A little over a year ago I decided that I wanted to start using wood for most of my cooking while backpacking. I enjoy the quiet and playing with fire, and here in PA wood is plentiful. After some searching I decided on the Element wood stove produced by TATO Gear and put it on my Christmas list last year. I received it (thanks mom) and have enjoyed using it over the past year.
I am amazed at how easily it lights and produces a boil with only a few small branches. Through some rough handling on my part I lost the hinge pin for the door. I contacted TATO and requested a replacement pin and inquired about the cost, since I had been roughly flipping the stove over with a stick to dump out any remaining coals so it would cool down quicker and I figured that this was my fault. He never responded to my request for what the cost would be, but promptly sent me out 2 replacement pins (and also informed me that he had corrected the issue in the newer models).
The above I would consider very good customer service. Now comes the awesome part (yes I said awesome). TATO posted a message in the Roundtable Off Topic forum (subtle plug for becoming a donating member) asking if there were any scoutmasters that would like some factory seconds gear for their troop to contact him. Having just taken over the role of scoutmaster I contacted him and offered to pay for any shipping costs - again no reply as to how much shipping would cost. This past week I received 4 titanium element wood-stoves for my troop. As he had mentioned they were not engraved really nice and had 2 door openings, but they are perfectly functional (I had to fire one of them up to play). So now I'm making up 4 pouches to store them in and will formally give them out to our troop at our Christmas party.
A BIG THANK YOU to TATO Gear!!
Doogie
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