A portable wood burning stove can be a nice tool to have when camping, providing you with warmth and the ability to cook meals without the worry of starting a forest fire from renegade sparks. If you're not looking for a small portable wood burning stove for camping, then maybe you are a minimalist, living in a tiny home or maybe an RV and are looking for a small wood burning stove to provide you with a heat and cooking source that may be more accessible than propane. I don't blame you as that is what I have done to ensure that no matter what happens I will be warm when I need and have a way to cook meals. That's why I wanted to share with you my experiences with a fairly popular portable would bringing stove. This is not only to provide you with a review on this portable wood burning stove, but also some tips on using it.
When I bought my portable wood burning stove about 3 years ago, I found a great deal on it on eBay. It only cost $100.00 USD at the time and it came with a water tank you can affix to the flue to keep the air in your tiny home or RV from drying out. I looked around doing price comparisons to make sure I found the best deal and found the portable wood burning stove sold without the water tank for $100.00 USD and the "stainless steel" water tank sold separately from $25 to $40.00 USD. So the deal I found getting both the portable stove and water tank for $100 was a pretty good deal. The only thing that would have made it better is if the product description was a bit more descriptive.
The portable stove came painted black. Which yes, the description did say the wood burning stove was black, but not that it was painted with a paint that is not heat resistant. The description also did not mention what grade the stainless steel water tank was, only that it was stainless steel.
With that said, can you guess what happened the first few times I used the wood burning stove? That's right! Horrible paint fumes and smoke filled the area quickly. So if you happen to be looking for a small wood burning stove for your tiny house or RV and decide to get this one, please remember to run a few blazing hot fires in it before installing it in your tiny home, RV, or tent to remove the paint.
I have to say that this wood burning stove is still worth the price when you find the deal I found, as it is still heating my tiny house 3 years later. Though I did have to replace one of the flue pipes this year due to rust from the water tank. Speaking of the water tank, as it is not the best grade of stainless steel, it is showing signs of corrosion from the water boiling over. Of course that was due to my own human error. So if you happen to purchase the water tank along with the portable wood stove to keep your air from drying out your tiny house, RV, or tent, make sure to your water level is about 2 inches below the top of the tank. This will help prevent the water from boiling over and corroding the flue for the stove.
As for the functioning of this small wood burning stove, I'd have to say that it does pretty good, except on really windy nights. The problem is that this stove does not come with a flue you can close and open. So when it gets windy, the wind goes straight down the flue and results in either of these 2 things happening, sometimes both. The first thing is that it will blow all the smoke into your tent, tiny house, or RV. The second possibility is that your fire will not burn. Now I'm not wealthy by any means, except in love, so I don't have a welder to make a proper flue for the wood stove. So to combat the problem I took a tin can that is large enough in diameter to go on top the 3 inch flu and cut a section out for smoke to escape from and place the opening opposite of the direction of the wind. Of course if the wind changes direction you have to get back on your roof to change the direction of the opening on the can to be opposite of the wind again. This becomes cumbersome, especially on those extremely cold windy nights. If you have the tools and skills available to you then it won't be much of an issue for you. However, if you don't have a welder and other tools needed to make a proper flue for this wood stove, I suggest you choose a different wood burning stove that has an actual flue you can open and close. The last thing you want is to not wake up because of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Now for the claim that the description of this wood burning stove makes in regards to being able to cook a meal on it. Unless you have this stove blazing hot it will take at least an hour to cook any food on it, even scrambled eggs. You really only have enough room on this stove for 1 large 10" skillet or pot and a small 2 qt pot or frying pan of the same diameter. So don't expect to be able to make a 4 course meal on this stove unless you're willing for some of your meal to be cold as you finish cooking the rest of the meal.
I hope this review on this portable wood burning stove has helped you in your purchasing decision. If you have purchased this stove or a different wood burning stove please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments to help others who are looking for a small wood burning stove to use in their tiny home, RV, or tent.
If you like this review, you may enjoy some of my other work as well, so make sure you check out the Melting Pot of How to on blogger for more of my writing. Thank you for reading and much love to you.