Testing and review of the Grilliput Fire Bowl and Folding Barbecue Grill.
There are many times when you’re out hiking or camping and you can have an open fire or barbecue but it needs to be contained and controlled.
Well, if you want to cook on an open fire, BBQ style, you definitely don’t want to be carrying around a ‘normal’ BBQ grill – it’s far too heavy and bulky for sure – weight is always an issue and choosing what to put in your rucksack or even your bug out bag, will restrict the type of gear you carry.
So what is the alternative?
I stumbled on this great bit of kit a while back and finally got a chance to try it out and review the Grilliput Fire Bowl and Folding Barbecue Grill.
This is my review:
The unit is sold in two separate parts:
Each part is designed to fold down into a very compact and lightweight unit, taking up minimal space within your rucksack – in fact, it’s easy to find space for the Grilliput within most rucksacks – you can set up the fire bowl in seconds, the grill will take you a little longer as everything is neatly ‘hidden’ within one of the tubular side supports and you assemble it all together to form the main grill.
That being said, you can be set up and be ready to barbecue within five minute – giving a safe, controlled and confined fire bowl to ensure you keep everything contained in one place.
Now, you can buy each item separately, and even use them separately if you want, but they are designed to work and fit together – I found this the best way.
When I opened my Grilliput firebowl and Folding Barbecue Grill the first thing that strikes you is the fact that it’s all stainless steel and a very good finish, making it nice and easy to clean up after use – all the grill components come apart, which is good as they can all be wiped down and cleaned very easily as well – there’s also a ‘cleaning groove’ on one of the grill sides which makes it easy to pull the grilling bars through and scrape off any excess meat etc. that has spilled and stuck to the grill bars.
The main fire bowl is quite a lot more fiddly to clean though, and I found the best way to clean it was straight after use, wiping down with a cloth [especially if any cooking fat or meat has dropped into it] and then just soaking for a little while before drying off.
The disassembly was as quick as putting it all together and, for those in a hurry, you’re off on your way in no time.
With this type of equipment the only way to really see how it performs is to see it in action
- so this is my video review below -
Performance wise – well, it does exactly what is says on the tin..!
As you can see in the video, the fire bowl is an excellent way to contain your fire in one compact area, maintaining fuel and heat at the same time – with a really clever way to fold it down to a compact little unit after use and the grill works well, but best of all, folds down into one easy to carry tube.
Conclusions:
Can’t really fault this neat bit of kit – if you’re after something to give that real outdoors BBQ cooking feeling, thats easy to carry in your rucksack and hassle free, then this is the bit of kit for you.
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]]>Bushbox Ultralight Outdoor Pocket Stove Test and Review
One of the key factors when hiking and on the move is the weight of your survival gear – even an EDC bag can get a bit heavy when you try to cover all your survival needs.
Well, in this review I am covering one of the very lightest, fully functioning survival stoves you can get today.
The Bushbox Ultralight Outdoor Pocket Stove from Bushcraft Essentials in Germany have produced a cooking stove that is a mere 2 1/4 oz in weight. [61 grams] – thats almost half the weight of an iPhone..!!!
The Bushbox Ultralight folds down to an amazing 1.5 mm thick, making this a super light, super compact quality stove.
Specifications:
- Multi fuel stove
- 100% stainless spring steel 5 parts
- Carry weight 61 grams
- Carry thickness 1.5 mm
- Optional ashtray
- Optional cotton carry bag
In this review I will be covering how to assemble the UltraLight Stove in its various configurations depending on the fuel type and then firing it up and cooking up a survival meal.
Conclusions:
The only tricky bit about the Bushbox Ultralight Outdoor Pocket Stove is assembling the stove – it will take you a few attempts to get the hang of how to hold the stove whilst squeezing and manipulating the parts together.
Maybe a half dozen attempts and you’re there..!
Other than that, you’re good to go – a perfect little stove, more than capable of performing all cooking tasks from a cup of water for your coffee stop to a main meal.
Everything fits and locks together perfectly and this makes it a sturdy little unit. Disassembly is really easy once one side is ‘unclipped’ the whole unit will come apart – very nice and very easy….
Price wise I think the Ultralight offers good value for your money, currently under £30 +shipping from Amazon, you’re paying for quality and good design here, as well as a nice bit of lightweight kit.
Overall, I liked using this stove very much, it seems to be a very “user friendly” and I tend to choose carrying it with me when out for a days hiking and travelling light.
“must have” preppers gear
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]]>Bushbox Outdoor Pocket Micro Stove EDC Box Review
Possibly one of the smallest micro stoves in the world..!
This is my review of the Bushbox Outdoor Pocket Micro Stove EDC Box – sometimes this size of cooking stove is referred to as either a micro stove, and EDC stove or a hobo cook stove, in effect they are all pretty much the same in so much as they are small, compact cooking stoves.
Quite how well they all work varies a lot, in fact, you can even make your own hobo stove very cheaply and it will work quite well – but, as I always say, you will benifit, in the long run run, by choosing a high quality stove over a cheaper or home made one any day….
Quality of manufacture will guarantee a long working life of your stove and, as preppers, having reliable, quality gear is an essential part of our prepping plan.
Never buy cheap.
Having tested and reviewed other stoves from BushBox Essentials – the Bushbox XL Combination and the Bushbox Outdoor Pocket Stove I was eager to test out the smallest cooking stove in their range,the Outdoor Pocket Micro Stove EDC Box and below is my full review and video review:
Specifications:
- 100% stainless steel
- Multi fuel burner
- Ash Pan soil protection
- Size: 47mm x 65mm
- Only 77 grams
- Fits in pocket or wallet
This tiny survival stove is supplied with a nice, well made pouch that allows you to keep all the parts together and then kept in your pocket or even in your wallet – being so compact and light it fits nicely along with a standard survival card or the BE Survival-Card.
This is my full review and test of the Bushbox Outdoor Pocket Micro Stove EDC Box
Final thoughts:
This little stove has got to be the ultimate EDC cooking stove – it is quite amazing how good the engineering quality is and how compact it is – probably best of all is the fact that is actually works well. Being compact you must ensure it’s placed on a flat level base before trying to put a cup or pan on it and make sure the cup is balanced before letting go – use your multi tool pliers to feed the fuel in [much better than getting burnt] and, be patient, other than that, I can’t find fault with it at all..!
In use, it was much easier with the Esbit fuel tablet, which required a lot less attention than the wood fuel, and also left a lot less residue on the insides of the micro stove.
I have not spoken about price – for the quality of material and engineering the stove represents great value for money at under £17 +postage from Amazon
I keep mine in my wallet along with my BE Survival-Card, as you can see here –
click image to enlarge
Conclusions:
Pros –
- Well worth the money for the high quality of stove.
- very well engineered.
- cleans easily being all stainless steel.
- very compact, light and easy to carry.
Cons –
- be patient.
- best used on flat and level ground
“must have” preppers gear
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]]>Bushbox XL Survival Stove Review 
stove tested: Bushbox XL with Combination Kit
The Bushbox XL [extra large] is the bigger brother of the Hobo Stove, also made by the Bushbox Company based in Germany.
The XL version I am reviewing here has a radically new design which makes this stove very compact and extremely easy to set up, fold down and carry.
In fact, the XL is possibly one of the easiest to assemble survival stoves that I have ever known – it goes from folded down to being ready for use in seconds.
Folded down and inside its carrying case I measured the overall dimensions to be only:
210mm x 95mm x 20mm thick MAX. – Weighing only 800 grams
This was an comfortably acceptable size and weight to carry considering the finished, usable size of the stove.
*The standard XL comes as the stove with the two trivet stands as you can see in the picture above and is packed in a fitted cotton pouch.
The basic Bushbox XL is very reasonably priced at under £75 inc VAT and delivery –
The Bushbox XL reviewed here had the additional accessories that make up the Combination Kit and these are a Heavy Duty Outdoor Carry Bag and a Universal Grate, shown below. This is priced at under £87 inc VAT and delivery -
The outdoor carry bag is very well made and fits the stove plus the universal grate perfectly – the carry bag also has a sewn in ‘D’ ring which, again, is very well fitted and would need a lot of pulling about to work loose – this is a good feature as it means everything can be easily attached to your rucksack leaving valuable space inside.
this is my test & video review of the
BuxhBox XL Outdoor Survival Stove with Combination Kit
As you can see in my video, the Bushbox XL had a good field test and certainly worked 100% on a rather cold and chilly day ( the water in the cup was certainly well below 10 deg C ) but there was absolutely no problem starting and maintaining a good amount of heat – the opening where you can feed the twigs into makes everything so easy and maintaining the fire was simple. 
One point to note – keep the ash pan ( bottom tray ) clear of any debri or fallen ash, I just used a longer twig to brush it out – if it builds up you loose air flow through to the fire grate ( I had to clear the ash a couple of times ) by keeping it clear there was none of this huffing and puffing at the fire that you normally get with some wood fires..!
So, a final verdict on the BushBoxXL – can’t be anything other than excellent.
The design is very good, it’s compact and easy to store, works exactly like it’s supposed to do, kept a nice tidy fire going for as long as I wanted and folded away simply and easily at the end of the day.
I would definitely advise any hiker, camper or Prepper to get one of these as a serious addition to your survival kit.
- What wasn’t included in the video was the fact that once the water boiled I removed the cup and stocked up the stove with some more larger twigs and made myself a lovely camp fire which burned for ages and gave off some nice heat – just to finish off the day nicely…..
Happy prepping folks..
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]]>Bushbox Hobo Pocket Stove Review
Manufactured in Germany and made of 100% stainless steel, this
survival stove is definitely one of the most compact units I have seen.
In this review I will cover the assembly and dismantle of the Bushbox Hobo Outdoor Pocket Stove
as well as finding out “Does It Work In The Field’.?
Specifications:
- Weight – 260 grams
- Width – 80mm
- Depth – 80mm
- Height – 115mm
- Folded size – 90mm x 115mm
- Fuel – trangia, gel fuel, esbit tablet or wood twigs
- Carry case – cotton pouch
- Materials – stainless steel [1.4301]
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The assembly of the Bushbox Hobo Stove is very easy as seen here
‘Does it work in the field’ – full field test review
*UPDATE*
Since this video was shot, I have played around with the Hobo Stove and have managed to get the boil time down to a very reasonable 9 minutes.
Just took a little more planing really -
I pre heated the cup first, and used a bit thicker twigs which seamed to give a hotter burn and put a lid on the cup.
Does it work in the field.?
Without doubt this little Hobo stove works well and especially worked well under the conditions I put it through – the air was cold and damp, the water was cold, around 5 deg C, the cup was cold as well – I think with a little bit more practice I can get that boil time down to quite a bit less.
So it’s the old saying, practice makes perfect and I will certainly be using this stove again and again and maybe even put another video review as my ‘ boil time test’ record gets better……
So, in conclusion, the Hobo Stove certainly gets my vote as a very compact , versatile and effective survival stove and is an ideal bit of kit to carry in an EDC or Bug Out Bag.
I like the idea of being able to use any fuel type very much, but most of all the Hobo performed excellently with twigs that were just laying around the forest floor.
My only possible dislike is the cotton pouch, as I don’t see this lasting too long – so I am on the lookout for a small plastic container that gives a snug fit for the components to slide into.
Overall, the Bushbox Hobo Stove performed very well and is now a permanent addition to my survival equipment and at under £30 inc VAT and delivery I think it is very good value for money – for more information with customer reviews and prices please click this link to the BushBox Outdoor Pocket Stove
Happy Prepping Folks…
Just a quick note folks:
My full test and video review of the BushBox XL will be going online this weekend 15th Dec 2013 – so check back and see how the Hobo stoves Big Brother really performs out in the field…
Bushbox XL combination stove review
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]]>Esbit Pocket Survival Stove Review 
If you are one of those preppers wishing to travel light and compact, there are a few choices of cooking stoves available to you on the market today.
But for sheer simplicity and ease of cooking I think the Esbit Pocket Stove ranks among the top.
I wanted to see exactly how well this bit of German engineering would actually perform out in the field and could it be classed as a real survival stove.
Firstly, the Esbit will fit comfortably into the leg map pocket of your cargo trousers as it measures only 130x95x35mm and weighs 360grams when fully loaded with a pack of the solid fuel tablets.
I found the idea of carrying the fuel tablets inside the stove is a good one as it keeps everything nice and compact and in one place due to the two sides folding down to keep everything locked together. Of course it would also, easily fit into an unused space within your rucksack as well.
Now, the Esbit is very much designed for the solid fuel tablets. In fact I did not even attempt to try with any other fuel as, during my field test, it performed more than adequately with the tablets only.
The unit tested was the Standard Esbit Pocket Stove with the 12x14g tablet pack – I found this offers very good value for money and can be bought for under £15 inc VAT & Delivery.
Click here for a direct link to the Esbit Pocket Mini Folding Stove with 12x14g Tablets.
You can also buy extra packs of the Esbit Solid Fuel Tablets
*note:
In the video my test was using the Esbit for the 1st time – now I’m sure I can better the boil time by quite a lot as it was a very cold damp day, with very cold water and a cold cup – even putting a lid on the cup would of speeded things up a lot.
So I shall be practicing a few more times with this and will do a follow up video to see how fast I can get the water to boil on one fuel tablet – “watch this space”…….
“Does it work in the field”?
This stove performed very well and done exactly what it said it would. It will definitely be a new addition to my hiking rucksack, especially when out in the open and I don’t have any natural fuel source around me [eg: twigs etc]
A definite value for money little cooking stove that will save you time and effort when you need a quick brew.
So, in conclusion, I recommend the Esbit Pocket Stove to anyone prepping, hiking or as your light weight cooking stove when just out walking and fancy a brew… .
- Click here for a direct link to the Esbit Pocket Mini Folding Stove with 12x14g Tablets.
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]]>Survival Aids – Stoves 
One of the top 5 survival skills is being able to get your food and cook that food. Nowadays there are many survival aids which allow you to do just that with relative ease.
Modern design and materials now mean it is possible to have a very efficient cooking stove that is light and durable and will produce good heat with the minimum of fuss.
These modern stoves also use a tiny amount of fuel, normally just twigs, and are highly efficient at maintaining good heat for a longer time.
Why would you want a stove?
In the past cooking over an open fire was your only option and yes it works fine and is all well and good but we are talking Survival Aids that make your life easier – an open fire is great and often essential for some cooking, especially larger, more bulky foods but also for heat, drying clothes, to ward of animals or for physiological comfort.
But for purely providing a near instant, confined and controllable heat to boil water or cook on, an open fire is not the best choice by far.
If you are on the move and just want to heat a meal then an open fire can be the last thing you want to mess around with.
What are the requirements when choosing a stove?
Cooking stoves come in all shapes and sizes, are made from different materials and use various methods for producing a efficient and reliable long lasting flame that is suitable for boiling water and cooking.
But from a preppers view point they need to light, compact, reliable and easy to use. The choice of fuel is also an important factor when choosing a good stove for your requirements.
If you have to carry around bulky, heavy fuel containers as well as your stove it’s just not going to give you room for all the other essential bug out bag equipment they you need to have with you for successful survival.
What type of survival stove is best? 
As a prepper, ‘less is more’, and if you can reduce the amount you carry then you reduce the weight or leave yourself room for other items.
So, the No:1 choice has to be a stove that will work using a local foraged fuel source, ie: wood and twigs – so long as your near a tree or bushes, you have fuel, simple as that really – it’s a ‘no fuss’ energy source.
Generally there are only three types of fuel source, namely, solid fuel [wood, twigs, solid fuel, dry fuel tablets], alcohol and gas. However some stoves are capable of running several different fuel types which can be very handy.
Downside of using a survival stove.
The good points far outweigh the bad points here but there are some.
- The stove needs to be kept quite clean inside which means emptying the burnt ash and debris every time before reusing – not too much of a pain but needs doing for an efficient heat.
- The outside of the stove will get very hot, even the double walled stoves will get too hot to touch, so this means you can’t just get up and leave camp – you have to wait a bit for it to cool sufficiently to pack away
What survival stoves are best for preppers?
There are a few very very good ones on the market in the UK today that tick all the prepping requirements.
- Lightweight
- Robust
- Easy sourced fuel
- Compact
I truly believe that using any of the modern survival aids is the way to go when it comes to efficient prepping – yes, of course you must have a good knowledge of the top 5 basic survival skills – but it’s all about making your life easier and a survival stove will do just that.
Below is our Survival Aids for Stoves comparison chart for the top 6:
The guide below will help you choose the best type of survival stove based on your own personal preferences -
Use the up/down arrows to select the best combination of your requirements.
Choose from:
- Type
- Price range
- Overall size
- Compactness and folding
- Fuel type
- Weight
- Overall ‘value for money’ rating
I hope this article has given you a better understanding of essential survival aids like the survival cooking stove and helped you choice.
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