Hi folks,
Ive started this account specifically for longer review and educational content. Here's a trip report and review if this stove. Thanks for reading!
The US Stove Caribou 18 is a budget portable woodstove that seemed like a surprisingly sturdy unit, especially for the $79 I paid for it in December of 2025. The four legs screwed on smoothly, the sheet metal felt thicker and sturdier than I was expecting which was a relief, and the chimney pipes were also surprisingly heavy duty and resistant to crushing. Flimsy components were definitely a concern I had considering this thing is cheaper than many of the cheapest no-name fireboxes. As far as material selection goes, I’d say it was really feeling like it could be a reliable tool.
Living in the city these days, looking over the construction and finish was all I could really do until my next trip to the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest 2 weeks later. I took that time to pull out an old canvas tent I've been wanting to use for years, construct a frame from parts of other discarded tents, and install a silicone stove jack. All of that was perhaps a project worthy of another post soon. With all of that complete, I loaded up my tent, cot, Silky saw, and a few cooking pots and drove up to my new spot up north in the national forest.The plan was to keep the tent warm for the last few days of grouse season.
First burn, I did outside of the tent and everything went great. I had access to nearly unlimited standing dead birch, so starting the fire was pretty quick. I was grateful for that because I noticed as I was building my fire that the door opening is pretty small and difficult to reach through if you need to light it in the back or manipulate coals. The flames quickly began drafting across the top and through the chimney and I got a nice 2 hr burn before moving it into the tent.
The chimney sections separated pretty easily. I had read they could get stuck and was glad that wasn't an issue so far. It set up inside pretty easily, warmed the tent, boiled water, and cooked my dinner all pretty well. The whole situation was much more comfortable than the tarp camping and twig fires I’ve been doing for a few years before this.
I worked through the evening batoning my firewood into 1-2 inch splits. I hoped that I could build up a good enough bed of coals to put some "big" logs on top and damper it down for the night.
The stove burned smoothly through the night and while it was cold to the touch when I woke up about 6 hours later, opening the fire box revealed the white ash of a fairly complete burn and a small collection of bright crackling coals buried in the back. It was enough to get the fire started again, which was great.
Unfortunately, this is also where I made the mistake that really ruined the next two days of my trip. I should have taken this opportunity to clean the chimney. It probably should be cleaned every 6 to 8 hours of burning, especially since its inner diameter is closer to 2 inches than 2.5 like I thought it was. Instead, I stoked it up again and blamed the cold weather and changing wind when the fire started chugging and tossing smoke into my tent. Instead, I spent much of that day stoking, raking and rebuilding my measly fire that could barely heat a cup of water and smoked out my tent so much, I had to keep all my layers on to stay prepared for frequent fresh air breaks.
When the sun came up the follow8ng morning, it revealed my obvious problem. The spark arrestor was completely clogged and smothered with creosote and soot. I figured I'd clean it all out and the stove would be running efficiently again. Here's where this stove basically brought my trip to an end. The stove had cooled and the chimney was clogged with creosote, essentially gluing the sections together. As I made my attempt at dislodging the chimney, I heard a "pop" and the chimney flange separated from the firebox. Just like that, the stove was completely useless and I decided just to pack it all up and head home, rather than spend the night in a cold tent with a broken stovepipe.
I guess the failure is partially on me for letting the chimney get clogged and glued, but that flange was barely even attached. Just a couple microscopic tack welds were all that held it together, so I think this failure was around the corner no matter how much I babied it. For what it's worth, the big-box store that delivered the stove did offer to refund me and pick it up. They sent the refund but never came to collect it, so I can't complain too much. Now I’m thinking about adding a 3 inch flange in place of the original 2.1 inch one. I figure if I need to patch it together myself, I may as well make some improvements. Hopefully I'll have some more updates on that soon. Overall, I’d say this stove is mostly made from quality materials and could be modified into something truly useful, but as it is off the shelf, it’s finicky, smoky, and possibly dangerous.
Ive started this account specifically for longer review and educational content. Here's a trip report and review if this stove. Thanks for reading!
The US Stove Caribou 18 is a budget portable woodstove that seemed like a surprisingly sturdy unit, especially for the $79 I paid for it in December of 2025. The four legs screwed on smoothly, the sheet metal felt thicker and sturdier than I was expecting which was a relief, and the chimney pipes were also surprisingly heavy duty and resistant to crushing. Flimsy components were definitely a concern I had considering this thing is cheaper than many of the cheapest no-name fireboxes. As far as material selection goes, I’d say it was really feeling like it could be a reliable tool.
Living in the city these days, looking over the construction and finish was all I could really do until my next trip to the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest 2 weeks later. I took that time to pull out an old canvas tent I've been wanting to use for years, construct a frame from parts of other discarded tents, and install a silicone stove jack. All of that was perhaps a project worthy of another post soon. With all of that complete, I loaded up my tent, cot, Silky saw, and a few cooking pots and drove up to my new spot up north in the national forest.The plan was to keep the tent warm for the last few days of grouse season.
First burn, I did outside of the tent and everything went great. I had access to nearly unlimited standing dead birch, so starting the fire was pretty quick. I was grateful for that because I noticed as I was building my fire that the door opening is pretty small and difficult to reach through if you need to light it in the back or manipulate coals. The flames quickly began drafting across the top and through the chimney and I got a nice 2 hr burn before moving it into the tent.
The chimney sections separated pretty easily. I had read they could get stuck and was glad that wasn't an issue so far. It set up inside pretty easily, warmed the tent, boiled water, and cooked my dinner all pretty well. The whole situation was much more comfortable than the tarp camping and twig fires I’ve been doing for a few years before this.I worked through the evening batoning my firewood into 1-2 inch splits. I hoped that I could build up a good enough bed of coals to put some "big" logs on top and damper it down for the night.The stove burned smoothly through the night and while it was cold to the touch when I woke up about 6 hours later, opening the fire box revealed the white ash of a fairly complete burn and a small collection of bright crackling coals buried in the back. It was enough to get the fire started again, which was great.
Unfortunately, this is also where I made the mistake that really ruined the next two days of my trip. I should have taken this opportunity to clean the chimney. It probably should be cleaned every 6 to 8 hours of burning, especially since its inner diameter is closer to 2 inches than 2.5 like I thought it was. Instead, I stoked it up again and blamed the cold weather and changing wind when the fire started chugging and tossing smoke into my tent. Instead, I spent much of that day stoking, raking and rebuilding my measly fire that could barely heat a cup of water and smoked out my tent so much, I had to keep all my layers on to stay prepared for frequent fresh air breaks.When the sun came up the follow8ng morning, it revealed my obvious problem. The spark arrestor was completely clogged and smothered with creosote and soot. I figured I'd clean it all out and the stove would be running efficiently again. Here's where this stove basically brought my trip to an end. The stove had cooled and the chimney was clogged with creosote, essentially gluing the sections together. As I made my attempt at dislodging the chimney, I heard a "pop" and the chimney flange separated from the firebox. Just like that, the stove was completely useless and I decided just to pack it all up and head home, rather than spend the night in a cold tent with a broken stovepipe.
I guess the failure is partially on me for letting the chimney get clogged and glued, but that flange was barely even attached. Just a couple microscopic tack welds were all that held it together, so I think this failure was around the corner no matter how much I babied it. For what it's worth, the big-box store that delivered the stove did offer to refund me and pick it up. They sent the refund but never came to collect it, so I can't complain too much. Now I’m thinking about adding a 3 inch flange in place of the original 2.1 inch one. I figure if I need to patch it together myself, I may as well make some improvements. Hopefully I'll have some more updates on that soon. Overall, I’d say this stove is mostly made from quality materials and could be modified into something truly useful, but as it is off the shelf, it’s finicky, smoky, and possibly dangerous.
