Tent Stoves Compared - My collection of wood burners

Kent Survival Gear & Review
2 followers
2 Video Views·Nov 16, 2022
Welcome back to the channel. Today we're going to be talking about tent stoves.
Welcome back to the channel guys. Like I said we're going to be talking about tent stoves today.
I've got seven different designs here. A couple of different varieties as well of a tent stove.
We've got the folding lightweight backpacking ones and the more heavyweight kind of car camping type
affairs. This won't be in depth about every single one but it'll be an overview and a bit of a
comparison for you. Well here we have our first category. These are the heavyweight car camping,
bell tent, workshop whatever you want to use them for type wood stove. I've not got the chimneys on
any of these today just for ease. Inside these is where you find your chimneys and they just slot
into each other and usually have a spark arrestor on top. They will also have the dampener on the
bottom section as well. Same with this one here. Another staple of these sort of stoves is you get
these open as a port on top for cooking. Generally you get enough heat just through the metal but
you know if you want that little bit more flamage or you want to do some marshmallows you can open
that up. Now on the left here we have the Winnowell woodlander. This is called the double
view because it has these windows on either side as well as the one on the front there.
Now some of these stoves are going to look a bit black on the windows that's because the fire
last time I used them burnt down and it sooted up a little. When it's hot in there it tends to burn
that soot off otherwise you can just use some water and ash and just give it a wipe over. On
the other side here we've got an Outbacker wood burning stove. You may also recognize this as a
Frontier stove. Maybe other brands as well. I don't know why everyone uses the same design.
Maybe it's kind of a license-free old Victorian design or something. I don't know.
This one is very much an entry-level one. It was the first one I bought
and you'll see a lot of these about. Now compared to the other stoves we're going to be looking at
these are both very thick steel. This is stainless steel. This one as far as I'm aware is just blued
steel. Blue being a treatment like you do on gun barrels rather than kind of painting them.
Meaning they can rust a little bit these ones but you can give them a rub down and you can even
spray them or re-blue them. Like I said this one is a lot cheaper than this one and most on the
market I think it's pretty much the cheapest one you can buy. What are the differences? Well this
one the Winner Well comes with a grate. You have the windows, ceramic glass, heat-proof glass on
all sides which is fantastic. You've got these lovely fold-out racks. You do have kind of handles
but not so much racks on the Outbacker. You have these sprung locking legs very handy. On this one
you have the pin so a little more effort to set up. You do get a nice fire grate with the Winner
Well one as well. Slots right in. You've got them running down so you can easily scrape along them.
Both of them come with their own kind of canvas bags which is handy. They both do the exact same
job. They're both about the same weight, 10 kilograms or a hair under. I find in all honesty
this is a bit easier to have a fire in. I don't have a grate in here and you could make one.
Your port, your opening is quite small compared to the squared edge of this one but you could
get a small one in there. What I tend to do is lay small bits of wood across so I could have bigger
ones along so you can get a bit more airflow in there. You do get a pokey stick with the Winner
Well one and you've got this kind of lip on the end here or lack of a lip should I say so you can
scrape that ash right out even while the fire's going because it's underneath that grate. So it's
a bit more attention to detail there. You've also got nice embellishments kind of like the handles
which are also very practical because they disperse heat. You've got a nice vent on this
one. Obviously you just leave the door open a little bit and of course the atmosphere you get
with this inside a tent, shelter, cabin, whatever is lovely. Another thing with the Winner Well,
all of this comes apart. All the glass comes out, door comes off very easily for cleaning
or for maintenance. You've also got a lot of accessories for the Winner Well.
You've probably all seen me use the ovens, the water tank and stuff like that.
I've seen a water tank for these, Frontier one, but I don't know what else they have. Accessories
tend to be interchangeable a lot of the time but like the stovepipe oven on this wouldn't be for
example. So that's a look at my two heavier weight stoves. I'll now get out the next lot.
Right, next up we've got folding stoves. So these are portable, lightweight because they're all
titanium except they actually fold apart kind of like fireboxes, bushboxes, which all of these can
be used as as well. They can be used as a fire pit and some of them come with a grill like the
Pomole one. So starting from this side we've got the Fast Fold by Winner Well. We've got the Pomole
T1 and on the end is the new Pomole Woods Knight. So this I believe is a special edition. It's not
something they're going to carry on making as far as I'm aware. So if you see that and fall in love
with it straight away you know where to look. Now you'll notice in all of these they are empty
because they fold flat. You've seen me unpack them just now. They come with these titanium
sheet chimneys. Now I'll put in some footage of me kind of rolling one out. They come rolled like
this, so rolled the long way so it's nice and short to pack away. The first time you do them
you have to form them. It's best to use a form. You roll it out, good with two people and wear gloves,
and then you roll them around your form. Put on your rings, put them on the stove and then give
it a burn. That kind of sets the shape so it'll roll into this shape and the long chimney shape.
So yeah very packable, a bit fiddly especially if you're not on flat you know perfect ground,
but it allows these to be packable and flat and small otherwise they'd be the same size as the
big ones. So you know it's not ideal. When I first saw these you kind of see that overlap
and you're sure that smoke's going to leak out of it, but it really doesn't. You've got that
that flue system going, sucking, drawing that smoke up and I think it does get a good overlap
as well. Same for all of these, they're pretty much identical in that regard. Very clever, a little bit
fiddly. So the T1 Pomole and the Woods Knight at the end there are both 3.9 kilos. If I say anything
wrong I'll correct it on the screen which is 8.6 pounds. So you know significantly lighter than a
10 kilogram stove and more packable because it goes flat. The Winnow Whale here, the Fast Fold,
that's 2 kilograms, 4.4 pounds. So even lighter, probably because my next point. Like I said all
of these are titanium. This one has this great little vent on the front here so you get to see
the flames a little bit. I'll move that over. The T1 here, you've got the ceramic glass on the front
and on the side. This is on one side. I think you can buy the sides on their own so you can
kind of play around with that. So yes it makes it a little heavier but it really is nice. As you know
winter nights are long, you spend a lot of time in your tent cooking on these and everything
and being able to see that fire, see it light up the inside of your tent is really nice.
Now on the end here the, what did I call it, the Woods Knight. As you can see it's pretty much the
same as the T1 except you've got this design on both sides. I've not even burnt this one in yet,
it's just come through. Really looking forward to taking it out and trying it. I expect it to
form exactly the same as the T1 except you've got this this nice woodland view on the side.
The Pomollies do come with these racks, they have legs as well so you can put wood on there,
you can put your pans on there before you cook over and they all come with their own
spark arrestors, their own designs which slot over the end. They have these holes on to guide them
out. Generally if you support it about halfway up anyway you're going to be fine but you know
if you're somewhere windy they're very lightweight chimneys so it's very handy. The Fastfold by
Winnewell, they also have available the Fastfold oven and other accessories as well so you've got
some versatility there. None of these have your port that you could open on the top but yeah they
can all be used as fire pits with grills on top. These fold a little flatter because this comes off
on these. On the Winnewell one that is set in. None of these have grates in them,
you can do like I said ladder up your wood so you can get more air through
or you could make a grate if you really wanted to but kind of the point is to keep it lightweight.
The size of these is similar to your bigger stoves and yeah they'll come with their own
bags and everything. You've seen me unpack them, got their vents and they all perform well.
One last thing to mention with these is as you probably saw they all fold down with the legs
which is handy. Same on the Winnewell there and the last thing to note is if I take the top off
here another reason the Mollies are a little heavier is because they have this reinforcement
on the top and on the bottom you would have just seen because that's where the fire is
hitting the most the heat is really hitting it and that stops kind of that warpage.
You may have noticed the top of this one has warped a little bit but you know everything warps
a bit. It's quite easy because you're either screwing them like with the other ones or
tabbing them down it doesn't really matter. Anything that gets hot and it's metal it's
gonna have a little warpage maybe not them big ones. Last up I guess we'll call it super
lightweight. We've got this one I bought from AliExpress which doesn't have a brand.
I think you can buy it under different brands and names and you've got the Seek Outside Cub.
This is loaned to me from Simon. Simon a bloke in the woods a lot of you will know his channel
those who don't check it out very similar to mine and as you can see this one is absolutely tiny.
He's used it in his one tigress smoky hut tent and he said it warmed it up lovely.
This one's a bit bigger it's a hair smaller than the Pomole and the Winnewell fast fold ones.
Now the big disadvantage to these is you have to slot them together rather than just fold them out.
Now the more they warp the kind of more tricky that gets. It's never going to be too bad but
if it's cold you got gloves on stuff like that it's something to bear in mind but on the plus
they're very very light. The one from AliExpress here is 1.7 kilograms and the Cub here I think
this is about 600 grams plus the chimney I think it's a hair under a kilogram altogether.
Like I said before I'll put all the weights up on the screen if I do get them wrong.
So both of these are a bit smaller and a lot more lightweight fiddlier to put together and they will
warp more. You saw me struggle a little bit with this one when I was putting it together this is
going to warp less because it is smaller. I think I put the feet on the top and the
wingnuts on the bottom here doesn't really matter. That's another thing that's a bit fiddly about
them is you do have to put your threaded rod through so they go into the chamber and they
are your legs. They're a little spindly they can sink into mud but they do have these kind of feet.
You see this one's kind of poked through a bit. Now remarkably even though it is as light as it
is you've still got some heatproof glass on the AliExpress one. This one used a couple of times
performed pretty well. I mean no complaints really except for the fiddliness and kind of
the warping I guess. Both of these again go completely flat because these come off
and the Cub here you can completely open this kind of window on the front as well as the vent
on the bottom. So I guess you can see that fire as well if you've got a good enough drawer going
you could just have that open. You're going to get through fuel quicker but you're going to be
able to see that fire. Now most of these stoves do heat up quite a large area. I used the big
heavyweight ones in a four meter bell tent but I think even the smaller ones would do a good job,
maybe not so much the Cub. For the smaller kind of one tire grits and pomali tents and that
all of these would heat them just fine you'd have no problems whatsoever. The bigger your chamber
the easier it is to manage that fire and keep that heat in there and just kind of add to it here and
there because you wake up in the night and maybe you'll add to it. Most people don't really run
them overnight though. So yeah if you're looking for something very lightweight to actually properly
backpack with with a lightweight kind of one tiger style tent both of these are great. They have now
redesigned this Cub. Instead of having the slot together sheet metal you've now got I think they
call it a Cub U. I'll put a picture of it up it's just a bent piece of sheet titanium I believe maybe
two that just bends around the back so it's curved on the back slots in the front. Looks like it could
be a bit easier I don't know I've not used it but it also reduces the weight even more which is just
ridiculous. This thing you barely notice you've got it in your pack. I've used this works just fine
this I've not used but I know that Simon is very happy with it. They also do a few different sizes
as well as do Pomoly. They've got a smaller one I think it's a little bigger than this
but if I ever do get that I'll show you it. Of the three categories I've kind of gone over here
out of the stoves I've got out of the heavyweight ones I love the Winnewell. It's pretty much the
same weight as the Outback or Frontier stove except you've got the glass there and so many
more conveniences plus the accessories really do make it especially in a big sort of bell tent
or hut sort of setup. For the kind of mid to lightweight folding stoves it's got to be the
Pomoly with the with the glass panels the T1. I'm sure the Woodview one is also just as good but
you know I've not used it as yet. This one I've used a few times now I absolutely love it being
able to see that fire and have saying you know it could fit in your pack but I tend to carry
it separately because it's only a small lightweight bag anyway. It's fantastic and I can't
really go for the Cub because I've never used it so you know for the price I think it's usually
about a couple of hundred pounds just over a titanium tent stove you can use as a fire pit
and as the glass. It may be fiddly it may warp a bit but you know that's your entry level into
kind of super lightweight tent stoves. Excluding the Cub because it is so tiny it's obviously the
smallest one I don't know if they come with a bag or not I'd have to ask Simon. So the Aliexpress
at the front here you've then got the Winnewell, the Pomoly, the Frontier or Outbacker and the
big Woodlander Doubleview at the back there. Nice bag with kind of big pockets as well.
So there's an overview of the tent stoves I currently have. I hope that kind of comparison
has helped you a little bit seeing the sizes against each other seeing the kind of pros and
cons about them and I will put all the links below. Price details I'll put any kind of
weight and size dimensions on the screen and everything I can't remember all of that out here
but yeah hopefully you found that helpful. What I'll probably try and do you know time permitting
is do a video on every single one individually just to get a clear idea of all of them I mean
this is the review channel after all. Check back to some of my older videos on the main
Kent Survival channel you'll see me using you know all of these in a video or another.
Yeah thank you guys for watching got any questions put them below and I'll answer if I can
otherwise I'll see you next time goodbye
