For the most part, another hunting season has passed by since the last post in this thread. I'm bumping it up, and am curious if anybody has any other experiences or thoughts to share after this last season regarding wood burning stoves??
I'm looking to get into a Ti stove and some sort of shelter that allows for that. I have no experience in floorless shelters, and wonder how in the heck that would be comfortable in late Nov-Dec hunting?! Enlighten me please.
Thanks,
Whisky
This season I used two different setups. The first was a Kifaru 8-man tipi with a Kifaru large stove. On one trip there were four of us in the tipi and one night it got down into the upper 20's. We had rain, snow and sleet. The large stove kept the tipi warm enough that I felt comfortable in my Merino base layer. When we went to bed I loaded the stove with some large pieces of wood and fell asleep before the stove went out. I’m not aware of a UL stove big enough to last all night even with a damper so your sleep system will have to be able to keep you warm.
Before going to sleep I prepare some wood so I can start the stove in the morning without having to get out of my sleeping bag. On this trip the other guys woke to a warm tent.
The second setup was an SO BCS with an Ed T 16" Ti cylinder stove. This stove has a damper. On one trip the temps got down to around 0. The 16" stove kept the BCS toasty warm. It was on this trip that I found my sleep system was not quite warm enough so at about 3:30am I cranked up the stove so I could get a couple more hours of sleep.
The damper on the Ed T stove works very well but I found that closing it at the wrong time can cause smoke to come into the tent. With a good bed of coals and a strong fire, closing the damper (which does not close all the way) will allow the stove to run longer than with the damper open but not as hot.
I’m happy with both stoves. People mentioned that the Kifaru stove is not tight. That is true but it has not caused any issues for me. When I first got the stove it was tight but over time the components have warped so they don’t fit together as tightly as they first did. Smoke does not leak out of it, it can get red hot and I have not had problems with sparks or embers coming out of it. I can still slow down the burn rate by closing the air intake on the front.
The first time I setup the Ed T stove it took a little while but after having done it number of times I can put it together pretty fast. One problem I had at first was putting the stove pipe into the stove while the pipe was poking out the stove jack. The Ti stove material is very thin and it is easy for the pipe to come out when moving the stove into place. But once in place I’ve never had a problem with the pipe coming out. After struggling a few times I found an easy way to get the stove placed in the tent with the pipe.
The Kifaru stove is easier to setup and place in the tent. It weighs more but is also more bomb proof. I ordered my Ed T stove with a pipe for the 8-man tipi but I haven’t used it yet. According to Ed the 16” stove is comparable in heat output to the Kifaru large stove. At this point I have no reason to doubt Ed. Besides being more bomb proof another advantage of a box stove like the Kifaru is the flat surface for cooking.