I apologize for cross-posting this, but I discovered the G-spot thread was rather old and the post seemed to belong more to this forum.

I posted a question on a Swedish outdoor forum (Utsidan.se)
to see if anyone had used the Bushbuddy in the Scandinavian mountains. A Norwegian gentleman (Harald) responded that he had used the Bushbuddy as his only stove for two years now. He also provided the following useful information:

He uses the Bushbuddy with Esbit tablets as a backup using aluminuimfoil under the potholder. He reported that the efficiency was decreased and he needed four esbits to boil a liter of water. This might be because the distance to the pot was too large. Still, this could be acceptable as a backup solution.

I'm thinking that it should be an easy project to construct a wire esbit grate or holder that could be used with the bushbuddy with more efficiency.
Has anybody tried?

I don’t now if this will answer all your questions but its great link to an article about a really light and efficient esbit stove that works.


http://www.andyhowell.info/Files/Colin-stove.pdf

Hi Gustav

I wonder if the Trail Designs Gram Cracker (scroll down)
may work as a means of raising the esbit tablet high enough. Also it would appear that a windshield protecting the space between the pot and the top of the bush buddy may also be helpful. Something for me to experiment with next week.

As you may be aware you can buy both 14 gm and 6 gm esbit tablets in Scandinavia, so I wondered which size tablet Harald was using.

Edited by rogerb on 05/15/2008 14:58:53 MDT.

I quote Harald directly:

See thread on Utsidan.se:
http://www.utsidan.se/forum/showthread.php?t=49595
See post #3

"Avstanden fra tablettene til gryta er med dette oppsettet litt større en det som er ideelt, slik at det går med 4 stk 4 grams tbl til 1 liter vann, og tidsforbruket er også større enn ved normal fyring i Bushbuddyen. Dette synes jeg er akseptabelt som en backup for vanlig vedfyring.
"
Maybe he meant 6g.

Edited by gusbo on 05/15/2008 15:52:50 MDT.

You are correct they are 4 gm tablets not 6 gms. I wonder if the larger tablet (14 gm I think) would be more effective?

Wow!,
That was a very interesting stove. It's so light I can easily afford to bring it along with the BB. Even better would be if I could also use it as a windscreen for the Bushbuddy as well. I will start to experiment.

I Have used the Gram Cracker with the BB, and it works great. It only weighs 1.5 grams!

Hey Gustav, Do you have any experience in Norway? If so, can you tell me if esbit and alcohol are available in Norway?? Would these fuels be available at the huts or only in towns? Any info would be helpful. Thanks, Mike

Hi Michael

Both Esbit and Alcohol are available in Norway. Alcohol is known as Rod Sprit and is a red colour it can be purchased at outdoor stores as well as supermarkets and paint hardware/paint suppliers.

Not sure about availability at the huts, but you can always buy a nice meal at the huts.

Roger, Thanks for the info. Have you ever been to the Jotunheimen region. If so, do you think I could find enough fuel there for the Bushbuddy? I'm going to experiment using esbit and alcohol in the Bushbuddy. Will make a windscreen first. --Mike

Allison do you use a windscreen with the Gram Cracker & BB combo? I'm wondering how that setup would do in windy conditions.

If the BushBuddy had some kind of solid backup system that is well integrated without adding more than say 1.5oz it would be pretty much the ideal stove. Without that it's hard to imagine relying solely on the BB due to burn bans and such.

As it stands I think the titanium Caldera Cones are the most versatile because they can use wood, esbit or alcohol but they seem biased towards esbit/alcohol with wood as a backup and I'd rather have a system geared the other way round.