The term rocket stove suggests something far more exotic than what it actually denotes: a fairly standard and time-tested style of backpacker’s stove that converts wood fuel into a small, efficient cooking fire.
That efficiency owes to a vertical, cylindrical chimney that allows air to flow into a combustion chamber from underneath, allowing the fuel to fully combust before the flame reaches the cooking surface up top (if you’ve ever used a charcoal grill, it’s a similar process to prepping your coals). They’re also — unlike full-fledged campfires — so easy to use that your six-year-old niece could probably swap one out for her EZ Bake Oven without missing a step.
And now a new Kickstarter is making the platonic ideal of the rocket stove available to the masses.
Called the Kombuis, the stainless-steel cooking set combines three devices — a rocket stove, pot and pan — into one Russian nesting doll-style whole. The entire thing weighs just 2.2 lbs., with a height of 6.3 inches and a diameter of 4.7, meaning fledgling alpinists and backpackers should have no trouble making room.
The project is fully funded and ships worldwide, and you’ve still got 19 days to pick one up for the early-bird price of $98.
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