Kifaru Sawtooth- what stove?

[1signguy]

Gonna buy a sawtooth- what stove would you buy and why? Appreciate your thoughts!

 

[Shrek]

Ruta Lucura/ Ti Goat large WiFi. It's what I'm using in mine and couldn't be happier with it. The stove is relatively easy to assemble with cold hands and will burn over an hour with good wood. Easy to cook on with its flat top. A large Kifaru Ti Oval would be my second choice but I don't like trying to thread wires with cold hands and old eyes. Feeding smaller stoves is an exhausting pita.

 

[whitingja]

I've got the Seek outside SXL. I think its perfect for it. Kept me warm last year when things got cold. Might be a little overkill, but we buy stoves to stay warm, so go big or go home right.

 

[1signguy]

Good info-
Having never had a stove my biggest issue/desire is wanting something that will burn for at least an hour or so with out feeding it. If I have to pay a price from a weight/packability standpoint I am willing too. Also, I would like to be able to leave the JetBoil or MSR at home. Do you guys take one as a back up or is that a reasonable expectation?

 

[Daniel_M]

I have an 18" Lite Outdoors that I've been very happy with. Huge door, internal bafffle option, pipe dampener included.

 

[mlevimadden]

I love my 18" kifaru cylinder stove. If you don't need to cook on your stove it's pretty tough to beat.

 

[oldgoat]

Unless you're dead set on cooking on the stove, hands down a cylinder is the lightest with a better burn time than the box stoves at least with Kifaru stoves. I ordered a medium box stove with my sawtooth and after elk season was over, I bought cylinder stove and we like it whole lot better! I'm contemplating buying a Lite Outdoors but haven't pulled the trigger yet,

 

[oldgoat]

Oh, and the longer the stove is in length, the easier it is to prepare firewood that will fit and the bigger the pieces of wood, the better the burn time

 

[Akicita]

Good info-
Having never had a stove my biggest issue/desire is wanting something that will burn for at least an hour or so with out feeding it. If I have to pay a price from a weight/packability standpoint I am willing too. Also, I would like to be able to leave the JetBoil or MSR at home. Do you guys take one as a back up or is that a reasonable expectation?

I have well over 100 nights using my Seek Outside SXL in my Redcliff and have achieved stokes of well over an hour with proper intake and chimney damping. I do still bring my Snow Peak Giga Power or MSR Windburner to carry in my day pack in case I spike out a night, want hot coffee for lunch or want to distill or boil water for drinking when needed.

Some good stoves mentioned in this thread but the reason I chose the SXL was for the box design, easy damping, easy setup and durability. I am confident it excels over many others and has proven to do so for me.

 

[1signguy]

From my uneducated perspective the TI Goat stoves look pretty good- easy to put together and a flat top to cook on. The Lite Outdoors looks great too- easy to pack, long but no flat area to cook...

 

[Backpack Hunter]

My preference would be a medium sized cylinder stove, but I don't really cook on the stove. Having said that bigger or smaller work just fine as far as the actual heating goes.

 

[1signguy]

The more I think about it the more I love the idea of a hot tent!

 

[Kevin Dill]

My experiences but not necessarily any advice:

I've had a Sawtooth for a couple years now and have given it substantial use. My current stove is a TiGoat Wifi in a medium size. That stove is by far my favorite for ease of assembly, flat solid surface, rigidity and light weight. The medium stove has so far proven to be way more heat than I require even down to well under frost temps. That wouldn't be a problem, except for the necessity of keeping the fire constantly damped to avoid excessive heat. Loading the stove full of fuel and going into fully-damped mode still produces too much heat for me...to the point of needing to vent off some of it in temps above 35F.

I'm still going with the medium Wifi again in September (Alaska) and I'll deal with it. I do plan to replace that stove with a small Wifi in the future. As for cooking or heating water on a woodstove, the flattops are the way to go. My only issue is the amount of fire required to boil water will almost certainly run me out of the tipi or require opening the door flap in order to keep breathing. Personally...I don't care for a hot tent unless it's time for a leisurely wash-up.

 

[larryschwartz]

Good info-
Having never had a stove my biggest issue/desire is wanting something that will burn for at least an hour or so with out feeding it. If I have to pay a price from a weight/packability standpoint I am willing too. Also, I would like to be able to leave the JetBoil or MSR at home. Do you guys take one as a back up or is that a reasonable expectation?

1signguy,

If you don't know/realize this already, you need to know; cooking or boiling water on a wood stove vs. on a cannister fuel stove are two very different things. The cannister stoves give you a great deal of control over how much heat they give off and you can go from low to high very quickly. On a wood stove that same control requires knowing how much wood to put in, where to put your pot or pan on the flat stove top, and waiting until the firebox gets hot or cool enough for your purposes. So, boiling water for morning coffee and oatmeal can be a fifteen minute activity instead of five or less. If you have learned how to grill using charcoal then you also know the challenges you will face in controlling your heat levels on your wood burning stove.

Having said all of this, I have a Kifaru titanium oval stove that keeps me warm in the cold weather, and it stays hot and burning for a good while when you know how to load it and dampen it. If I already have it going and I am not in a hurry I will cook on it. If I want to eat quickly, I use my JetBoil.

As for using it to keep your tent warm I get it going before I go to bed, fill it up one last time, and then set a load of wood to the side so that if it goes out or low during the night I just need to open it up, toss in some more wood, and give it a couple of puffs to get it going again. It also means I have everything I need to get it going again in the morning, all from the warmth and comfort of my sleeping bag. Keep it damped properly like Kevin has talked about and you will be surprised at how long it can keep burning. Using hardwood (like oak or cherry or maple) as opposed to softwood (like pine or poplar) will also give you more heat and longer burns.

One of the best tips I ever got on using this type of wood stove also came from Kevin Dill, and that is to use one of the propane matches that many of us use to light our charcoal grills. Its length makes it perfect for being able to get the flame into the center of the firebox where you wouldn't be able to reach if you were holding a match in your hand.

Larry

 

[1signguy]

So I am leaning towards the Lite Outdoors or the Kifaru cylinder. Would purchase whichever one in 18" size for the increased burn time. The Kifaru is lighter but the Lite Outdoors looks to be a little easier to put together and break down...

Thoughts?

 

[1signguy]

Well I was hoping for some feed back...
Went ahead and purchased the Lite Outdoors after watching some videos... the larger door and bigger cubic inches (went with the medium size) versus the Kifaru cylinder sold me on it even though it is slightly heavier... plan is to split this system up with my hunting partner so what the heck. Purchased a new Silky saw to process wood and ordered the Sawtooth with the liner which hopefully can be left behind... Should know more after a test run. Just need some place cold to camp.