View Full Version : Biolite Stove - anyone have one of these?
Mrs Baggins
06-02-2012, 14:32
http://biolitestove.com/campstove/camp-overview/features/
Seriously. It burns wood and charges your phone at the same time? I might have to have this. Paid this much for hubby's titanium Sierra Stove and it doesn't charge the phone!
Mrs Baggins
06-02-2012, 14:47
I'm aware it weighs a little more than 2 lbs......I'll give up carrying something else. And I wouldn't be carrying fuel canisters.
Slo-go'en
06-02-2012, 15:01
A friend of mine pre-ordered one a while back and depending on where he is in the que, it should be shipped to him by the 15th of June. He really doesn't need it and now needs the money more, so I will be buying it from him after he checks it out. I don't know if I'll get it before I leave for Montana at the end of the month, but it would be nice if I did.
BTW, the thermal generator is detachable for packing, so if you don't need to charge anything and want to save wieght, that part could be left home.
There is a pot out there that also creates electricity. That might be a better solution.
One problem with the Biolite is that you have to remove your pot to add fuel. I would like it a lot better if fuel could be fed through the bottom like on kelly kettle's.
"BTW, the thermal generator is detachable for packing, so if you don't need to charge anything and want to save wieght, that part could be left home. "
Like that it will probably perform a bit like the Bushbuddy however the main reason behind the BioLite was to have a close to smokeless burn as possible and that is achieved by the fan built in that "generator" bit.
Having a fan also means that it is easier to burn poor quality fuel, same reason why the Sierra has one.
So if you just look at one aspect , say it burns wood, it isn't very efficient at that weight, but if you look at the fact that it should burn clean, burn so so wood or other combustible matter (dung in some areas...) and also charge up your batteries or power your light, then the package maybe better than it first appears.
Franco
BTW..
https://www.thepowerpot.com/
With a bit of practice you should be able to use the Power Pot on the BioLite , that is as long as the flame on the BioLite is not too high.
(this is in theory...)
One thing that worries me a bit with the Power Pot is balance, that is it maybe a bit too easy to knock the pot off a stove because of the charging cable. Maybe a short ext cord will help.
Franco
Mrs Baggins
06-02-2012, 19:39
Well, right now I use a Pocket Rocket. I love it because it's so light weight and easy to light up. But talk about tough to balance a decent sized pot on......and a 4 oz fuel canister lasts me about 4 days. I heat up water for coffee and sometimes oatmeal for breakfast and to cook a hot dinner. Hubby has a titanium Sierra Stove, battery powered fan like the Biolite. It cooks our dinner and makes our breakfast very fast. My only real complaint with the wood burning stoves is the blackened pot and stove - - filthy to deal with. What attracts me to this stove is the ability to charge my iPhone. I'd love to be able to leave it on the whole time I'm out on the trail and if that's more than 2 - 3 days it will die very fast. Yes, I'm attached to my phone. I'm not going to give that up if I don't have to.
As I mentioned in other threads about these two, the output (at least in theory...) is the same as the one from the USB port in your computer.
(5v ,500mH max)
So if it takes 4 hours (whatever) to charge your iPhone from a USB port, it will also take 4 hours from these two devices.
That is why I want to experiment with a candle to see if the flame from one is enough to generate some power from them.
Franco
Mrs Baggins
06-02-2012, 20:04
As I mentioned in other threads about these two, the output (at least in theory...) is the same as the one from the USB port in your computer.
(5v ,500mH max)
So if it takes 4 hours (whatever) to charge your iPhone from a USB port, it will also take 4 hours from these two devices.
That is why I want to experiment with a candle to see if the flame from one is enough to generate some power from them.
Franco
So if I stop for the night by 4 pm, light up the stove right away and hook up my phone, it could easily be charged enough (maybe not full bars but at least 1/2 charged) by 6 pm - 7 pm. That's enough for me. If I can do that every evening then my phone will stay charged.
Wise Old Owl
06-02-2012, 21:16
Mrs Baggins, I have given this a lot of thought - the stove is 1pound too many and my best guess is that you would have to burn wood for several hours to put a 80% charge on a typical phone. I phone would need more, it requires a 2 watt supply... Its new and interesting... but there are better ways to do this. I won't be picking one up soon.. just saying.
Just saw your post Franco - I agree
A second battery is all you should need - a charge will last a month outside the phone. just learn to swap and that's an ounce!
A second battery is all you should need -
I take it that you are not an Apple fan ...
Franco
Wise Old Owl
06-02-2012, 22:14
There are lots of things I do like about Apple, I have used both! I own an Android.
My wifes Kindle Fire is driving me nuts.
Did you use a genuine Apple spare battery or another brand ?
Franco
Keep a stove burning continuously for hours every evening is way more work than I'd care for. Between all the time spent collecting sticks and feeding the stove, I would quickly tire of that stove. The nPowerPeg is supposed to be available in 3 days. Maybe that's a better option. I wouldn't call it a good option though. The spare battery is the way to go, along with a phone that accepts spare batteries.
Slo-go'en
06-03-2012, 11:26
Keep a stove burning continuously for hours every evening is way more work than I'd care for. Between all the time spent collecting sticks and feeding the stove, I would quickly tire of that stove. The nPowerPeg is supposed to be available in 3 days. Maybe that's a better option. I wouldn't call it a good option though. The spare battery is the way to go, along with a phone that accepts spare batteries.
The nPowerPeg produces even less energy then the bio-stove. You have to walk a long, long time to get just a few minutes worth of charge out of it.
No matter what alturnative energy source you use, be it solar, thermal, or kinetic, fully charging a dead battery is going to take a while. However, if you just need to keep the battery "topped off" or maintian enough charge to get some use out of the device every day, these charging devices can do that with a minimum amount of charging time. You just have to do it everyday and not let your battery discharge too much at any given time.
Of the three, the thermal electric seems to be the most reliable and has the advantage over solar in that you can use it at the end of the day at night. Since the TEG is removable on the bio-stove, I bet it could also be placed near a camp fire to make electricity.
The nPowerPeg produces even less energy then the bio-stove. You have to walk a long, long time to get just a few minutes worth of charge out of it.
Fortunately a lot of walking will be done.
Mine was shipped today to a US address, so I will not get it for another 2 or 3 weeks but they are now shipping...
Franco
I have one coming in July, I was on the waiting list.
Mine was shipped today to a US address, so I will not get it for another 2 or 3 weeks but they are now shipping...
Franco
Biolite, Powerpot or nPowerPeg? I'd love to play with all of them. At home. I look forward to your impressions of it.
Sorry..the Bio Lite
but I do have the Power Pot on order too
Franco
The BioLite was delivered to a Californian address early last week and it has just arrived at my place in Melbourne this morning.
First it is heavish at 2.2 lbs but (unexpectedly) it has a LiIon batt built in and that is what will make the USB charging work...
Rated USB output is 2W at 5V continuous ,4w @5v peak.
It is very well made , feels strong and rated to hold 8 lbs.
This afternoon I will shoot a short video on this doing the first burn...
BTW it is about 4" in diameter so just a bit wider than a 1L Nalgene.
My YouTube channel is 'francodarioli"
Franco
Wise Old Owl
06-13-2012, 21:55
Well Franco - you are ahead of everyone... what is the return policy and take your phone down to about 30% and see how much wood it takes to get back to 90% forget about boiling water - but that would be good to know too... I am sure you have a stop watch.
rocketsocks
06-13-2012, 22:17
with all the preparedness buying going on,I would expect these to fly off the shelfs,and maybe later models will,and then recharge the batteries for the wing motors,but for hikers,it'll be a while for the weight to come down.I'm thinking something like a mat,that you just unroll,lay flat on ground,and light a fire on it,which is totally doable,with out the added weight of a fire box so to speak
WOL
I have never returned anything in my life because I believe in personal responsibility...
First this is a good example of perception and reality.
The burner is 540g and the charging/fan bit is 435g however holding them it feels like it is the other way around ..
(it has to do with the size... but only for me if I hold the orange bit on my right hand)
anyway I have in mind that maybe the burner by itself may work somewhat like a Bushbuddy and clones, so it is still heavy but it has a non scorching bottom and possibly it can be handled without gloves/bandanna..
As it is designed to work, it should be able to burn at higher temps (so faster and also using poorer fuel) than the non built in fan competitors however it really does not compete directly with anything else.
I suspect that the best use will be for car camping, for guys like hunters and survivalists that like to go out and stay more or less put in the bush and for a small group (say 3 or 4) of hikers where the weight split is possibly better than a light stove plus fuel.
Now having a built in battery will make it difficult for me to do the candle test, that is to determine if a candle is enough to trickle charge the unit, so i will leave that to someone else..
Franco
BTW, the tricky bit of the Peltier power unit is that you need to have a hot and a cold side. Heat is easy enough, keeping the other side cool enough is the problem.
Maybe easy at home holding bits and so on but not so much in the bush
rocketsocks
06-13-2012, 22:50
WOL
I have never returned anything in my life because I believe in personal responsibility...
First this is a good example of perception and reality.
The burner is 540g and the charging/fan bit is 435g however holding them it feels like it is the other way around ..
(it has to do with the size... but only for me if I hold the orange bit on my right hand)
anyway I have in mind that maybe the burner by itself may work somewhat like a Bushbuddy and clones, so it is still heavy but it has a non scorching bottom and possibly it can be handled without gloves/bandanna..
As it is designed to work, it should be able to burn at higher temps (so faster and also using poorer fuel) than the non built in fan competitors however it really does not compete directly with anything else.
I suspect that the best use will be for car camping, for guys like hunters and survivalists that like to go out and stay more or less put in the bush and for a small group (say 3 or 4) of hikers where the weight split is possibly better than a light stove plus fuel.
Now having a built in battery will make it difficult for me to do the candle test, that is to determine if a candle is enough to trickle charge the unit, so i will leave that to someone else..
Franco
BTW, the tricky bit of the Peltier power unit is that you need to have a hot and a cold side. Heat is easy enough, keeping the other side cool enough is the problem.
Maybe easy at home holding bits and so on but not so much in the bushInteresting,I did not know about the cooling side,hmis there a heat sink on the cooling side?Not sure what I read there Franco,but I see now the unit is 2.2 lbs and the loading weight is 8lbs,big oops on my end. 2.2 lbs is certainly packable ....for many.have fun with the new toy.
Wise Old Owl
06-13-2012, 23:02
Well I get the message but implore or beg that you fire it up at home and give the phone or another device a good charge test with it.... otherwise bush buddy will still be king.... so to speak.
Please do the candle test... the built in battery will be ok use a battery charge app and that should be good enough.
Quick update
As a stove it is brilliant.
The first burn took about 15 minutes to boil 1 liter of water however I was fiddling about and let the flame die in between having the starting kindling and then feeding thicker stuff.
(you will see that in the video clip)
I did another couple of burns later and realised how important it is to keep feeding the stove if you don't want any smoke about.
This is the nice bit, once you get a good flame the smoke is almost not there...
On my fourth burn I put the pot on after having fed some bigger bits (about 2 minutes into the burn..) and got a roaring boil (1 L ) at around 9min.
BTW the wood I was using was bits that I collected from the nearby park and not particularly dry nor necessarily good for fire...
Now the not so good bit
I tried a couple of USB LED lights I have , the Bio Lite could not power them up. Then I remembered that my Garmin 60 CSX can be USB powered but that did not work either .
I do not have any other USB powered devices that I can try so not sure as yet what is going on here but it is possible that the BioLite was not hot enough for that even though it did have the "green:" light (USB power OK) on.
I will try again...
Franco
Does the internal battery have to be charged before it can power another device? That's the way it is with my solar charger.
Yes you do need to charge the internal battery.
Here is the video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCsPFuKEl-o&list=UU0PuLUKvG7Fxxex5BMVK4vw&index=1&feature= pl cp
Franco
Wise Old Owl
06-14-2012, 07:58
Nice video Franco - That about answers all my questions
This video will give you a better idea of how it is supposed to work (power out) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cPkNjIy8kk&feature=related
rocketsocks
06-15-2012, 00:54
Hey Franco,glad to see you got her workin,cool.:)uh oh,starting to like it,gotta go now!
Have you been able to get power out of your stove?
Hi
That second clip is not me...
I had another go at it. Charged the internal battery again via computer USB than started the burn and let it burn well past the green "USB OK" setting but I cannot keep my Garmin GPS on nor power up those LED.
I think that possibly those devices all take more power than the Bio Lite can provide but I have seen others powering up somewhat similar gear so maybe mine is faulty.
Anyway I'll keep investigating
(there is some power coming out so for example my Garmin screen comes up for about half a second and then dies again)
Franco
Here is an update...
My Bio Lite was indeed faulty but they sent me another one. That works...
To produce power it needs to have a good fire burning , so no candle power.
Now that I have the Power Pot I have been able to test the idea of charging a LiIon batt first then to use that to power up the other bits, and that works.
The Power Pot (as expected) works only if the water is not boiling and particularly well when it is cold, the colder the better.
So great if you are the guy in charge of melting snow for the troup...
In theory you could use the Power Pot on top of the Bio Lite and charge two devices/batteries at once.
In this video (if you can understand the accent...) I explain how the Power Pot works ;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl94FEYbk6M&list=UU0PuLUKvG7Fxxex5BMVK4vw& index=1&feature=plcp
Franco
Sgt. Snape
08-30-2012, 17:42
I got a Biolite a few months back and I love it! I would never use it for serious backpacking though because of the weight but it's a great thing for car or weekend camping. I do plan to use it for backpacking this winter though when there's enough snow to pull a sled behind me while snowshoeing. Normally I just use my MicroRocket for solo trips.
Do you guys still like the Biolite? We're thinking about getting one.
leaftye
having tested the two devices I have gone another way...
Just to summarise, the Bio Lite is (in my mind) like a self powering but much heavier Sierra Stove that can also produce some power .
So if you are a fan of the Sierra it will work for you.
You can also remove the power generating section and you have a very solid (still over 1 lbs) and stable BushBuddy type stove.
The Power Pot will work with a lower flame but it is really meant to only boil water and not cook with it.
It will probably work well for a few spending some time in huts or in a shelter with a wood stove where feeding the stove is a bit of a pastime.
Could work well melting snow....
17880
Since then I bought a 12000 mAh battery with USB in and 2x USB out .
235g for the battery (8 1/4oz)
This comes with various plugs to power up iThings (including iPad) and various phones or other USB powered devices.
For example I have a AA/AAA batt charger with USB in (AA charger 110g/ 3 3/4 oz)
So with the 12000mAh battery and the AA charger I am still well below the extra weight of the BioLite and PowerPot
Starchild
10-25-2012, 18:35
The nPowerPeg produces even less energy then the bio-stove. You have to walk a long, long time to get just a few minutes worth of charge out of it.
They claim full days AT hike can get a 20% smartphone charge, which ain't bad as that is all one would need using it conservatively, though it is nearly a pound.
Of the three, the thermal electric seems to be the most reliable and has the advantage over solar in that you can use it at the end of the day at night. Since the TEG is removable on the bio-stove, I bet it could also be placed near a camp fire to make electricity.
Thermoelectric uses the difference in temperatures hot side to cold side, not just a hot temperature so I don't think placing it by a campfire would be that effective, a controlled 'stove' fire I would suspect would give a much better cold side.
It won't be used for backpacking, and probably not even for camping, and probably not ever. The family wants a feel good emergency preparedness tool. I proposed this stove as an alternative to a $150 gravity filter that does the same thing as my Sawyer Squeeze and MSR Auto Flow gravity filters. Being that much of the family is addicted to their iPhones, the usb power output was the clincher. I was kind of joking when I suggested the Biolite...
slbirdnerd
03-01-2013, 10:19
Just had a friend tell me about this product and came here first, interesting to see everyone's experience and based on what I'm reading it's not for me, for the trail. One big thing I haven't seen addressed: wet wood. I hear it rains a little on the AT. ;)
Slo-go'en
03-01-2013, 11:49
Just had a friend tell me about this product and came here first, interesting to see everyone's experience and based on what I'm reading it's not for me, for the trail. One big thing I haven't seen addressed: wet wood. I hear it rains a little on the AT. ;)
Wet wood isn't really a problem. The stove burns small sticks and thier easy enough to find either under the shelter from all the wood which gets broken up for the fire pit or on downed limbs. No, the only real problem with the stove is that it's kinda heavy at 2 pounds and you'd have to keep a fire going for a pretty long time to get a useful charge out of it.