Bottom Line
If you enjoy tinkering with fire and are excited by the idea of collecting fuel from your surroundings, the Solo Stove Lite is an excellent option. This wood-burning camp stove does more than just boil water for your hot cocoa or freeze-dried meals, it offers a warm wood-fueled flame at the end of the day.
At nine ounces, this stove isn’t winning any prizes for being lightweight, but not having to carry fuel does help. While the Lite takes a bit more effort to use than some modern canister stoves, it adds an aspect of fun to our adventures and we love it for casual trips when our hiking itinerary doesn’t include lots of big-mile days. It’s one of the more novel picks on our list of the best backpacking stoves.
Quick Specs
Solo Stove Lite
High-Efficiency Wood Burning Stove
CleverHiker Rating: 44.5/100
Price: $70
Weight: 9 oz.
Fuel Type: Wood
Boil Time: 10m
Burn Time (8 oz. fuel): –
Pros
- Don’t need to carry fuel
- Efficient
- Low smoke design
- Stable pot support
Cons
- Expensive
- Heavy
- Slightly bulky
- Can’t control flame
Convenience
The Solo Stove Lite doesn’t offer the same type of convenience that we talk about with canister backpacking stoves. It doesn’t have an ignition switch or neat features that tell you when your water is about to boil.
You have to enjoy the process of using the Solo Stove Lite to see it as ‘convenient’ – collecting firewood, lighting a fire, and stoking it. If you enjoy those things, you might see it as worth not having to carry a heavy fuel canister. While we wouldn’t want to go through that process every day on a long thru-hike, we love the Solo Stove Lite for mellow overnights or weekend trips when the goal is to relax and enjoy the serenity of nature.
The Solo Stove Lite is designed a notch above other wood-burning backpacking stoves. Its innovative gasifier design makes it burn nearly smoke-free and it doesn’t scar the ground. It’s also incredibly stable even with heavier pots.
Weight & Packability
At first glance, the Solo Stove Lite seems like a heavy and bulky option, but its nine ounces is not terrible for a bonafide wood stove that you can carry in your backpack. Believe it or not, it’s not even the heaviest stove on our list. And when you take into account that you don’t have to carry fuel, it makes nine ounces seem like a dream. A typical eight-ounce fuel canister weighs about 13 ounces when full (weird, we know), so not having to carry it is a huge plus.
Power & Efficiency
The Solo Stove Lite is not about speed and efficiency. It’s about enjoying the ambiance of a crackling fire and the deep, primal connection that humans have with it. For us, that’s a big part of why we go into nature in the first place.
There are so many factors that go into boil time with the Solo Stove Lite that it is nearly impossible to quantify it into a metric. It can change drastically based on the type of wood, wind (wind is often good in this case), wood dryness, and climate. However, it is designed to keep your fire roaring. The air intake holes at the bottom suck air into the stove and feed the flame from beneath so you don’t have to constantly fan it. Once we got a decent flame going, our one-liter pot of water boiled in about 10 minutes.
In a way, the Solo Stove Lite is the most efficient stove on the market as there is a virtually endless amount of twigs and small sticks to fuel your fire.
Precision
The simmer control of the Solo Stove Lite depends entirely on the user’s ability to control a wood fire. If you’re a master fire builder and can bend the flame to your will from a slow burn to a roaring inferno, then you may have no problem simmering with the Solo Stove Lite.
However, we imagine that most people are going to get the fire going and have it on high for most of their cooking time. The ideal way to cook with the Lite is to create a smoldering bed of coals on the fire grate that you can add sticks to periodically when more flame is needed.
Should You Buy the Solo Stove Lite?
We love our Solo Stove Lite and think it is worth a shot for anyone who enjoys playing with fire or wants to dip their toes into the bush crafting side of backpacking. It makes camping fun and memorable, without the harsh smoke in your face. It isn’t super comparable to the push-button cooking experience of a canister stove, but it is designed to be the most efficient version of a wood-burning stove.
What Other Backpacking Stoves Should You Consider?
MSR WindBurner Review: The WindBurner is a high-performing stove. It’s a bit on the heavy side, but it’s efficient, durable, stable, and performs amazingly in the wind.
JetBoil MiniMo Review: The MiniMo is a fully-featured integrated stove system that includes a plastic base that offers unbeatable stability. Get the stability and durability of a wood stove with the convenience of a canister stove.
MSR WhisperLite Review: Although it’s a completely different animal from the Solo Stove Lite, the WhisperLite is a quiet stove that helps to preserve the serenity and ambiance of a stoveless camping experience.
