Looking for an ultra-light multi-fuel camping stove?
Well Solo Stove has you covered.
I got a chance to review the Solo Stove Lite and this is how it and the supplied accessories performed.
Out on the trail a stove needs to be ultra-light, compact, tough as nails, easy to use and full of utilitarian uses. I prefer a stove that has the option of many fuels to use. A plus would be if I can use natural materials that are free of charge and are all around me on an excursion or camping trip. How about a cooking cup and all necessary pieces that nestle into each other for the smallest package to carry when space is limited in your pack? Well, it appears I found the perfect match.
Solo Stove is quite well known for their incredible firepits that burn hot and quite smokeless. Why not miniaturize that build and make a backpacker’s stove? The Solo Stove Lite is exactly that. Let’s look at what is supplied in this great little stove package.
First off we have our tried and true method of fire starting. It is a Solo Stove Fire Striker with a ferro-rod and striker contained on a short lanyard. No matter what the weather or how wet the ferro-rod is a shower of extremely hot sparks is available on demand. How does up to 15,000 strikes sound? Well, that would take quite a long time to test so I will have to get back to you way into the future.
What good is a fire source without quick tinder to get it all going? Well the Light My Fire Tinder-on-a-Rope is ready to be used for that. Just scrape the wood chunk that has up to 80 percent resin into slivers with your knife. Then light it with your Solo Stove Fire Striker and add fuel as necessary to build your fire.
The Solo Stove Lite is made out of 304 stainless steel and only weighs 9 ounces. It has a 360 degree air flow design and a double wall design that creates an extremely hot and thorough burn. Air flow is the key to a nice hot fire and Solo Stove certainly did their homework with their incredible design.
Add on the top cooking platform and you have a stove that will burn anything from small sticks, pinecones or just about any dry biomass you can find along the trail. Talk about cheap fuel!
You need a quality built cup with a lid for your cooking needs. Enter the Pot 900. There is plenty of space inside of this stainless steel cup for beans, soup, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and just about anything else. Best of all the Solo Stove Lite actually nestles inside of it for stowage and transportation. No need for extra bulk.
Are the winds howling strong on the mountain? Well add the handy windscreen that when not in use folds flat to fit inside of it’s own drawstring bag.
What hasn’t Solo Stove thought of? Well there is even an alcohol burner that fits inside of the Solo Stove Lite itself. If you choose to go with that option you have a backup when you run out of alcohol to use sticks and other easy to find fuel. It’s certainly the best of both worlds that won’t leave you fuel-less.
Parts of the alcohol burner are pretty much straight forward. The main body looks a lot like a standard Solo Stove but in miniature form. The screw on transport and storage lid has a rubber gasket seal to avoid losing stored alcohol. The flame snuffing lid also doubles as an adjustable flame moderator. Just slide left or right the shiny lid to adjust the flame’s burn rate and height.
Here is a close up of the workmanship and quality of this little burner.
During my first test I loaded the Pot 900 with snow packed tight. I added the lid and put it on the Solo Stove Lite fueled with sticks. On the 30 degree Fahrenheit day with 30 mph wind gusts within 10 minutes water was getting close to boiling.
For the next test I decided to try the same test but with the alcohol burner nestled inside of the Solo Stove Lite instead of stick fuel. Early on I realized the 70 percent rubbing alcohol I was using was not staying lit. When I stepped up to 91 percent alcohol the burner worked awesome. The flames were tall and quite hot. The snow being melted for hot chocolate had no chance of survival.
How about frying an egg on the Solo Stove Lite? After getting an egg from one of my chickens I grabbed some dry sticks as fuel and a small Lodge Cast Iron Skillet. The next video shows how quick that egg was cooked.
What can I say about the Solo Stove Lite Gear Kit? Well the stove and all of the contents worked extremely well. The stove heats up much hotter than I thought it would causing quick heating of water and frying the egg above. All of the items pack up extremely small for transport, are very light and well constructed. Really the whole system is perfect for the novice right up through the expert outdoorsman or outdoorswoman. I highly recommend it and give the whole system 5 stars!
Be sure to check out Solo Stove’s website for all of the incredible ways to have fun with fire in a responsible way.