Introducing the new 2021 SilverFire® Survivor 2nd Generation rocket stove with secondary combustion and upgrade thicker Stainless Steel combustion chamber! We have made our robust award-winning stove even tougher. Folks around the world rely on our stoves to stay alive sanitizing water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning applications. This is the most efficient natural draft rocket stove we have offered to date. While other lower-quality and less efficient stoves (StoveTec, EcoZoom, and others) are shortchanging you on build and performance, we continue to improve our product offerings!

There are Rocket Stoves...and then there is the Silverfire Survivor Rocket Stove. The Survivor is head and shoulders above all others from concept, to design, to materials, and construction.  Backwoods Bikers 2020!

     Our SilverFire® Survivor rocket stove features our new solid stainless steel fuel shelf! This state of the art clean cookstove is durable, fun, and fast.  SilverFire combines both secondary and primary combustion.  Our rocket stove is more efficient and uses less fuel than other rocket stove designs.  Competitive rocket stoves utilize primary combustion only.

     Our Survivor rocket stove is easily identified by our solid stainless steel fuel shelf that stows inside the rectangular combustion chamber!  Another SilverFire® rocket stove design 1st!  No cheap painted steel wire rack to lose or misplace when you need it!  Our correct rectangle-shaped rocket stove combustion chamber allows the stainless steel shelf to ride inside the combustion chamber behind our custom black stainless steel door, when not in use.  This is not possible by inferior round-shaped combustion chambers found in most of our competitor's stoves.  The Stainless steel solid shelf has a tab that locks directly into combustion chamber floor and allows easy insertion of bio-fuels into the combustion chamber, compared to poorly designed wire racks utilized by StoveTec, EcoZoom and early EnviroFit stoves, which are easily identified by painted mild steel stove bodies that are inferior and poor quality.  They all look the same with different paint jobs, slight design modifications, and have cheap clay tile floor titles that crack and fall apart.  

Survivor Rocket Stove Assembly Video:

     SilverFire uses real ventilation ductwork for secondary combustion in the firebox floor, no cheap clay titles to crack, or fail. The thin mild steel StoveTec, EcoZoom, & EnviroFit stove bodies are subject to short stove life. Our new stainless steel fuel rack ensures greater safety by not allowing hot embers to fall through wire rack.  Stainless steel is a superior material for stove construction than mild steel.  Rock mineral wool insulation is superior to cheap clay insulation or tiles, period.

     Another point of confusion is the 2 door wood and charcoal stove sold by StoveTec & Ecozoom (same stove, different paint jobs).  StoveTec (which we created to market stoves for Aprovecho in 2008) offers a humanitarian 2 door stove.  It was never the intent to use charcoal as a primary fuel for this stove.  Charcoal or coal reduces the stove shelf life.  The 2 Door stove sold by StoveTec & EcoZoom was created for uneducated 3rd World cooks that were and continue to destroy their fuel resources by producing and cooking with charcoal.  The idea was to teach the uneducated to stop using charcoal and move them to twigs & biomass! 

     Illegal charcoal production is why so many areas on this planet's forests have disappeared.  Charcoal production only yields 30% of the tree.  It not sustainable.  The pollution is impacting air sheds worldwide.  Charcoal burning releases harmful methane emissions during production and then again a second time when cooking.  In a real emergency, large volumes of water are required for drinking, cooking, & cleaning.  Charcoal, although burning hot does not boil large volumes of water since the flames are not licking the pot (reduced heat transfer).  The rocket stove was invented to use found scrub on the ground, to provide the ability to cook for free, eliminate reliance on commercial distribution, reduce emissions, reduce fuel requirements, use renewable fuel resources, and maximize heat transfer to the cooking vessel.   

     Try boiling a large pot of water on a Weber charcoal  BBQ grill, for example, you'll learn it can't be done, there is not adequate heat transfer.  All rocket stoves are not equal, although they can cook a hamburger or boil small pots of water. This is not an important daily cooking or emergency preparedness performance endpoint.  

     Providing a minimum of a gallon of emergency drinking water, or a pot of water to cook a meal (5 liters of water or more), or an adequate amount of water to sanitize your cookware is an important rocket stove comparison.  An important stove test to measure meaningful stove performance from one stove to another was the creation of the WBT (5 liter Water Boiling Test).  Bringing large volumes of water to a boil with minimal fuel and just fine ash left as the end product is what distinguishes real stove performance.  

     The SilverFire® Survivor is more than twice as fast boiling large volumes of water compared to the BioLite Basecamp fan stove ($299.95) for example, without the need to constantly remove spent embers due to less efficient stove combustion.   Note photo below with the SilverFire® Survivor rocket stove on left showing fine ash and heavy char requiring constant removal on the stove on right.  Stove on right burned significantly less efficiently, used more fuel, and required constant maintenance.

     Heavy ember & char accumulation is a sign of inefficient combustion, more than doubling time to boil, the time required cleaning, impeding heat transfer, and ventilation.  The stove on the right is almost twice the price of our SilverFire® Survivor and significantly less efficient!

     This is also true comparing every other rocket stove we have tested, less efficient combustion results in larger amounts of heavy embers, which impedes heat transfer and ventilation.  This is why numerous other rocket stoves cannot bring large pots of water to a boil and require frequent ember removal.  The SilverFire® Survivor is the most efficient burning rocket stove on the planet, and fine ash is the final combustion end product.  Large ember debris post-combustion is a sign of inefficient combustion.   The SilverFire® Survivor by contrast only leaves fine ash residue, characteristic of efficient combustion.  This means less time spent cleaning stove, increased heat transfer, and more efficient ventilation while cooking.

Here is a new customer modification the SilverFire smokeless fire pit:

     Any rocket stove can efficiently cook a hamburger or boil small volumes of water, however, real stove performance is measured bringing the International Standard of 5 liters of water to a boil.  Most rocket stoves we test fail these simple tests. The unfortunate fact is we have not tested the USA made rocket stove that can meet the International requirement of boiling 5 liters of water, much less doing it with only 500 grams of fuel (SilverFire® Survivor, 2013).  All other rocket stoves we have tested require more frequent cleaning due to less efficient combustion design. 

     At the Aprovecho stove lab in 2008, we tested the Grover rocket stove which failed the WBT, after 1750 grams of fuel could not bring the International standard of 5 liters of water to a boil.  Homemade DIY and non-insulated rocket stoves do not perform even that well.  A well-designed rocket stove must incorporate numerous combustion design principles.  Most homemade and commercial rocket stoves have significant shortcomings incorporating both combustion principles and the correct cross-sectional airflow to maximize heat transfer with the stovetop.  Correct cross-sectional flow is as important as insulating the combustion chamber.  

     Our Survivor uses minimal fuel, produces little emissions or smoke.  Our end product is fine ash, not large embers of char that decrease ventilation, fill the combustion chamber, and choke off the stove, retarding efficient combustion.  The SilverFire Survivor is a revolutionary design, incorporating secondary air, primary air, and a door for a hotter fire during high firepower cooking.  This results in cleaner combustion than other rocket stove designs, and evident by just fine ash left behind.  During low firepower cooking, such as simmering operations, just drop fuel through the top of the stove for long extended low firepower cooking.  The door is designed to be closed or laying on top of your fuel during cooking operations.  

     Crude homemade rocket stoves and poorly designed commercial rocket stoves leave larger pieces of char and embers behind since combustion results are not as complete as with the SilverFire Survivor.  The Survivor door is designed to be always falling down on the fuel to retain a hotter fire inside the firebox.  This is common sense, your grandmother did not cook with the firebox doors open on her wood stove, nor should you with a rocket stove.  We do not recommend cooking with the door open, but unfortunately, some product reviews have shown our product used with the door in the open position, which makes for less efficient combustion.  The door is intended to always be falling down on minimal dry fuel for the best results.

     Complete combustion and high thermal efficiency is the important outcome with our stove, resulting in fine ash.  Fine ash is the end product of complete combustion and a well-designed cook stove.  The advanced design is intended for improved efficiency and durability.  Compare our superior quality to other brands of rocket stoves, and draw your own conclusions.  Our current 2016 Survivor has had numerous upgrades from our initial Spring 2013 (sold out) product launch.  

The 2016 Survivor design improvement upgrades include:

1.  The Perlite insulation is no longer available and has been swapped out for premium rock mineral wool insulation to eliminate Perlite residue (fine dust) that was evident with rough handling by ground transportation services, during transport and deliveries.

2.  Handles are now shipped inside the stove and attached by the customer to prevent the cosmetic dings we saw with ground transportation handlers.  Pem nuts are now embedded in the stainless steel stove wall and 6 fine thread Phillip head machine screws are provided to attach handles to the stove.  Long handles are an important feature of the Survivor rocket stove.  In an emergency, it may be carried while burning if required.  Close-fitting rocket stove handles mean your wrists, hands, or fingers will likely be burned if the stove has to be moved in an emergency.  Do not buy rocket stoves with poorly designed stubby handles attached to close to stove body! 

3.  Our original cast iron stove top had 4 pot supports, Our new upgraded cast iron stove top, now includes 5 pot supports!  Our rocket stove cast iron top is the thickest and most durable of any brand currently on the market, ensuring years of reliability.

4.  We have the only rocket stove in the World with 360 degrees primary combustion ventilation and ducting in the floor of the stove, with no cheap clay tiles! An additional temperature reducing baffle plate has been added to the bottom of the stove, for safer handling and to decrease the temperature on cooking surfaces.  Our stove has is the coolest surface temperature below the stove of any product on the market.  Many rocket stove designs have legs to try to compensate for the fact that the stove design is too hot below the combustion chamber.  These designs also require the cook to squat while cooking.  The SilverFire Survivor can be safely placed on ergonomic cooking surfaces, such as a wooden picnic table.  Our stove does not require the cook to squat or cook on the ground.   

5.  A fuel gauge has been added to the custom black stainless steel stove door (another SilverFire exclusive rocket stove design feature)!  The flame-shaped diameter fuel gauge is intended to remind folks this is the actual diameter of fuel required for the stove or less!  While you can add larger fuel in the stove, standard pencil diameter sized twigs and yard debris is all that is required to cook within our stove.  The fuel gauge also provides a second option to lift the stove door when adding fuel, or moving it forward on the fuel shelf.  The door is designed to be down when cooking!  Tip:  Numerous reviews on the web are showing inappropriate cooking techniques with the door open and anywhere from 4 to 10 times too much fuel required! Door down, less fuel!

6. New upgrade ventilation design under grate for improved operation when used for extended cooking durations.  This stove allows the most extended duration cook times, without requiring dumping spent embers & char, due to fine ash efficient combustion and less labor for the cook!

7.  Redesigned and raised combustion floor gaps for improved ash access & cleanout.  

8.  The redesigned combustion chamber and slotted stainless steel fuel shelf that stows inside the combustion chamber for easy transportation, ease of inserting fuel, and increased ember safety. 

     Our lightweight quality rock mineral fiber insulation is superior to extruded clay combustion chamber insulation, due to the increased durability and significant reduction in stove weight.  The SilverFire Survivor weighs 12.5 lbs (5.66 KG), which represents approximately a 50% reduction of weight compared to the StoveTec Deluxe & EcoZoom clay combustion chamber designed stoves.  The SilverFire cast iron top is significantly thicker than the StoveTec, Eco Zoom, and early EnviroFit stoves.  The SilverFire rugged stainless steel body ensures ensure long stove life compared to StoveTec, EcoZoom, early EnviroFit ultra-thin mild steel painted stove bodies.  We see several stove organizations also trying to imply heat resistant paint is protecting their mild steel stove bodies.  This is not true, mild steel stove bodies fail in the field, period.

     We also do not use pop can thin, cheap steel alloy liners that were subject to fail in the field or short mounted handles that mean the cook's hands are not protected if required to move the stove. Long stove handles are required to clear the cast iron top to avoid burns by design.  If you’re going to cooking for emergencies, recreation, or with everyday cooking all that is required is a few twigs or a little flammable field scrub.  Little fuel is all it takes in a SilverFire® Survivor to boil large volumes of water for drinking, cooking, or sanitizing cookware.

    The SilverFire founder Todd Albi was the founder and former Managing Director of StoveTec ®.   He fielded StoveTec / Aprovecho’s rocket stove product complaints and quality assurance issues that plagued the organization, impacting StoveTec, EcoZoom, and early EnviroFit stove designs.   Todd created SilverFire®, to improve stove quality, eliminate stove quality assurance issues, and develop the highest quality clean cooking products possible.  The objective was to incorporate Dr. Larry Wininarski’s best design principles and input and tie SilverFire ® partnerships with the World’s leading biomass & biogas product manufacturers to bring the highest quality, most advanced patented technologies forward.  These design improvements address the quality and design shortcomings found in most other biomass rocket stove designs. 

     Cheap clay stoves and extruded combustion chambers are heavy and fragile.  Thin mild cold rolled steel stove bodies found with many rocket stove manufacturers are subject to oxidation and can limit stove life.  Poor quality, thin cast iron tops crack.  Cheap floor tiles crack and fail.   Pop can thin steel alloy combustion chambers used in the Deluxe StoveTec, & EcoZoom Versa are subject to failure in the field.  Our SilverFire® rocket stove represents numerous technological innovations, incorporating both primary and secondary airflow to improve combustion, thermal efficiency, reduce fuel use, and lower emissions.  SilverFire does not use cheap ceramic insulation or thinly cast stovetops found in most leading Rocket stove brands (note hollow cast pot supports in the photo below.

    The Survivor is a portable, fast, fun, rugged outdoor cookstove.  It features a large rectangle combustion chamber that accepts uniform fuel insertion, rather than the common round clay chamber, that restricts lateral fuel access.  The custom black stainless steel door is utilized in a closed position while cooking.  This retains more heat in the chamber for more complete combustion and improves safety with great ember control.  National Parks often permit only self-contained cookstoves.  Users of open stove designs may be cited or fined.  Please check the regulations in your area.