Re: [Paddlewise] Transportable stoves

Steve Jernigan wrote:
> 
> Hi All!
> I had the opportunity to try one of the Pocket Cookers (or a similar item)
> a couple of years ago. Alas, there is always a good possibility of
> "operator error", but I never did get it to boil water. (sure got my
> coffeepot black, tho!) Anyone else on the list ever really USE one? It
> seemed to be a just the thing for an emergency stove in the trunk, or on a
> snowmachine, but I just couldn't get enough "HOT!!!" out of it. Just
> curious.  Steve J.

I reviewed one of these for my newsletter back in 1994.  Not the Sierra
Stove with battery but rather one that was made in Israel and sold
through Gander Mountain for $15.95.  I haven't checked but was told by
some readers who followed up a year or two later that it no longer was
being offered.

The stove is/was pyramid shape, totally collapsible to a flat package
that would fit in a provided nylon bag.  Folded down it was the size of
a small book.  It has a door on one side.  the object is to feed in wood
from the side rather than from the top as in the Sierra Stove.  This
allows you to use more than just twigs.  You could get a small branch
and feed it in if you liked, but twigs could be also feed in that way. 
The top had prongs on which a coffee pot would sit and blacken a lot of
course.  It weighed slightly over a pound.

The stated time for boiling 3 cups of water at sea level was 10
minutes.  However, using quite dry kindling, I got 3 cups boiling like
mad in just 5 minutes and extrapolated that it would do a quart in
around 8 minutes certainly.  That is not bad compared to the stated 5 to
6 minute for boiling a quart of water on gas stoves such as MSRs. 
Obviously different wood supply would achieve different results but it
most definitely will bring water to boil.

I think its shape is what made it work so well, a terrific draft from
the sides and bottom and the pyramid sides concentrating all that heat
up in a relatively small area where you put the pot.

I know that there are other such products floating around.  My quest for
one was peaked by a woman I knew (the same one with the duct taped neck
gasket) who had found one some where in the Adirondaks and regularly
boiled water for tea and coffee on it just using twings off the ground. 
Hers had last a few seasons but was on the verge of burning through the
last time I saw it which was quite a few years ago.

I liked that it did not require a battery and folded flat.  Also that
ability to feed sizable branches in from the side and push them in
further as they burnt.  It looked like something that you could carry
along with a small supply of firestarter type wood or the Fire Ribbon
stuff in a tube.  This way, if you ran into situations where everything
was wet at your campsite, you would have enough to see you through with
what you brought along.  It weigth terms, the stove and the emergency
back up fire starter stuff would be just slightly more than the lighest
gas stove and fuel.  But of course you would and could use what you
found along the way and never resort to the backup fuel.

ralph 
-- 
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Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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