The Six-Second Guide to Lighting an EcoZoom Stove

Six seconds isn't very long, but it's long enough to explain how to light our EcoZoom stove with wood. Starting a campfire is an easy concept. Some wood, a little paper, and proper airflow are all you need. Even so, it doesn’t always go smoothly. Lots of paper, fiddling to build the sacred teepee of kindling, or even lighter fluid can make an appearance when trying to play fire master. Luckily EcoZoom stoves make starting a fire with wood (or charcoal) easy. In fact, it’s so easy I wanted the challenge of showing how quickly I could build a video guide for lighting an EcoZoom stove with wood. I grabbed my EcoZoom Dura, a lighter, and one piece of paper before walking over to a local park. On my walk to the park I picked up a few sticks and twigs and carried them with my other supplies all within the combustion chamber of the stove. This is how I usually pack and store my stove. I leave my lighter, paper, and some kindling within the combustion chamber of the stove and keep it in the trunk of my car. It doesn’t take up very much room and I always have it for camping trips, bringing to barbeques, or just in case. Now came the weird part. There were kids playing hoops and wall ball at the local park when I rolled in, just a normal after school play day until I showed up. I might as well have been the guy with the metal detector roaming the soccer field looking for buried treasure. Oh well, I’m now that guy. I set the stove down and filmed this short six-second edit of lighting the stove using the Vine App on my iPhone. Vine gives you the chance to start and stop filming when you want, but only allows a total of 6 seconds of video pieced together from start-to-finish. While I obviously didn’t light the stove in 6 seconds, it did only take one try and all in all was fired up in less than a minute. Here are few things to keep in mind to make lighting your stove easy:

• Dry wood is good wood
• Wood without fibrous bark works best
• Keep the door of the stove facing the wind to increase airflow through the stove
• Don’t overstuff the main door with lots of wood, just like any other fire the combustion chamber cooks best when airflow is unrestricted.

To get an EcoZoom Dura or Versa lit with wood you simply need to build a fire within the combustion chamber the same way you would build a campfire. Start by putting a few pieces of paper in the bottom of the combustion chamber. Next add twigs or kindling within the top of the stove so that the sticks are standing on end. Next lay a few sticks on the stick support so that they pass next to the paper and kindling standing in the combustion chamber. Lastly, light the paper with a lighter or match and if your wood is all nice and dry, you should have your stove started. Keep adding more wood or bigger pieces of wood for a stronger flame without over filling the door. That’s it. That’s all. A few sticks, a few pieces of paper, a lighter, an EcoZoom stove, and you are ready to start cooking. Like anything, practice makes perfect, but I’m guessing it won’t take too much practice. About the Author: Tom Pritchard is an EcoZoom employee and likes to cook outdoors with his EcoZoom stove on camping trips or sunny days. You can email him directly at tom@ecozoomstove.com.