so recently I released a video where I
showed using wood pellets in my two Wood
gasification stoves the Lok Satta and
the solo Titan and I had mentioned
during that video my reason for doing so
as I was looking for an alternative fuel
that I could use at the national parks
and the picnic parks around the city
here I also mentioned that I was going
to look at some other alternative fuels
and ways that I could use some of the
small stick stoves and wood stoves that
I have in the parks without creating a
big fire without drawn a lot of
attention and of course without using
the resources that are around me which
are illegal or at least inappropriate to
use so continuing with that theme I'm in
my backyard today of my home and I am
going to use the vital grill survival
stove with charcoal to see how that
works out something I haven't done
before but if it works out I think this
will be quite quite a good investment
and quite a good thing that I could use
in the parks so if this is interest to
you stay with me so if you don't know
about the vital grill survival stove
I'll give you a quick rundown I do have
another video where I've done more work
with this it is a Canadian made item it
is a cast aluminum base it is it uses a
fan to force air through the through the
wood now I'll assemble it for you enjoy
it is there going on but the here's
basically where the air enters in
through to the burn chamber this plate
also provides a cover where you can
store a little battery pack that comes
with it put the burn plate back on and
the chamber itself stores as a folding
almost like a wind wall it's a little
there we go
comes over quite nicely unfolds
and that's basically it right there
except for a heaven ad at the battery
pack so just give it a look at the
inside it's a fairly good-sized burn
chamber inside the pod stands are
adjustable for very small you could use
like a GSI or canteen cup quite nicely
and I've done both on this you can also
fold them out if you're going to use a
cast iron or a larger frypan of some
type and I may be doing that today to
cook my lunch so what I'm going to use
is just Kingsford Charcoal briquettes
and I've discovered that I can place
eight of these inside here just
perfectly and I'll give you a look
inside and what I'm hoping is that I can
create a steady even heat with just
eight per gets that will allow me to to
barbecue maybe a steak or a hamburger
I'm not sure if it'll have enough heat
to boil water but we're gonna test that
out as well so there's what that looks
like with the briquettes
inside of the burn chamber now staying
with the theme then am in a picnic park
rather than use birch bark or any other
natural materials to create a little
fire on top I'm going to use a lighter
fluid and I use this in my last video as
well and this is a alcohol gel fuel and
intended for fire starting so I'm gonna
pour a little bit of that on to the
briquettes now word of caution the
manufacturer of the vital grill does not
recommend using liquid fuel fire
starters for starting fires inside this
device and I suspect that has something
to do with the fact that when the fan is
turned on its going to create almost
like a blowtorch effect so I'm gonna be
very conscious now the gel is highly
viscous very thick in nature and I don't
think it's going to leak through into
the plate below but do so at your own
risk I think this is something I can do
safely but of course I'm in a safe area
just in case things do get out of
control like my battery pack in and the
battery pack has a high and low setting
and there is a draft
damper that you can pull out and adjust
for the amount of draught so there's
almost infinite variations and I'm going
to get the alcohol on and lit before I
turn the battery pack on all right let's
give this a go I think it's about a
tablespoon and a half two tablespoons
put that out of the way again staying
with the theme that I'm working in a
park I'm going to be using some matches
strike-anywhere matches still get them
at Canada these are small I hope it has
enough burn time to light this alcohol
jelly font is this a little resistant if
it's cold out now it's a bright sunny
day here yep it caught I can't see the
alcohol burning I'm going to turn the
fan on low
open the damper up
I expect it's really difficult for you
to see what's taking place here right
now but the alcohol is burning so what
I'll do because this is probably going
to take some time for the charcoal
briquettes to really catch is I'm going
to turn the video off but I'll bring it
back and a few minutes time and give you
a progress report okay quick update it's
been seven minutes since I lit the
briquettes and um you can see the
progress so hopefully you can I had to
stand over it to create enough shadow
it's a nice bright sunny day here but
hopefully you can see that the
briquettes are starting to white up I
can see inside that it's there
especially the ones in the bottom are a
nice bright glow and I can tell you
there's considerable heat coming off of
these now I would be waiting a little
while longer before I attempted to cook
anything over this but it is producing
quite a bit of heat so I'm going to do
two tests one is to see if I can boil
water and the second would be to see if
I can't fry an egg in a cast-iron frypan
I'm gonna use a larger cast-iron
freudian sized cast-iron frypan just to
see if it'll generate enough heat first
heat up the five pan and then cook the
egg I do have an aluminum windscreen
that I'll be putting around this there's
a little bit of a breeze here today and
the mothers will maximize the Stowe's
performance with that but so far these
briquettes are heating up nicely and
I'll bring it back in a few minutes when
they're little for further developed
okay so it's been 15 minutes since I
left the briquettes and they're all nice
and engaged in the in the blowing right
now there's some good heat being
produced by them I can't get my hand
very close to them you can see I did put
an aluminum windscreen up around there
just to maximize the efficiency of the
stove so what I'm gonna do for my first
test is put my GSI kettle on two cups of
water I right there we go I'm also gonna
put the fan on high at this point the
fan has been on low the damper is open
but the fan has been on low so I'm gonna
turn the fan on high and see how much
further long that'll take this and how
long it'll take the water to a boil if
in fact it does come to boil that's my
hope
and when it does I'll bring it back and
give you an idea how long it took all
right it's been five minutes since I put
the kettle on
and looks like we have a boil absolutely
we do all right that's impressive five
minutes on these briquettes on top of
the vital grill survival stove and I
have two cups of water brought to a boil
and it was cold water for my cold water
tap so I didn't she put any more water
in it or anything else so I'm gonna use
this water for a cup of tea and change
it out for a frypan so and see if I
can't fry an egg let's have a look at
the pockets there you go a lot of life
left in those briquettes and we're about
20 25 minutes into the test bring it
back when I get the fry pan hot okay the
five pans been on for about two or three
minutes it feels hard I did give it a
water drop test and the water sizzles
right off so I'm going to throw just a
little bit of butter in money cooking
one egg for this test
take them a little unbalanced
[Music]
oops drop the egg huh
here we go
lots of heat here in fact I think I'm
going to turn the fan down
yeah I'm just off the grill ever so
slightly I get back over the heat with
my egg I think that should do it
okay's that egg finishes up I'm going to
enjoy that as a quick snack here and
we'll just watch and see how long it
takes for these coals before they're
pretty much of no use so I wish I had
had a hamburger or steak to do but it's
hony 9:30 in the morning here so a
little early to be cooking a heavy meal
like that so could I have breakfast
instead I will bring it back in a few
minutes all right 35 minutes into the
test since I first put the briquettes
there is still yeah they're starting to
break down but there's still some solid
briquettes there and they're still
producing a fair amount of heat maybe
enough to cook a hamburger on a little
bit of time left on now but yeah this
has been a good test all right we'll
wrap it up with a few closing comments
okay so what are my thoughts on using
the vital grill survival stove with
charcoal well the intent of this was to
see if it would be an option for use in
a provincial park a national park or one
of the local picnic parks
something like the hibachi or small gas
BBQ would be and I think this worked out
very well you 35 minutes of good burn
time I was able to boil two cups of
water
I was able to fry an egg in a cast-iron
frying pan I believe I easily would have
been able to do at least one or two
hamburgers and a steak or anything else
that you would normally do over a small
grill a few reservations well the only
reservation is really is the size of the
burn chamber it's only five inches
square and when I put the cast-iron
frypan on it really it centered the heat
in the center portion of that fry pan so
I did find that because the block or the
brick is sitting on a slightly
unbalanced my egg of course slid over to
one side of the fry pan then I had just
a little bit of a challenge getting the
egg directly over the heat but of course
the fry pan had become quite hot and it
cooked the egg regardless so with those
reservations in mind I can recommend
using charcoal in the vital grill
survival stove and again I just want to
point out the manufacturer does not
recommend using liquid lighter fluids in
the in the stove I probably could have
gotten away with using
a probably get some wind noise now I
probably could have gotten away with
using a Vaseline soaked cotton ball and
it would have worked just as well or one
of the other fire shutters that you can
use for this but so full fur yeah I
would say this works really well I've
got a few other tests to mine I'll do
for you today and and see if I can't
bring those vide to videos to you
shortly so in the meantime if you've
enjoyed this video I would encourage you
to subscribe to my channel hit the like
button and stay tuned for more I'm in
the city that doesn't mean you can't get
out and explore the woods so do that get
out and explore take the path less
traveled it'll make all the difference
bye for now