This is Wood Gas Camp Stove XL. This is the larger version of LE. The broshure says it holds 2.5 time of the fuel than LE.
This stove runs best with the use of wood pellets, but twigs, pin cone, etc can provide great, comforting fire. In order to start, I just used the BBQ starter fuel. A couple second long squirt on the top of the pellets got it going. I filled it with 5 handfuls of pellets (medium-sized hand), and it lasted about 30 minutes at various settings, until the pellets were reduced to ashes and charcoals. I tried with 10 handfuls of pellets, and it lasted more than one hour at Low setting.
At "high" setting of the fan, it can boil 2L of water under 9 minutes. There was a slight breeze, and the flame was not blown about by the wind. The pot in the picture has a 1/4 inch-thick bottom, so if a backpacking style pot with thinner bottom is used, I am sure it will cut the boiling time down. The firepower of the Wood Gas Stove at High setting matches the firepower of Optimus 111T, if not more. 111T can boil 1L of water in 4 minutes.
It appears that each handful of pellets adds the average of 5-6 minutes of burn time. For regular cooking duty, I would recommend wood pellets first, then twigs. Pine cone burns too ferociously, and it generates too large a flame. I would save pine cones for the camp fire. Besides, a single pine cone can take up the space inside the fire bowl, and leave not much room for other fuel. The pine cones I collect from nearby pine trees are rather large, and one pine cone completely fills the fire bowl.
Wood Gas Stove needs the battery power to operate properly. Without the battery connected to the socket (2 sockets: High and Low), it generates a lot of smoke. Once bettery power is supplied to the fan, the smoke is significantly reduced. At Low setting, you can smell the smoke, but it is not eye-stinging. You can hardly see the smoke rising. At High setting, you can hardly smell the smoke, and it is almost completely removed. Above picture shows the flame at Low setting.
The picture below is a screenshot of the Stove running with power off. The flames are long and smokey. It can be used this way, but the pot will become very sooty. By the way, the picture of the pot above shows the soot-covered bottom, but the Wood Gas Stove will never let that happen, unless you run it with the power off.
Once you let the fire go out by not adding the fuel at the proper interval, the new load of fuel will generate much smoke. Just blow a few times into the fire bowl, and the flame will catch easily. The pine cone tends to generate a lot of smoke, if the flame was not big enough to begin with. Just blow into the fire bowl, and it will catch fire easily. Sometimes, the fan does not help your fuel catch fire, if you just added a large piece of wood or pine cone on a weak flame. Again, blowing your breath into the fire bowl will get the fire going quickly.
The above video shows Wood Gas Stove running at High setting. The flame is generated by mere 5 handfuls of wood pellets. That amount of pellets barely covers the bottom four pellets thick.
The stove is rather large, similar to 1-gallon paint can. So it would not be ideal to pack, if you backpack--unless you have a sherpa. If you car camp, then this is one heck of a stove to carry along. If you have a canoe or kayak, then this stove should serve you very well.
I am quite impressed, and completely satisfied, with Wood Gas Stove. Its fuel efficiency is amazing, and you can have a hot fire going, after spending just 5 minutes gathering the twigs. I would not hesitate to recommend this one to anyone interested in wood burning stove.
Now, I have to make the excuse to take this stove to the woods.
