hedgepig
10-01-2009, 10:05
I bought a Bush Cooker from Backpackinglight.co.uk just before Christmas and spent the first 4 nights of 2009 out on the hills. Bloomin' cold it was!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3422/3177067927_a6fd09284a.jpg
Anyway, it was the first chance that I had to test out the Bush Cooker. It was too bloody cold to be bothered taking photographs of the cooker in operation so I went out today to take some pictures of the stove set-up and use and do a quick write up of my thoughts on it.
I can't see any way of attaching the images directly to this post and I don't have them uploaded to flickr so that I could link to them - therefore the full mini-review can be found here - Bush Cooker Mini Review (http://wandering-photographer.blogspot.com/2009/01/bush-cooker-initial-impressions-mini.html) but I'll copy my thoughts and brief conclusions here too:
Thoughts and Conclusions
I was using this system in cold, but fairly dry, conditions in a mountainous area with a 4 season tent. As there is quite a bit of smoke produced while the fire is lighting up I would not want to use the Bush Cooker inside my tent (for these pictures I was a some local woods and I would be happy enough using the Bush Cooker with a tarp). The problem with not being able to use the Bush Cooker inside a tent would come if the weather was particularly wet - I can envisage that it would be quite difficult to get the cooker lit in really wet conditions. I think this is were the meths backup would come into its own. I'm more than happy to use a meths burner inside my tent porch. Indeed the ability to use the meths burner as a backup is useful in the winter when it is cold and dark and the urge to get into your sleeping back to keep warm but and you want to brew a hot drink without struggling out of your tent and getting colder than the warm drink warms you up. I don't see myself using the Bush Cooker as a standalone system in the winter, but perhaps in the summer, with a tarp and bivvy bag instead of a tent (and in an area where there is going to be dead wood to burn).
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3422/3177067927_a6fd09284a.jpg
Anyway, it was the first chance that I had to test out the Bush Cooker. It was too bloody cold to be bothered taking photographs of the cooker in operation so I went out today to take some pictures of the stove set-up and use and do a quick write up of my thoughts on it.
I can't see any way of attaching the images directly to this post and I don't have them uploaded to flickr so that I could link to them - therefore the full mini-review can be found here - Bush Cooker Mini Review (http://wandering-photographer.blogspot.com/2009/01/bush-cooker-initial-impressions-mini.html) but I'll copy my thoughts and brief conclusions here too:
Thoughts and Conclusions
I was using this system in cold, but fairly dry, conditions in a mountainous area with a 4 season tent. As there is quite a bit of smoke produced while the fire is lighting up I would not want to use the Bush Cooker inside my tent (for these pictures I was a some local woods and I would be happy enough using the Bush Cooker with a tarp). The problem with not being able to use the Bush Cooker inside a tent would come if the weather was particularly wet - I can envisage that it would be quite difficult to get the cooker lit in really wet conditions. I think this is were the meths backup would come into its own. I'm more than happy to use a meths burner inside my tent porch. Indeed the ability to use the meths burner as a backup is useful in the winter when it is cold and dark and the urge to get into your sleeping back to keep warm but and you want to brew a hot drink without struggling out of your tent and getting colder than the warm drink warms you up. I don't see myself using the Bush Cooker as a standalone system in the winter, but perhaps in the summer, with a tarp and bivvy bag instead of a tent (and in an area where there is going to be dead wood to burn).