Biolite Campstove Review
Biolite camp stove the wood burning stove that convert heat to power and charge USB devices mobile phone,GPS,camera etc. it sounds good option over conventional gas fuel camping stove or perhaps just another fancy gadget? I believe many people like me would be very skeptical about how effective it's.
to cleared all doubts i decided to give it a test,Initially to start the fire might be tricky as you need to start the fire outside the stove and move in from the top. Then only throw in tinder and kindling. as the fire get started, the internal fan turns on automatically to make burning more efficient. so you could focus on collecting more sticks to keep the flame going, after about 10mins of good flame the charger get activated for charging.
Charging Result
keep burning for 30mins at strong fire, get my smart phone charged 10%. not bad at last resource, sufficient to make a SOS call!
It was tested on the gas stove too (refer 2nd picture from the left above), as the charging pack is detachable, general speaking you could just set the heat sensor to received heat from others source like camp fire, gas stove etc. but we're not sure if that would damaged it, i will try to get advise from BioLite on this option.
Pros
Cons
to cleared all doubts i decided to give it a test,Initially to start the fire might be tricky as you need to start the fire outside the stove and move in from the top. Then only throw in tinder and kindling. as the fire get started, the internal fan turns on automatically to make burning more efficient. so you could focus on collecting more sticks to keep the flame going, after about 10mins of good flame the charger get activated for charging.
Charging Result
keep burning for 30mins at strong fire, get my smart phone charged 10%. not bad at last resource, sufficient to make a SOS call!
It was tested on the gas stove too (refer 2nd picture from the left above), as the charging pack is detachable, general speaking you could just set the heat sensor to received heat from others source like camp fire, gas stove etc. but we're not sure if that would damaged it, i will try to get advise from BioLite on this option.
Pros
- Sustainable fuel supply,fuel cost saving
- As last power source when there is no gas,batteries,solar.
- Makes burning efficient with internal fan especially in hash environment
- Solid construction, packable, same size as Nalgene bottle
- flexible multiple heat source
Cons
- Battery required pre-charged, otherwise takes longer time to activate the charger
- limited space,so must keep an eyes on the fire and keep throws in the wood
- as the ash and coal piled up, you would have to clean up or use shorter stick
Tested on 20 Dec 2014
check it out at our store or buy online here
check it out at our store or buy online here