Backcountry Boiler in action

We’ve posted up on Facebook recently about a new Stove that got us rather excited in the Webtogs office. A modern twist on the Chimney Kettle, we’ve been following with interest the progress of Devin who has been tweaking and designing over the last three years or so a more lightweight, portable version. Sometimes known as the Kelly Kettle from our Irish fisherman friends, the design has been around for a while and was even used by NZ troops in world war II. They are traditionally large and heavy, so a lightweight version is more than welcome for us backpackers. They are seriously simple in how they operate, as this image shows;

We received ours from the lovely Phil Turner of Lightweight Outdoors as a pre-production sample to get to grips and play around with. First things first, this is seriously light coming in at around 220  grammes. In our humble opinion he has cracked the problem that lots of people had with this design, namely that previous versions were far too big and heavy.

Timing wise we experienced a boil in a fraction over 5 1/2 minutes. We figure as you get more practiced, you can get that time down to below 5 minutes easily. We love the fact you are using real fire to boil stuff up. There is nothing that beats the smell of woodsmoke in our humble opinion, and the backcountry boiler gives it to you in spades. We also love the fact it is great for the environment as burning wood is carbon neutral.

It wasn’t long before we got neighbours looking over the fence with some quizzical and impressed faces, and it was soon cups of tea all round. We took some photos of the boiler in action and a little video that you can see below.

 

Altogether we are very impressed. We are talking to Devin now and hope to be able to stock it later next year. We think it is our favourite stove of the moment, whats currently occupying your backpack or car as stove of choice?