Solo Stove Lite Review (and potential group buy)

[GlockSpock]

Recently, I have been in contact with Eric from the Solo Stove company. I have been attempting to setup a "group buy" for us. As such, he sent me one of their stoves for photos and review. 

Solo Stove makes a variety of wood stoves, from small backpacking models such as the "Lite" all the way to the largest "Bonfire" model. My sample was a "Lite", and that's what I'm reviewing today.

Even though it's a "backpacking stove", I was quite surprised when I received the box. It indeed was small, and very, very light!

They include a pouch to hold everything together and to keep it away from other gear in your pack.

Assembled! If you count removing the center section, flipping it around, and inserting it into the top railing of the bottom piece.  It goes together incredibly quickly and then stores back within itself for storage.

I was excited, so I tried it on a wet day. Most of you probably know how much rain we've been getting recently.

Smoke. That means it isn't hot enough. Yet.

Honestly, it was a bit difficult to get going good since everything was so wet. I cheated by adding some dry paper towels. If I had dry tinder or took a bit longer to shave some smaller pieces, I could have done so without the paper towels.

Cast Iron. It's for winners.

A modest single serving of butter.

The finished product? A tasty fried egg.

So, overall, I love this stove. I haven't yet tried it again, but it is seemingly all stainless steel and very well made. With dry tinder, I'm sure it will be set ablaze quickly and easily. The design is somewhat similar to a "Green Egg" grill, it allows airflow from the bottom (those round holes seen in the above photo) to fuel the fire and then the heat pulls everything upward. 

The size is perfect for 1-2 people. Of course they make a pot (I think the 900 size) that holds the Solo Stove Lite perfectly. Admittedly, the cast iron skillet I used was too big and heavy. It worked, but it would have been easy to tip the thing over if you weren't extremely careful. Also, of course the cast iron took a very long time to heat. A stainless or titanium skillet would have heated in no time once I got the fire going.

Overall, I think this product is wonderful for what it is. I'm still working with Eric in an attempt to get us at TGO a "group buy" discount code. Hopefully I can update this post soon.

[Defender]

Im interested, depending on the price you get.

[Jeb48]

I bought a Solo Stove Campfire model a couple of years ago. I carry it in our camper with a pail of scrap wood cut small from under the table saw and supplement with sticks and such as available. It replaced a home made small portable camp fire thingy that I used for years. Bought the Solo primarily because of the smokeless gasifier feature. As it warms up and the smoke goes away it is like magic. I carry small, roughly 1" square fireplace starters, I light it and toss it in and as it catches I dump in the scrap wood. Don't use it a lot but I do like it and highly recommend. A friend has their biggest one for camping and home use. We just use ours for a small camp fire when we are sitting around not cooking.

The picture was when we first got it and wanted to try it out on the porch, Could have gotten by with a pie pan upside down for heat protection.

 

Edited July 23, 2020 by Jeb48

[Moped]

Depending on the price, I might be interested in one of these.

[Wingshooter]

Nice. I’d be interested in the Lite model also depending on price.

[gjohnsoniv]

I too could be interested.