Two wood-​​burning camping stoves. Both are designed to be light-​​weight and burn small bits of wood to cook food on the trail. No car­ried fuel, and unlike the Sierra Zip stove, no battery-​​driven fan. These may not be good for use in areas where woody debris is so picked-​​over as to be an eco­log­ical problem (I’m thinking parts of the Appalachian Trail, most hiking areas in Southern Ontario), but in lower-​​human-​​impact zones they will use far, far less wood than an actual fire. Here’s a post from a ranger claiming he doesn’t object to people using them in no-​​fire zones.

Both of these stoves are prod­ucts of the thriving and inno­v­a­tive small-​​manufacturer direct-​​sales camping gear scene.

Bushbuddy

Backpackinglight has been selling the Bushbuddy Ultra since BPL editor Ryan Jordan com­mis­sioned it for a long-​​distance arctic hike in 2006. I just fig­ured out that the orig­inal Bushbuddy is made and sold in Canada. And, they’ve redesigned the cheaper, more robust, slightly heavier “orig­inal” model to be lighter than it was, but still cheaper. So there you go.

The Bushbuddy has a two-​​wall design to pre­heat the air supply, which they claim lets it burn “as clean as a candle”, more effi­ciently, and per­haps most impor­tantly to a west­erner, with wetter wood. 6.5oz for the $100CDN redesigned Bushbuddy basic, 5oz for the $120CDN Bushbuddy Ultra. Or, if you’re in the US and know that import duties are high, get it from Backpackinglight for $140USD (a little cheaper if you’re a BPL member).

Update: Fritz from F.H. Enterprises emailed to say that there should be no duty charged going into the U.S. and to point out that at the exchange rates at time of pub­li­ca­tion, that makes for about $79USD, including shipping.

Littlbug

If the Bushbuddy is too high-​​tech for you, the Littlbug is a sim­ilar thing with an even less engi­neeered design. Comparable weight, plus it breaks down and nests (in a good way). Not dual-​​wall, so per­haps that effects per­for­mance. Appears a little more durable, and they’re sub­stan­tially cheaper. $60USD for the 5.1oz “junior”, and there’s a 16oz “senior” for the youth-​​group com­mu­nity for about the same price. Note how­ever that the Bushbuddy has a closed bottom to reduce scar­ring, and the Littlbug would need the 9oz/$25USD firepan for the same func­tion. Note also that the firepan comes bun­dled with a hanging chain, in case you want to have a sus­pended “self-​​centering” fire­place, or you could buy two for camp­site poi twirling.

Boil times:

According to their respec­tive web­sites, the Bushbuddy will boil 1 liter of water in 8–10 min­utes, and the Littlbug Jr. will take 4–6 min­utes for the same oper­a­tion (they use American water, which only comes in quarts, but it’s very sim­ilar). Interesting, although a side by side com­par­ison con­trol­ling for ambient and water tem­per­a­tures, alti­tude, wood type and fire making tech­nique might yield dif­ferent results either way.

Gearshed Analysis:

If you’re con­cerned about the energy your stove will con­sume in reaching you, and con­comi­tant climate-​​altering carbon emis­sions, I have pre­pared a rough map of the gearshed boundary of the two devices. The Bushbuddy is made in Iskut (!) BC by Fritz, the Littlbug comes from Kent and the indi­vid­uals with dis­abil­i­ties he employees in Bemidji Minnesota.

Note that this is only a first-​​order analysis, and does not account for road net­works or flight paths, border effects, idling times, switching costs, or aes­thetic fac­tors. You may wish to con­duct your own analysis. Note also that if you buy the Bushbuddy from Backpackinglight, it will be trav­eling twice. Note also also that the closer to the line you are, the less it really mat­ters. Not that Calgarians would care, anyway.

View Gearshed: Bushbuddy v. Littlbug stoves in a larger map

(If that line looks a little off-​​center, it’s prob­ably because Google Maps dis­plays in a Mercator pro­jec­tion, which isn’t so hot for area-​​distance relationships.)

This is not a review: I have not used either of these stoves (I’m still in a love/​hate rela­tion­ship with my alcohol stove). If anyone has first-​​hand expe­ri­ence they’d like to share, please comment.

Update 2:Kent con­tacted me and is sending a unit for review, and it turns out that a friend of mine has a Bushbuddy, so once I have both in my hands I’ll make a new post com­paring and con­trasting the two. Watch this space. And please, leave your own comments!