Emberlit FireAnt wood stove

When it comes to saving weight in your pack the saying always goes, “ounces equal pounds, and pounds

Emberlit Fireant parts

equal pain”. Building an ultralight kit means looking at everything you have and trying to cut it down as much as possible. One of those typically heavy pieces of kit is your stove, unless you have the new Emberlit FireAnt. This super tiny, titanium, four wall, firebox stove weighs next to nothing, and best of all you don’t have to carry any fuel. The Emberlit FireAnt is designed by Mikhail Merkurieff, the same gentleman who brought us the original Emberlit folding box biomass burning stove. Over the years Mikahail has made a few revisions to the Emberlit product line, with the FireAnt being his latest endeavour. After a successful Kickstarter campaign we are happy to finally have this light weight box of fire in our hands.

–Quality and Assembly–

Emberlit Fireant locking dimples

Our very first impression of the Emberlit FireAnt came the moment we opened the mailbox. Sorting through the various bills and junk mail there was a small padded envelope, with the Merkwares address on the return label. We knew immediately what was inside, but were surprised at how tiny and light the package was. Tearing into the package we found a thin silnylon velcro pouch. This was it. The pouch contained only six pieces, being the four walls, solid burn floor and the additional solid fuel tab buring accessory. Running our fingers around the edges you understood why Mikhail decided to produce this stove via a stamping die rather than laser cutting. All of the edges were just slightly rolled, making them not nearly as sharp as the edges on laser cut metal. Also the outside of every piece of the Emberlit FireAnt was covered in a thin onion skin type of plastic film to protect it from being damaged during manufacture. A neat feature and interesting attention to detail, but if you didn’t pay close attention, and notice this plastic, you’d be in for a smelly and sticky surprise on your stove upon your first burn. We meticulously removed all of this film from all sides on all parts, which took a minute but was not a real hastle, and then proceeded to assemble the stove.

The Emberlit FireAnt, as previously mentioned, has very few components, specifically six, one of which is an

Emberlit Fireant protective film

accessory. The solid fuel burning tab is a smart add on for the use of esbit, trioxane or other solid fuel tabs. It creates a shelf about one inch away from the top of the stove so the flame of the fuel tab is in excellent proximity to the pot. We did not test, nor assemble the Emberlit FireAnt with the fuel tab option.

Collecting the parts we needed for creating the biomass burner box we snapped together the stove in short order. The locking tabs on each corner of the Emberlit FireAnt stove walls have an elongated ovular dimple in them. This helps to lock up the stove and give it a more rigid feel. According to the Kickstarter logs, Mikhail

made this design modification near the end of the project, which delayed it just a bit, but we believe it was worth it and a smart decision. The assembled Emberlit FireAnt was a sturdy, and tiny titanium box ready to support a medium pot and a small fire.

–Performance–

Emberlit Fireant boiling water in a titanium mug

To get the fire started we gathered a fair sum of kindling sized twigs and sticks. Much of this fuel was a bit damp, as we had recently received some generous rain. This being the case we tossed in an old school paraffin and lint egg crate firestarter as our fire starting base. Packing in the twigs we realized a small drawback to a tiny firebox stove. The Emberlit FireAnt did not accept a whole lot of fuel. This was a small concern, but we fired it up and began to snap some more twigs to feed through the open front feed door. The flame went to work and got a nice little fire going pretty quick, and we then began to feed additional fuel into the fire quite easily. As a test we placed a  titanium 700ml pot full of water on top of the Emberlit FireAnt to see about how long it would take to boil. While regularly feeding the stove we did notice that our pot was becoming a bit sooty. This is not terribly surprising as the Emberlit FireAnt is pretty much just fire in a box, and smoke will soot a pot. Unless your are using a woodgas stove such as a Solo Stove, Biolite or Core Stove, this is pretty much expected. Even with this small drawback the Emberlit FireAnt performed well while we provided a steady diet of small combustible materials to the flame. Within fifteen minutes of placing our 700ml pot on top of the Emberlit FireAnt we had a rolling boil.

–Overall Impression–

The Emberlit FireAnt is the smallest, lightest, firebox wood stove we have ever used. It is well built, with a good attention to detail, and is quite easy to assemble. The technology that drives this little stove isn’t complicated. If you put fire in a box, and put a pot of water over the flame, eventually it will boil. Given that, the Emberlit FireAnt is a simple purpose built tool that will let you get the job done with the minimum weight and flame. It will require a bit more attention regarding regular fuel feedings, but that is the compromise for size. Overall, we loved it as a simple, everyday carry, firebox. This is the best Emberlit stove yet.

Review: CORE Wood Gas Backpacking Stove

We are always suckers for a new stove, and we’ve been waiting for the MSP Core Woodgas Backpacking stove to come out for sometime now. At long last we’ve got a couple specimens in our hands and have had the time to put them through their paces. Spoiler alert, they did not disappoint.

CORE 3 Stove, Solo Stove, Core 4 Bio-Reactor

For those of you not familiar with the MySurvivalPack.com Core Woodgas backpacking stove, it is a fully collapsible box style wood buring stove. The big difference in this design, versus most collapsible box stoves, is that this one is a wood gasifier. This very important feature is accomplished by the addition of what MSP calls the “after burner plates”. These internal air directing dampers help to force the hot gasses from the fire, ie smoke, to the top and cause a secondary combustion. When used in conjunction with the top lift updraft (TLUD) plate, this wood gas combustion is quite effective. This is the same principle that makes the Solo Stove and Biolite such efficient biomass burners. Yet unlike the Solo Stove and Biolite, which are solid cylinder stoves, the Core Stove is fully collapsible and packs flat.

–Design, Assembly, Options–

Core Stoves with pots

Every Gear Whore can appreciate extra kit, and the Core Stove delivers this in spades. The multitude of configurations are extensive. In its simplest form the Titanium Core 3 Stove Ultralight is configured as a three walled, solid burning box. This allows for the least amount of parts, and as such comprises the lightest available option. The addition of the after burner plates allows this design to work more effectively as a wood gas stove, which in our opinion is the major plus to the Core Stove. In the most complex configuration you construct a four walled, after burner installed, rocket port having, TLUD gassifiying beast that can easily host a full 2 or more liter pot. The full Titanium Core 4 Bio-Reactor is a stove erector set of lightweight titanium and fire fun, and weighs about double that of the Titanium Core 3 Stove Ultralight, but also gives the user the full featured woodgas biomass burning efficiency we’ve come to know and love from our other woodgas stoves.

CORE Wood Gas Backpacking Stove assembly

When assembling the components of our two stove kits we chose to utilize the Core 3 configuration using our stainless steel kit, and the Core 4 Bio-Reactor configuration using our titanium kit. We first noticed that the edges of the individual pieces, though not sharp, could certainly cause a nice paper cut, if one wasn’t careful in assembly. So with stable hands, we worked to put together the Core 3, following the instructions as provided, but adding two afterburner plates into the mix. We also popped together the Core 4 Bio-Reactor from our titanium kit without too much trouble. We found the major feat of skill with either assembly was making sure to hold the stove upside down, with the afterburners installed, while adding the final wall and closing the box. After we went through the procedure a few times, it became easier.

–Performance–

Core 3 Stove boiling water

We started with the Core 3 Stove Ultralight configuration we assembled. Gathering twigs and small brush appropriate in size for this stove was quite easy, given a recent storm, but did provide moist wood. The stove was packed with properly sized sticks, and started with a good old fashioned egg crate, paraffin and lint fire starter. The whole kit sparked to life, and burnt and smoked. After a while we had burnt down the wood enough to place a 700ml titanium mug on top to begin our boil. The Core 3 Stove Ultralight, did begin to gasify a bit at this point, but not as efficiently as we had hoped. The Core 3 Stove Ultralight did easily and efficiently burn all the wood we fed it through its front port, and boiled our pot in about 20 minutes.

Assembling the Core 4 Bio-Reactor from our titanium kit took just a bit more time than the Core 3 Stove Ultralight, which makes sense considering we now added in another wall and after burner plate, while also building in the TLUD plate. We also assembled and fitted the rocket port to the front of the stove, but later removed it finding it was difficult to start the fire through the rocket port with our lighter.

Core 4 Bio-Reactor gassifying

Still unscathed, we snapped a fine stack of moist twigs and packed the Core 4 Bio-Reactor tight with fuel and another egg crate fire starter. Once we got the flame touched to the fire starter this thing took off like a torrent. Quickly the totality of our fuel was engulfed in flame and consistent gasifying commenced. Placing the smaller of the Solo Stove 3 pot set pots on top with about 500ml of water brought us to a rolling boil in a quick 5 minutes or so, which was rather impressive. Again stoking the stove was easy via the front port, and another test will have to be conducted to try out the rocket port, as we completely forgot to add it back on to the setup.

–Overall Impressions–

Core 4 Bio-Reactor boiling water

Two things have to be said as a disclosure. One, we love woodgas stoves, so we are a bit biased. Two, we are kind of Solo Stove fan boys, so again there is a bit of bias there. Given that, the MySurvivalPack.com Core Stove folding woodgas stove, especially in the Core 4 Bio-Reactor configuration, is a great stove. It is well built and designed and is certainly impressive considering its take down design. Now if you are interested in aquiring one of these stoves stop by MySurvivalPack.com and use the discount code THEGEARWHORES-COREWHORE to get a nice little chunk off the current retail price. Act fast on that though, as the code is only good until 11/30/2014.