Review: Bushcraft-Essentials Bushbox Outdoor Pocket Stove

Yet another stove I bought.

I have used all sorts of stoves, from Primus and Optimus Multi Fuel when I started a 5 year worldwide bicycle trip to an Optimus Svea 123. I tried a gas stove, a self-made hobo stove, an alcohol stove and plain wood fires.

Over the years my travel pace became slow and wood fires fitted me best. So much so that on our present trip, I forgot to take any gas fueled stoves and only took the latest bought stove with me.

A Bushcraft-Essentials Bushbox Outdoor Pocket Stove.

I own this stove for about two years, and hardly used it. I prefer to make open fires, but when I nearly set fire to a patch in the Spanish dry woods, I didn’t want to risk any further.

And so, the time has arrived that I needed to use a safer sort of fire at least thrice a day. And that brought me to a review.

Positives

• The stove needs very small pieces of wood, yet once going it burns bigger twigs as well.

• There is hardly evidence that a wood fire took place. The stove produces hardly any ashes.

• It’s a safe way of making a wood fire, I doubt that anyone can be offended by this sort of a fire. When staying alert, it will be an achievement to set a forest on fire.

• Easy to carry. Hardly takes any space in your bag, though it is not super light.

• Even when wood fires are forbidden, this little crafty thing might be tolerated (wishful thinking).

• It has way more charm than any other stove; gas, fuel or alcohol.

• The stove is not expensive, I paid about 30 euro.

Negatives

• Being it a very small stove, as the name indicates, it holds a 500 ml cup but anything bigger seems to suffocate the stove. The fire needs air but placing a bigger pot on top makes it a rather closed box and the fire easily dies out. The two trivets might be a solution to this issue, but I dislike using them and rather choose a stone to balance the pot, and allow the Bushbox to have more oxygen. A pit also works to allow the stove to get more oxygen while balancing the pot partly on the side of the pit. As always, I managed to break it. The advertisement says: ‘a solid piece of equipment designed to last a lifetime’, but only when you care for it very cautiously, as it surely can bend.

• The Bushbox needs to be fed continuously, so be sure to have an array of small and bigger wood sticks.

• Assembling the stove does not go smooth. Also, your hands get very dirty from the sooth.

• It sure is a real fire, yet held captive and therefore has not the charm like an open wood fire.

• Obviously, there is no way you can prepare something in a hotel room. I used it while being lodged in Bolivia, but outside.

• It is a stove which makes you depended on wood and you must be sure that where you go there are some pieces of wood. You don’t need much however.

On our motorbike trip through South America I frantically was in search for a gas stove as in the Altiplano and desert along the Pacific coast are very few pieces of wood. You need very little, but nothing at all is not even working on this little fiery thing.

Once we reached the USA and depended on stealth camping in the woods, we were in need for a few demands: wanting to be unseen and leave without a trace. We started to use the Bushbox every day once we reached the woods, and coinciding, I was immobile due to inflamed tendons in the ankles. For 4 weeks we had our camp very near to a path and at the back of a hospital ‘health park’. Would we be seen with a happy chappy bonfire, it might not please just every passerby. Many American citizens are lovers of strict rules and in respecting this, we kept our fire as low as we could. A Bushbox does so. In those weeks, as we moved in to Corona-era and a ban on every fire became a reality in the county we were, we still kept our little Bushbox burning.

We never made so much use of this little handy item than in the last months. It is much easier to carry than a self-made hobo stove. It is not expensive and does not take much space.

Conclusion: I would buy the Essential-Bushcraft Bushbox stove again, but not the pocket size.

From Essential-Bushcraft website:

Our famous multi-fuel pocket stove. Can be used with wood, other organic material, a standard Trangia burner or Esbit. Comes with two trivets for any pot size. Can also be used as a windshield/pot support for other burners.

Super easy to put together and use as the “Build it from the Back” design lets one put it together in seconds. This stove is heirloom quality and built to last, made from 100% stainless steel. Designed and manufactured in Germany.

Price: 30 euro

Measurements: 11,5 x 9 x 0,5 cm

Weight: 270 gram

Material: stainless steel.

The next post shows how to make a bread on a Bushbox Pocket stove.