My experience with these (I have a Lixada clone of the Überleben Stöker) is splits of wood take longer to boil water than twigs. The smaller, thinner, the better. They all catch fire, the fuel goes berserk, the heat is incredible, water boils fast. I think something to do with the surface area to volume ratio. Even if you're using small splits of wood or thicker twigs the very fine stuff catches well and gets the thicker stuff up to temperature quicker. But that's by-the-by, great video, lovely presentation. Thanks!

By the time you got that bushbox thing assembled I would be cooking on the cheap unit.

I used a catering food tin with holes punched all over it for years as the only cooking stove in my life...used as a proper hobo stove😁. Now I use the base of a Kelly kettle with their pot "attachment" that sits on top of the base to make it more useable. Awesome, light, strong as and no parts to loose. Another great video mate, thanks for it.

Im a self proclaimed twig stove addict so any twig stove comparisons are welcomed! Thanks man!

I have that small China stove and absolutely love it. Its the perfect height for my minibull design gnome stove and is an adequate little lightweight wood stove that fits perfectly in my fire kit. Great video mate, love comparison videos. Subbed!

I just got my cheap stove in the mail I watched your video before I'm going to test the stove thank you for the video

Nice straight to the point, no nonsense review. I liked this video and the fact that you weren't biased from the off towards the more expensive option as a lot of reviews are. A fair ballanced test with an actual honest opinion at the end. Thanks

Mr. Mark, thanks a lot for this video. It was very illustrative and well put. I needed a comparison and this one is the best video about it.

I've had the Lixada (the inexpensive Chinese version) twig stove for a a little over a year now and I use it almost every weekend when I go bushwhacking. It is quite sturdy construction wise, made of thick stainless steel, with a couple of braces on top to support smaller containers. I am so happy with it that I bought another one as a back up. Great video

Thank you. Your comparison was fair and honest. I see pros and cons with both stoves. It looks like the bush box would last longer. If that’s important to a person. But I agree that the cheaper, lighter one is a good bargain.

A good practical review I've got one of the cheap Chinese stoves and the little pan that comes with it does have it's uses. If you fit it into the upper slots (you have to trim off one edge of the rim with an angle grinder to do this!) it will hold enough alcohol to boil a pot of water or cook a meal in a small pan. If you're burning wood or charcoal you can put the pan under the stove with some alcohol to get the solid fuel burning faster If you do buy the Chinese one, get the hinged version shown in the video. There are some sold with separate panels fitting together with tabs which are even more fiddly than the Bushbox, and fall apart at the drop of a hat!

Nice show good looking little stoves thanks

Brilliant review of both stoves - just what I was looking for 👍🏕

Thanks for the comparison Mark. I to have a little wood stove and I love it. Instead of creating a big fire just to cook a meal, I can just use sticks off the ground and minimize my impact on the environment. Have a wonderful weekend. - Josh

I love cooking with the hobo. I have a folding hobo from Russia. cost about 30 euros. I'm very satisfied. It is a bit heavier but it can be set up in a few seconds. Great review my friend. Have a great time and greetings Marco & Racoon

Top man only just started watching your channel about an hour a go subbed and will watch all your vids now :) honest and true 👍

Like me old Dad used to say, "you pay for what you get son"👌

Lovely video and well articulated. Great review of both stoves, you’ve earned my sub

Thanks for the review Mark. I am disabled (hands) So I think the cheap one would be easier for me. Good to see a well made video and fair review. Subscribed.

Nice test on a couple really neat little stoves. Thanks for sharing!

Great review I have the bush box I really like it but over the years I have used tin cans a few rocks whatever is average thanks for sharing

Have you ever worked as a demonstrator because you’re explaining it really well

Excellent review mate. Just subscribed.

Germany: Bushbox: Around 50€ (Big One) Inexpensive Bushbox: Around 15€ (Big One) Bushbox: Overpriced Inexpensive Bushbox: Perfect value! I have an inexpensive one and I'm happy with it.

I own the budget model. And like many others who have it, I just made a small grate for the top to enable the use of smaller cups and bottles.

I have a Bushbox XL and recently bought a Chinese mini wood burning stove. My reason for adding the Chinese stove is that it's made of titanium obviously lighter than stainless steel. Plus, I paid $85 for the Bushbox, but only $9.20 for the Chinese stove. Either stove will do its job, my reason for choosing one over the other, would be the weight factor when backpacking.

For the cheap stove, I use small skewers to sub for the trivits. They work really well and are cheap. You can also use the skewers for a number of other tasks. Cheers.

And have the best 2022 ever.Happy new years🎆 debs x

The Amazon stove, they added 2 pieces of steel like the expensive one for proper support for the cup or pot.

I think the cheaper one is a Superior design

Great video, a lot of educaion. The solution for me is buy two of the cheap stoves. Same weight as the the other and lots of redundancy.

Great video. I have both stoves but find myself using the cheap one ( 6.99 ) all the time now, due to finding the Bushbox a bit fiddly To put together. Had my cheapo stove for over 3 years now & it’s still going strong. It’s easy to make a trivet if you needed one.

You made this comparison very clear and informative. Thanks a lot!

Just watched again Mark 🙂. About time I got one of the Chinese twig stoves. Definitely makes making a brew quicker and easier than an open fire every time 🙂🔥. Hope you're having a great weekend 👍

This is amazing useful stuff

Thank you, Paul Clear and concise. Brilliant.

Great vids man!... new subscriber here.... I recently bought the spitfire patrol rocket stove... works super well... it's not a pack stove but works for the truck or camp van. I liked it so much that I two more of it's little brother called the spartan. A bit expensive, but I expect them to last a lifetime... best of health, wealth and timing to ya... :)

Hi Mark, The smaller one would be my choice too! By the way, I've just found your awesome channel and subbed! Looking forward to watching more. Thanks for sharing mate. Take care, Steve. 👍👍

very nice

one thing for sure is when I`m in the woods building a fire to eat or drink something hot I dont cvare wethere it take 10 or 15 minutes to get things going....I am never in any hurry!

Nice Videos My friend You are Amazing creator

I came across you in a thread on Ant's Survive the Night channel. For some reason I'm not being alerted of your new videos though I am still subscribed and the notification bell is turned on. For that reason, I thought I'd visit your channel again. I really enjoy these honest comparison videos. Particularly when they compare higher ticket gear to budget gear. There are certain things I'm willing to spend more on, such as you put it, a good knife for example, but I generally go with budget priced wood burning stoves. Since they're not going to be holding up a large amount of weight, I find Lixada, or Tomshoo stoves to be just fine.. There really isn't much that can go wrong with them. As always, I enjoyed your video brother.

Nice jacket man!

I own the cheaper one and it does the job fine 👍👍

Hey Mark, titanium distributes heat better than steel so that's probably why the Bushbox was faster. Love your videos, just subbed.

So satisfying watching kindling being cut, lol.

Nice one!

I love the bushbox and I also use the ultralight with my trangia they are both solid bits of kit and you don’t have to worry whether different pots will fit or not,cheers bud

Hey Mark, sure appreciate your effort and acknowledgment

I've just found this stove on Amazon, did a quick search on youtube and found your excellent review, I think I will try it now, thanks. Subbed you and will look at your other videos. Cheers, Steve.

great comparison atb steve

Great vid good info covered all points really helped in my choice good one mate

Hey Mark! Great content as I have come to expect when I see a new video of yours! One improvement if I might suggest - putting the web links into the description should not be too troublesome and helps us greatly! By the way, I just got my Mora Bushcraft Black based on the review of yours and have been loving the knife!

If a guy really wanted to, he could go out and buy some metal striping in a "coil," from a hardware store and make himself some cross bars / cup holder with just a pair of tin snips for the little Chinese fold-out stove. And maybe eventually buy or make a little net pattern grill to place on top of the stove to cook food on.

I've been searching for a good titanium 4 inch collapsible twig stove. Thanks for the review.

nice video thanks

In your video you didn't mention that the more expensive stove has an ash catcher which the made in china didn't....probably important for keeping live embers from falling on the ground and possibly starting a grass fire or such.

nice vid fella .

learning a lot of you mark

Nice job mate.

I didn't even know such a stove existed, & glad I do now. The Bushbox boiled quicker due to the design of the stone mate, it's a lot to explain but trust me.

Thanks for the review. I notice that the Bushbox has a solid arrester plate below the stove floor plate. It makes it a safer option for me. Siting a stove is important (you had a handy tree stump) as small coals could fall through the base of the cheaper stove and smoulder in a forest duff layer. These can smoulder for a long time until a breeze causes them to catch alight.

Actually prefer the cheap one for ease of use, Thanks for the review.

Just gave you a sub! Sammi Prepper Bushcraft Australia sent me. Really great video! I have one of the cheap ones, it works when I need something light it's good enough for what it is. I got a Sterno stove at Walmart for almost nothing it's a little more than twice the size of a twig stove, and it works fantastically.

Hi Mark....Great video content as usual from you mate. Not a big fire fan myself when it comes to knocking up a brew or a bit of grub, I had a folding firebox for a while but it ended up just being a pot stand for my trangia. I thought both stoves you showed had some merits so a tough choice for people in the market. Thanks for sharing man. Be safe and be lucky, Wol.

Just found this video. I enjoyed it. I have discovered that if you drill a couple of small holes in the top of the stove you can insert the aluminum round tent stakes through the holes and use whatever size cup you would like.

great review Mark thanks , I was due to get the all singing all dancing firebox recently but this virus thing means that everyone is home shopping in boredom and everything has either sold out or gone up in price!! there`s still a few cheap lixadas about and I reckon they might be the better option anyway , thanks again

great work mate thank you

That bushbox seems like they've made a really simple device and made it fiddly for no reason. Personally, I just use 3 right angle shelf brackets - arrange them in a triangle so they rest over themselves (and look like a triangle from on top). Cost me 45p thanks to a homebase sale.

Great videos my friend!!

i just discover you my friend,very good work..greetings from Greece

I can immediately tell that you're from my neck of the woods, duck 🙂

Great video. I'm all for affordable survival solutions and I like the way you demonstrated the pros and cons of both of these stoves. Well done. The lack of a trivit isn't an issue at all. If you look at the row of round holes across the top of the China made stove, many of us simply run a couple of tent stakes through them; problem solved. Since tent stakes are likely to be something in your kit anyway, that doesn't add weight to your kit. Another option is to cut a couple of lengths of coat hanger and bend they ends down so the don't fall out while cooking. One could easily put a couple of those in the pouch and it would cost them virtually nothing. Thanks for posting.

Bush box is good .. ace price ..easy put together.. that’s the one I’d go for cheers buddy Chris & Sam

I thought I finally had stick stoves figured out, but I recently came to the conclusion that I don't like the way any of the ones I've used are designed. I did find that cutting an opening in the opposite side of the feeding hole solved one of my main objections, which was how much wood could be in the stove, and the awkwardness of having so much of the stick on the outside, and having the ends of the sticks at such a high angle. Now I can pass sticks all the way through the stove, let them lie flat and burn in the middle. As the sticks burn apart in the middle, I pass them through the stove again from both directions, and they still lie flat until they're small enough to actually fit inside. This may not be a plus for everyone, but it's certainly made stove life easier for me. But I still can't find a stove that has all the other features I want, such as arms on top that will fold out to allow a larger skillet or pot, a grate system that allows me to catch ash and cinders below the stove, etc. I guess I want an actual stove, at least within reason. I think I'm going to have to make one, if I'm to get all the features I want. I'm not even opposed to a stove that doesn't fold. Such a stove still slides easily into a pack, and by filling it with other gear, you lose little, if any space. But I don't know. I really did think I had it figured out, but this little thing that little thing, and the other not so little thing kept bagging at me, and now I'm pretty much back where I started.

Thanks for the info

Are use the smaller cotton sachet packs measure about 2 1/2 x 3 1/2” and put ground coffee in them. I use one of those small wood burning stove to boil water drop the sachet packs in and I have delicious groundless coffee. Clean them out and they’re reusable.

This is good if I can use a folding pot that has silicone and that i can keep the flames away.... Otherwise, it's better to get one that will fit in a conventional pot.... No need to be flat in that case....

Aloha from Hawaii. Thanks for the review. Subbed.

Wow sharp cool thank you for sharing its me nenematit.

Thanks for your job! Regarding base measurements, which one would you recommend? (9x9cm) (10x10cm) (12x12cm).

Really enjoyed the video keep up the good work be blessed

Nice video

Nice video mark I might buy the el cheapo and give it a whirl might be ok for when it's almost time to pack up camp 😀

There was a review by Mark Young on the lixada stove. He put holes in aluminum flashing over the hole where the wood goes in. Too much airflow through there and not enough coming up from the bottom. Boil time went down by half. Ended up around 6 and a half minutes. He put a crossbar to raise the height of the pot a bit. Made the stove the more efficient.

Try one with the Firebox stove. Heavy, but no loose pieces, solid as heck, can do a million things with a few extras. They have a nano, if weight is an issue. They use two feeding ports, to get the sticks to cross over, and also makes it convenient to continually push long sticks in as they burn. I love mine. But if I had to go somewhere were weight was a big issue, I'm glad to know the Elle cheapos work well too.

Great video dear!

If you have transport to get near to your desired location the weight may not be an issue. Personally, I prefer to travel light - and given the price on the cheaper stove? Have to say, it's got my vote. But, I use the British army hexi stove which can also be utilised with twigs - a healthier alternative.

thanks for this

Nice comparison... I got the cheap version but it's an older model, the sides are not hinged together. I don't use it much because of that. My go to stove is the Firebox (Gen 2), love that stove. I also use a DIY Ikea stove, modified it myself, it works great too! Good video.

another great video mate thanks for the advice

Nice review...

I pound coffee can with he appropriate holes use one yr. get another. Just a thought. Good video, Thank You.

You could make cross pieces easily enough for the cheaper stove if it was an issue for you, an old metal tent peg sawn in half would do the trick, even a couple of bits of metal coat hanger.

I use 4 tent pegs the round metal ones and some mesh on top in my fire cost nothing had it already if you can't use a fire then I'd go for the cheaper version of that wood stove easier to assemble etc good video like it 🖒🖒🖒

Only real issue I have with the video is the part about not taking pride in carrying a nice stove. I’ve had the Bushbox Ti for years and take a lot of pride in that little precision crafted gem of a stove. The titanium takes on beautiful colors as it’s used and the proportions of it have really been thought out to perfection as far as I can tell. At 160 grams it’s an easy carry that NEVER leaves me stuck for fire when I combine it with a pop can alcohol burner as a back up for sticks.

I didn't get a word of that! ;)

Nice video, thank you for sharing.

خوب بود سپاسگزارم Thank god

Thanks Mark, can't see me trading up from my Lixada, especially as they can be bought with trivets now 👍🙂