I bought one of these out of curiosity last week after seeing about a hundred reviews of the Ohuhu or it's clones on YouTube. I certainly don't need another stove and don't intend to cook on it but a lot of people do. At $16.99 it was worth a giggle if nothing else but I have fun with it and plan to keep it in the Casa since it is so tiny. At about 5.3'' in diameter and only about 4'' high collapsed it fits most anywhere but what is it good for? Well, for one thing it puts out an enormous amount of heat for it's size and the flame makes for a nice ambiance. Many people backpack and cook with it but I will be using it mostly on a picnic table on cool evening camping trips. Known as a stick stove as a result of the small twigs and wood chips it burns, mine will be used primarily with wood pellets which are cheap and easy to carry in the truck.
It's claim to fame is that it gasifies and the resulting combustion doesn't give off any smoke. It accomplishes this with a double wall construction with bottom vents and peripheral vents at the top that burn off the smoke. Whatever the magic, it just works! It would be fun for kids to roast marshmallows on, could be used to boil water, cook or fry and mine came with a grill that could be used to make toast or heat a cinnamon roll once the flame dies down. My test shows about an hours worth of burn time from a single load of fuel. Not a necessity but as a devout gadgeteer something I will enjoy playing around with.
But now it is getting hot and I needed to think about keeping cool in the Casa on summer camping trips, especially at night. I discovered a small and surprisingly versatile cooler on line that is basically a little swamp cooler or evaporative cooler. Having lived in the Mojave Desert for years I am quite familiar with swamp coolers and like them in a really dry climate. There are a number of these on the market and most are just junk that deliver far less than they promise. The one I bought seems to be a cut above and is a clever design. It can function as a 3 speed fan alone or as a 2 level evaporative cooler with all 3 speeds. In addition it has a built in night light that can be used as needed or kept off. A remote is provided that seems to work well and provides a redundant backup to the controls on the unit itself. A timer can be set at 1, 3, or 6 hours. Water capacity is almost 2 quarts, enough for at least 6 hours of cooling. It is USB-C powered and uses but 4 watts when on high cool. But as Professor Hobo would ask: "Is it any good?" It is my job to find out but I bought it to use inside the Casa on warm nights-a relatively small volume of area due to all the cabinets and storage areas inside. It definitely cools the air and does it very quietly providing some white noise to sleep with. I have some fancy fans in the Casa including an O2COOL model that I modified to run on 12v instead of the batteries it came with but those fans, although they help a lot, still just move ambient air around. This new unit has some actual cooling power. And it doesn't even have a name! It just says: "Multi Functional Air Cooler" on the box. With temps in the 90's next week I will be able to test it out and see if it delivers or not. Right now I get the impression that it is better than expected and at 4 watts will run damned near forever on an 1800 watt power supply.
It's claim to fame is that it gasifies and the resulting combustion doesn't give off any smoke. It accomplishes this with a double wall construction with bottom vents and peripheral vents at the top that burn off the smoke. Whatever the magic, it just works! It would be fun for kids to roast marshmallows on, could be used to boil water, cook or fry and mine came with a grill that could be used to make toast or heat a cinnamon roll once the flame dies down. My test shows about an hours worth of burn time from a single load of fuel. Not a necessity but as a devout gadgeteer something I will enjoy playing around with.
But now it is getting hot and I needed to think about keeping cool in the Casa on summer camping trips, especially at night. I discovered a small and surprisingly versatile cooler on line that is basically a little swamp cooler or evaporative cooler. Having lived in the Mojave Desert for years I am quite familiar with swamp coolers and like them in a really dry climate. There are a number of these on the market and most are just junk that deliver far less than they promise. The one I bought seems to be a cut above and is a clever design. It can function as a 3 speed fan alone or as a 2 level evaporative cooler with all 3 speeds. In addition it has a built in night light that can be used as needed or kept off. A remote is provided that seems to work well and provides a redundant backup to the controls on the unit itself. A timer can be set at 1, 3, or 6 hours. Water capacity is almost 2 quarts, enough for at least 6 hours of cooling. It is USB-C powered and uses but 4 watts when on high cool. But as Professor Hobo would ask: "Is it any good?" It is my job to find out but I bought it to use inside the Casa on warm nights-a relatively small volume of area due to all the cabinets and storage areas inside. It definitely cools the air and does it very quietly providing some white noise to sleep with. I have some fancy fans in the Casa including an O2COOL model that I modified to run on 12v instead of the batteries it came with but those fans, although they help a lot, still just move ambient air around. This new unit has some actual cooling power. And it doesn't even have a name! It just says: "Multi Functional Air Cooler" on the box. With temps in the 90's next week I will be able to test it out and see if it delivers or not. Right now I get the impression that it is better than expected and at 4 watts will run damned near forever on an 1800 watt power supply.
.
