Ammo Can Stove – Review

Thanks to the mild weather, I had the opportunity to break in the newest addition to my preps this past weekend.

The Ammo Can Stove.  I got the Mid-range model, the Blue Ridge.  It came fully assembled, and looking good in sexy matte black.  Instructions were included, mostly giving me directions on how to season the paint and care for the stove. Seasoning was nothing more than firing this bad boy up for a couple of hours.  I didn’t notice much in the way of paint smell, but hubby says he could smell it.  I had it going full out for a couple of hours, and had no problems with it. Everything is sturdy and held up to me opening and closing and poking about more than is strictly necessary.

I’ve got to say, I was pretty impressed. Here are some front and back views.

With only a small pile of sticks, I was able to get a nice bit of heat. I should emphasize that sticks are the key word there. There is no way you could fit traditional lengths of firewood in this stove. But, for people like me, with a wood pile that’s mostly fallen dead wood, this is perfect. The box dimensions are 8.5″ High, 7″ Wide, 12″ Long.

The one thing I wanted immediately was the stove piping.  The exhaust pipe was head height as I was sitting near the stove. Which was a smoky place to be at times.  Stove pipe should be easy enough to find though, and hubby has worked with it  before, so this shouldn’t be hard, and we can customize the height for our easy-up shelter that we usually take camping.  I’m not sure I would use this stove in a tent, while about 95% of the smoke went out the pipe, there was some smoke leakage from the sides, on the bottom where the stove sat inside the ammo-can lid. That certainly wouldn’t be a big deal in a SHTF event, but for casual camping it would be a bit too much smoke in the tent for me.   This little stove would keep our easy-up toasty warm though, and I imagine that’s what we’ll use it for.

The top easily got hot enough to make some hot chocolate or coffee.  I think my small 6″ cast iron pan would fit nicely and cook up little bits of food as well.  That puts this little stove high on my list of useful thing to have for grid down.  If things were dire enough, I would bring this stove inside my house to heat a room while I’m cooking.  That was a huge hole in my preps, and worrisome, as grid down could just as easily happen during our long cold winters, and all my current burning options are open-grill style, which isn’t so safe for inside. I should probably mention, that like any other metal stove, the whole thing gets hot, and will burn children or pets if they aren’t taught to avoid it. Be a responsible adult, and it shouldn’t be a problem.

With it’s small size, it will need to be cleaned out every day during use, but that’s a snap, as it hinges open on the original lid for easy cleaning.

Two thumbs up from me, hubby and the 2 year old.  A perfect addition to our preps.
– Calamity Jane