From the Lab to the Field: Sierra Leone's Household Stove
This Fall, BDL engineers Patrick Flores and Sofia Montalbano traveled to Sierra Leone with an important mission: to put our latest iteration of the household Wonder Stove designs into the hands of families and continue gathering real world data on how they perform – and hold up to long term sustained use.
After months of engineering, testing, and collaboration with Westwind Energy, the stoves have undergone design improvements, based off of our initial user feedback, further performance improvement, durability, and manufacturability. Now that these stoves are placed in homes of heavy users, we will get invaluable user feedback and understand which components fail, how they fail, and when.
During the trip, three different charcoal stove designs were manufactured and equipped with sensors designed to capture information about cooking events and stove temperatures. All 21 stoves were placed in homes of heavy users, trained on how to operate the stove, and agreed to participate in this study with BDL and WWE. Over the following weeks and then months, our teams will continue to gather feedback from these households, collect data from our sensors, and evaluate the durability of the different components and materials used.
This work is taking place alongside the continued growth of household stove production in Sierra Leone, where manufacturing capacity is now well over 200 stoves per month. With promising designs moving into the field and production capacity growing, BDL is building a pathway from engineering innovation to affordable, durable stoves manufactured in West Africa. Each round of testing brings us closer to a stove that saves fuel, performs reliably, and works well for the families who depend on it and every lesson learned in the field helps us make the next stove better.
Growing our Engineering Capacity
This year, BDL welcomed Corey Lowe, Sr. Engineer, to our program team. Corey brings years of experience in product design and development, including working directly with international manufacturers. Most recently, he ran his own custom bicycle frame design and manufacturing company, where precision engineering, hands-on fabrication, and problem-solving were at the heart of his work. Corey, his wife, and their three children currently live in Seattle and dream about making the move to Vashon someday soon. We’re excited to have his experience and perspective on the team.
Corey’s arrival comes at an important time as BDL and WWE prepare for a new production batch of over 500 school feeding stoves for the World Food Programme. Corey helped the team present the final production package of the latest design, which includes the 3D design, quality-control drawings, assembly manual, production files, and other documentation needed by manufacturing partners. This new design reduces material cost, manufacturing time, and maintains the same cleaner burning performance that BDL introduced in 2025.
With new expertise on the team and continued collaboration with our manufacturing partners, BDL and WWE’s latest production of Wonder Institutional Stoves will benefit over 90,000 students and 1,200 women cooks in over 250 schools across Sierra Leone.
Upgrade in the shop:
The BDL team is grateful for a generous donation from one of our dedicated supporters, which made it possible for us to purchase and evaluate a new CNC press brake machine in our shop on Vashon. This important piece of equipment will expand our hands-on manufacturing expertise, allowing us to recommend this equipment to our partners.
This press brake can expand their production capacity, and our stove designs can be modified to accommodate this new tooling – further reducing material cost, manufacturing time, and improving quality in our stoves. Upgrades to both BDL’s equipment and our African-based manufacturing partners’ facilities get us one step closer to reaching our target of improving the lives of an additional 50 million households by 2035.
Double Your Impact for a Healthier Future
A generous group of BDL donors has committed $100,000 in matching funds this season. That means every dollar given will be matched—doubling your support to provide healthier, safer cookstoves to women and their families across West Africa. Your contribution helps us develop new partnerships and strengthen the local manufacturing capacity needed to bring these solutions to more people.
At Burn Design Lab, we combine engineering and innovation with hands-on collaboration with local manufacturers to design better cookstoves and build the capacity to produce them at scale. By sharing technical expertise, refining manufacturing processes, and helping partners develop efficient, sustainable production systems, we support local businesses in creating jobs and bringing affordable, durable, cleaner-burning stoves to more communities.
Together, we’re helping reduce the time women spend gathering firewood, protect families from harmful household air pollution, and build a stronger foundation for lasting impact at the community level.
Your gift will help us reach this $100,000 match and will contribute to building the next generation of cleaner burning cookstoves. If you believe in this work, please share BDL’s mission with others. Together, we can expand the reach of clean cooking for families across the region.
