - it takes up a little more space, if you use a comparable pot - pot is separate - stove must be ordered for a specific pot circumference. Yeah, you could make it work with wrong size pots, but it would not be optimal - if you are cold, or it is windy, it is a bit of a fuss to set up and break down (with clumsy cold fingers, shivering) - the pastic, cylindrical case packs it well, but is a bit heavy for ultralight packers. Without it, you may damage some of the titanium parts. That is a lot of cons, but trust me, the pros make this stove worth the cons. We all know that no stove system is perfect. To me, this is a close as it gets. I cannot stress how nice it is to have this in lousy weather or at night, instead of an open fire (which might be banned in many places, at many times). It really made our monsoon car camping in Massachusetts for Columbus Day w/e, 2017. It poured ferociously for two days. We were able to park us three under a tarp and play Yahtzee and cards and have real fun. (A cannister or alcohol stove would never do that.) But I would also use this for full backpacking on the AT, in combo with the alcohol or Isbit. Here is a link: www.traildesigns.com/products/sidewinder-ti-tri

I like it

Now that you've had this stove for a while, have you learned how to prpoerly load and burn it? Does that knowledge change your assessments?

It's just heavy for backpacking. I made a cat can stove after I watched a vid of yours last year. Do you still use that? I've got my cook system super light now and it all started with that vid. Sorry I haven't watched any of your vids lately, but I will catch up. (EDIT: You can boil water without any stove, which would make it even lighter.)

In Canada that pot costs $129 plus tax lolololololol,

“Maybe I’m OCD”. Guessing your MBTI is ISTJ. Correct?

The Solo is just a copy of the original Bushbuddy stove. The Bush Buddy is lighter and made by hand. Buy the original not the knockoffs.

I haven't done this with my Solo Stove Lite but since it is a copy of the BushBubby I can not see why it would not work. I'm thinking it would be a good way to have a alternate fuel source if the woods and all the wood is wet. Tom at TomsBackwoods did this with his Bushbuddy. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LmD9zBaPgVQ.html

Would you take this of a firebox system??