Solo Stove and Solo 900 Pot

Left to right: Solo Stove with three pot set, Solo Stove Titan with 1800 pot, Solo Stove with 900 pot

Left to right: Solo Stove with three pot set, Solo Stove Titan with 1800 pot, Solo Stove with 900 pot

I’ve used a double walled “wood gas” stove for a few years now. I’ve made them myself, and use both the original Solo Stove and Solo Stove Titan. I love this method of camp cooking for a few reasons, but I’ll get into that in a moment. First, to concentrate on the product at hand.

The stove comes in a nylon bag, nested in the pot, which also has a nylon bag. Good packaging, as this keeps debris out of your pot. For a size reference, a quart paint can is the same diameter as the stove and roughly the same height with the pot stand in its packed state.

The pot is a stainless steel pitcher with folding wire handles and graduated volume markings. It works well on the Solo or any other small stove, like a Svea123. The pot wont quite nest the Svea, to my disappointment, but it wasn’t made to, so that isn’t Solo’s fault.

Using a wood gas stove has a bit of a learning curve. You are making a tiny campfire in there and some care has to be taken to do it properly, so you can have enough fire to cook on. Wax/Vaseline soaked cotton balls or those generic fire sticks you can get at walmart are the firestarters I use most often, and once burning its an easy thing to maintain a little fire in a small space, as long as you choose the proper fuel. I’d suggest doing a couple of practice burns in the back yard before the first time out in the field, so you can learn the ins and outs of the stove.

Why a natural fuel stove in the first place though, isn’t it easier to just screw on a gas bottle and boil away? Well, yes and no.

Liquid or gas fueled stoves need…fuel. Which is stored in heavy containers, and will eventually run out. For a survival tool, this is a huge problem. Even stoves like my MSR Dragonfly, which will burn pretty much anything petrol based, will eventually fail because a small part will wear out, the pump on the fuel bottle will snap, an O-ring will go bad, etc. Spares take up more space and weight in your pack. If you are bugging out, you want a stove that weighs very little and doesn’t need you to carry its fuel.

The beauty of the Solo amongst natural fuel stoves is its efficient burn, due to its secondary combustion. You can find enough fallen twigs to boil water in mere moments. The stove and pot together weigh less than my Svea123 considerably. It is an excellent solution for lightweight backpackers and survivalists both.

For car camping I would suggest the Solo Titan. It burns longer and can support cookwear for several. The original Solo is a single person tool.

There are many reviews of this stove and other natural fuel and wood gas stoves out there, so new ground isn’t being broken by mine. The issue to consider is not “should I get a Solo Stove, is it any good?” Yes, it is excellent at what it does. The issue is “Do I want a natural fuel stove?” I find the advantages of natural fuel to outweigh the fact that they take a bit more tending during a boil, and are a bit messier than a gas stove. Light weight, quality construction, versatility, compactness. These are the reasons I backpack AND car camp with Solo stoves, big and small.

Hope this was helpful to you, check out TheGearWhores on Facebook/Twitter and our website for more, and keep camping!

Solo Stove and 900 pot

9.3

Useability

9.5/10

Durability

9.5/10

Cost

9.0/10

Pros

  • Light Weight
  • Indestructable
  • Free fuel

Cons

  • Wet weather fire starting
  • Large volume in pack

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