Designed for the Wild: The Making of a High-Efficiency Wood Stove

In 2014, I set out to design a wood-burning stove specifically for hiking and camping in forested areas like North Carolina, Virginia, and Oregon, where firewood is readily available. My goal was to create a stove that could maximize efficiency while remaining highly portable.

To achieve this, I established four key design principles:

1. Compactness – The stove needed to be easy to carry and store.
2. Lightweight yet strong – It had to be as light as possible without compromising structural integrity at high temperatures.
3. High combustion efficiency – The fuel should burn as completely as possible to reduce smoke and maximize heat output.
4. Ease of ignition – Starting a fire should be simple, even in outdoor conditions.

Addressing Design Challenges

1. Optimizing for Portability

A taller stove allows for better combustion, as it provides a longer pathway for air to mix with gases, leading to more complete burning. However, a tall stove is difficult to pack. To solve this, I designed the stove as a two-section detachable system, allowing it to be disassembled for easy storage.

I also had to determine a suitable size. Since hikers and campers often carry pots for cooking, I decided to make the stove fit inside an existing pot to save space. Toaks' pot-1100 and pot-750 were ideal carriers, meaning the stove’s diameter and height had to be precisely designed to nest inside them.

2. Choosing the Right Material

Titanium was the best material choice. It has an excellent strength-to-weight ratio, meaning it remains strong even when exposed to extreme heat while being significantly lighter than steel. Additionally, titanium is corrosion-resistant, making it ideal for outdoor conditions where moisture and varying temperatures are common.

3. Maximizing Combustion Efficiency

In industrial power plants, secondary combustion technology is used to increase efficiency. I applied the same principle to the stove by designing a double-wall structure that preheats incoming air to support secondary combustion.

Here's how the airflow works:

• Primary air enters through holes at the bottom of the inner chamber. This air mixes with the wood gases released from the fuel, supporting charcoal combustion.
• Secondary air flows between the double walls, where it gets heated by the high temperatures inside the stove. This preheated air is then released through holes near the top of the combustion chamber. When it meets the unburned wood gases, it ignites them, creating a secondary burn.

The result is a cleaner and more efficient burn, reducing smoke and ensuring more heat is extracted from the wood. The visible effect is a flame pattern that looks like jets of fire spraying from the secondary air holes.

4. Ensuring Efficient Heat Transfer

For maximum cooking efficiency, I originally considered designing three or four support legs on the top of the stove to lift the pot slightly, allowing heat to be distributed more evenly. However, this would have prevented the stove from fitting neatly inside the pot. As a compromise, I designed a ring of exhaust vents at the top to allow flue gases to escape efficiently while keeping the stove compact.

The Fire-Starting Process

Lighting the stove follows a simple but effective method:

1. Cut dry branches (around 1 inch in diameter and 3 inches long) and stand them vertically inside the stove. Fill the gaps with thinner twigs.
2. Place kindling at the top of the woodpile and ignite it.
3. As the kindling burns, it heats the stove walls. Once the interior reaches a high enough temperature, the wood gases begin to vaporize and mix with the preheated secondary air, leading to a stable combustion process.

When fully loaded, the stove provides a steady flame for about 10–15 minutes, enough to boil a pot of water. Additional small wood pieces can be added as needed.

Post-Use Considerations

After use, the stove becomes sooty. Since outdoor conditions may not always allow for cleaning, I designed a durable storage bag so the stove can be packed away neatly without dirtying other gear.

Recognition

The wood-burning stove was showcased at the 2015 Munich Outdoor Show, where it won a design award. Today, Toaks offers two models that fit perfectly with pot-1100 and pot-750, available for purchase on Toaks’ official website, REI stores, Toaks dealers, and Amazon.