Hunter Chimney Stove

Get it. If you're prepping or just want an additional outdoor cooking option, this thing is the most efficient burn I've come across. Stuff a fist full of twigs into it and it burns for hours.

OK, lets see here, a little about me. I am a stove geek. I have cooked primarily with wood fire for the last 6 years, and as I live a varied life, I have used a lot of different stoves. My main stove for the last couple years was a stove tech rocket stove, those green things you might have seen around. It was a great step up from cooking directly on a fire pit, but it had a few draw backs, namely it needs almost constant tending or it will go out, and it vents directly around the pot, meaning you can not use it indoors and all your pots will be black, which means your hands and anything they touch will also be black, limiting your fashion choices considerably.So we bought this stove hoping it would solve these fairly major issues. It did not.Not only did it not, but it actually sucked much harder in numerous ways, except in terms of draft, where it fails miserably.Firstly, the positive points: it looks pretty, at least when you first use it, it is that type of stainless steel which rusts after a while in humidity so bear that in mind. Secondly, when everything is just right it can put out a lot of heat for quite a while with very little wood.Now the reasons for one star, or why I hate it: It is woefully over engineered, and like a thoroughbred race horse it is finicky as all get out.Because it tries to make the fire do what it doesn't want to do, ie. burn from the top down, frequently after starting a fire you will find a few minutes later that it has gone out. You will only discover this after lifting your pot off the stove however, as there is no viewing window or in fact any way to see the fire at all. Also because of the lovely top down burn feature, if your fire does go out, which it frequently does, even for people like me who have made around, lets see, maybe 2 fires a day for 6 years, 4000 fires, then the smoke from the smouldering kindling will extinguish any matches you bring near it, meaning you have to either dump out all your fuel and start again, or wait maybe half an hour for it to stop smoking before trying again, a whole lot of fun indeed.When you do finally get it burning, it only really has one level, even damped down all the way, because of the vents on the backside, it cranks out heat to the point where the cook surface glows orange, which is great for boiling water but I hope you love charred pancakes and such...I actually destroyed my laminated frying pan by leaving it on empty for a few minutes, it got so hot the bottom de-laminated. I am not mad however, it is now a super sweet light weight camping pan!Also, it doesn't come with a cook surface, I guess its inventors assume you only have one pot you like to cook in and it just happens to be 10 inches or wider. You can deal with this by turning a cast iron 10 inch pan upside down over it and cook on top of that, but it is another thing to buy and it will add to the weight considerably too, not so light weight after all...What else? Because of the nature of it, unlike most wood stoves including rocket stoves, adding wood during a burn is not exactly easy or predictable, if you add it too soon huge flames will come shooting out trying to burn you, and if you wait too long, even a little too long ( and you have to wait until the fuel in it has burned down before you can add more, of course) well some times the coals will be hot enough to make the new wood catch, and some times they will not. You always get put your head down on the dirt and blow in the little vent hole to revive it, but I personally don't like the feel of that, gives me a cramp in my neck, and feels degrading kind of....So, if you do decide to buy one of these, and I'm not saying you shouldn't (maybe your needs differ from mine, significantly) I recommend the following: only burn the dryest, smallest split wood you can find, ALWAYS use fire starters, newspaper is not worth the hassle. Do not use this inside a structure, unless it is vented and fanned, or you LOVE the smell of wood smoke, and mayhaps the sound of cursing.But my recommendation is that you look into other stove designs, like the Sierra Stove, a AA battery powered fan assisted stove, or if you want a vented stove and you want to make one yourself, I made one from a metal 5 gal bucket, two hinges, and elbow and a length of 3 inch pipe and that is what I use now. If you don't want a heating stove, insulate it and wrap a heat shield around that. It can crank out heat, if you like, or you can damp it right down, if you make it air tight, and you can SEE THE FIRE!Good luck cooking.

I purchased this from the manufacture. I will admit its made well, and light weight. Looks really nice when new but doesn't age as gracefully. This has been my first rocket stove and honestly I was expecting more. Is fairly difficult to keep correct air flow. I would "never" ever use it indoors. For something that shouldn't smoke it smokes often. As you gain skill it gets easier and less smoke. Not from chimney but cooking surface. But using bio mass from our property its not easy to keep light and cleaning it isn't easy. You have to flip it upside down to clean. I wish I tried one that was bottom feed first. They are less expensive.

Before you read please keep in mind I'm not a professional "stove guy" like some of the other people who have left reviews.I really enjoyed this stove, it was sturdy and well put together. I use it right outside on my deck and always enjoy putting it to use along with my salt block to cook up a variety of different foods. Cleaning it is a bit rough but I've got the hang of it now. Also it uses such little fuel to cook a long time which is why I love using it.

excellent stove. no complaints. very satisfied with this purchase.

A great appliance to have on hand for preparedness sake, if nothing else.

My review is based on a limited number for stove firings, but so far I have been well pleased.The stove can put out a lot of heat during the first part of the burn, which is fine for a stew or some type of liquid. If you are frying, then let it die down a little and/or use a smaller amount of fuel, or use a cast iron frying pan. I have used a metal disk as well to dissipate heat and apparently the manufacturer has recognized this potential drawback and now sells an accessory cast iron disk for this purpose. It would slow cooking speed and require more fuel, but the bottom of your pans will be a lot cleaner!I was initially less than confident lighting the stove, but I have never had a problem. I place my fuel sticks in vertically, then a few small sticks/twigs and then some crumpled paper on top followed by one match. With one exception, smoke, other than on start-up or the addition of fuel, has been minimal. The one exception was when I tossed in a pine cone. Perhaps it wasn't fully dry, but it created a lot of smoke even though it burned completely. I see that some have complained about smoking and/or the fire extinguishing mid-burn. I wonder if that might be caused by some types of fuel. I have only used sticks or small pieces of scrap dimensional lumber. Under these conditions smoking has been very minimal and fire die-out has been non-existent..I have found the stove very well behaved. For instance I constructed an oven utilizing two large stock pots and baked a loaf of bread - perfectly, if I do say so myself, on the six or seventh time I fired the stove. I used eight 3/4 inch by 3/4 inch scraps of hardwood flooring each about 5 inches long for fuel. Once started, I didn't touch the stove except for an occasional peek at the progress until the fuel was exhausted. The result was a tasty golden brown loaf of bread. It could hardly been easier. It would have even used less fuel if I had insulated the "oven".I can't speak on its longevity, but I have really enjoyed the stove. I don't like the constant tending required of a rocket type stove when one is cooking items that need infrequent attention and this fills the bill.A comment suggested that I respond as to why I like the stove, so here it is: high heat output, long burn time without needing to tend the stove, light weight for its heat output - no refractory insulation, well behaved burn characteristics, easy lighting, elegant design and function, manufacturer committed to improvement - for instance adding an option for a longer insert to move the chimney further from the stove to allow for larger pots/pans, and the ability to vent the stove - even if outdoors it is nice not to have smoke in the face!

I posted a video review of this stove last year. Efficient, fun, uses very little fuel and is easy to break down.https://youtu.be/O7K2zPiZR1II would recommend it to anyone concerned for their future or preparing for a hurricane, EMP or just a nice weekend camping trip.