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| Bushbuddy Ultra |
| Manufacturer: Fritz Handel Enterprises http://bushbuddy.ca/
Specifications: This is a wood burning double walled, conventional vented (read as 'not forced air with fan' - rather natural drafting) made of stainless steel. Note: This review is for a prototype version of the Bushbuddy stove. Construction materials and final weight are slightly different from the standard model now available for sale. Stove dimensions: 4 1/4" dia x 3 3/4" high The stove is custom sized to nest inside a Snowpeak Trek 900 titanium pot or a 1 litre FireLite titanium pot available through backpackinglight Stove weight: 4.70 oz Final production model: 5.1oz Constructed from .004 stainless outer wall, and .010 inner wall. Custom nicrome wire fire grate. The Production model is now constructed from entirely .010 stainless to avoid problems wih dents and buckling over prolonged use with the prototypes. Aquiring the Stove: I first heard about this stove from an article by Ryan Jordan of BPL. Ryan had his own custom bushbuddy made for the Arctic 1000 expedition. I contacted Fritz about this, and he prompty responded to me with a very lengthly and extremely detailed account of Ryan Jordan's custom stove design. He made extremely helpful suggestions and offered performance reviews including both very important positive and negative effects on Ryan Jordans custom model. I put complete faith in Fritz, giving the big thumbs up on all his suggestions for improvement and alterations from Ryan Jordans bushbuddy. So how does my custom stove differ from the standard bushbuddy? The materials are much thinner and lighter than the standard model. My stove is a combination of .004 and .010 stainless steel. (Ryan Jordan had an all .004 SS built *FYI - stove will buckle over time with extended use) The design of the vent chambers is significantly altered so that one entire component "the base plate" of the standard bushbuddy design is eliminated or rather it is integral in the custom model. Lastly, Fritz has a very small supply of nicrome wire he uses for the firebox. This wire withstands higher temperatures while being much smaller and lighter than the steel mesh used in the standard model. Initial Observations: Right out of the box, I was blown away. No - Technically I was blown away by the box itself. Fritz hand cut and nailed a small wooden crate to ship the stove in. In hindsight this is just one of those little details that makes Fritz Handels craftsmanship so incredible. I immediately weighed and measured the stove. It was 'spot on, perfect'. - as if there were any doubt. Turning the stove in my hand, I was utterly captivated. As a tradesman myself, I would like to think I have a good eye for quality work. I knew immediately upon looking at the construction of this stove... this was constructed with 'master-class' hand skills and meticulous attention to detail. The sheer complexity of the compound bends, the way Fritz rolls over his edges, and the welded seams ... there just aren't words to describe it other than ..'art'. Just looking at the design of the stove, having never tried it...it deserves an engineering award. The complex bending, folding, rolling and welding of the very thin .004 and .010 stainless has created an astoundingly strong and stable yet featherlight stove. |
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| Turk fully recommends this product. Fritz Handel's Bushbuddy Ultra Stove is truly an innovative piece of gear. Purchasing one of his stoves helps support independant gear makers and the cottage gear industry. This product is everything it is claimed to be and is well worth your hard earned money. Each stove is hand crafted one at a time, right here in Canada. Fritz Handel & Bushbuddy Ultra - We salutes you. |
| Testing Performance:
I used the stove for about 2 hrs continuous, experimenting with different woods, pots, amounts of water etc. Recording temperatures, and boil times. Here is one example test: Taking one large handfull of wood: - pieces ranging in diameter from baby finger size to about 1.5x dia of thumb size. I broke some small pieces and loosely filled the stove 1/3 full. Using 4 drops of denatured alcohol and and flint striker, lit up beautifully. This was about the perfect amount of wood for an efficient flame using my SnowPeak Mini Solo in this test. The flame pattern is smooth, moderately to well protected from wind and of course ... HOT! As the flames die down.. a bed of embers is super fueled by the lower combustion air vents. This creates an intense glowing heat, with almost no flame and little smoke. I achieved an 11 minute rolling boil with .75 litres of water starting @57deg F. Note in the picture that I used only aprox 2/3 of my original handfull of wood. Also note the intense glow of the coal bed in the firebox. To summarize my initial thoughts on this stove... A Fritz Handel Bushbuddy is to Hobo Stoves.. as Western Mountaineering is to sleeping bags. Extended Field Use Follow Up: (accurate to 10-07-07) Since writing this initial review, I aquired the production model bushbuddy ultra. The production model was released in spring of 07 on backpackinglight and has been selling like hot cakes since. My two bushbuddy stoves have been all over Ontario. The stove has performed fantastically. I have been able to decrease my boil time for 900mls of water to average of 8-10 minutes. Overall usage: Litres of water boiled on stove - 74 One pot meals cooked on stove - 23 Baked goods experiments on stove - 6 Summary Comments: The production model design was altered to allow better airflow into the combustion chamber. This has been a major improvement to the function of the stove with long continuous usage. The prototype model begins to suffer airflow issues after aprox 20-30 minutes of continuous usage, when the bed of coal and ash builds up. This time can be extended if you are burning hard woods instead of softer, heavy ash woods like pitch-pine etc. The production model is capable of running much longer. I have done many side-by-side runs between the prototype and the production model. All of my hiking and trip friends are green with envy of the stoves. So much so, that they whine and complain until I have to lend one of the stoves to them every time we go out. Lighting and maintaing the small fire in the stove is as much science as an artform. For beginners it is fun to watch their frustration as you boil 3 litres of water to their one. There is a learning curve with these stoves. Cooking your meals definitely requires close attention to the stove and how the fire is performing. Anyone just switching from a white-gas stove will need to really spend some time honing their fire lighting skills and adjust their in-camp habits to allow more time dedicated to babysitting the fire. One drawback of any wood fired stove, is that it is quite difficult to perform other camp chores while cooking. The stove needs close attention if you want to get a meal cooked in a reasonable amount of time. |