Camping. Hiking through the foliage and across the rocks, sitting by a placid lake watching eagles dispatch fish that swim too close to the sky. Fresh air, beautiful vistas, eating alfresco. Lovely. And then night falls. Once the fire is down to smolder and ash, and darkness surrounds you like a cold, damp blanket, out come the sounds. The chirps and buzzes and the rustle of leaves, the snapping of twigs and breaking of branches, the clatter of your campsite being flipped upside down and then the hollow bellow of some huge, unidentified land mammal close enough to flutter your tent flap! How is one to cope with the menace that is nature after dark? Why, music through headphones of course. And how is one to make sure that your battery stays charged night after cacophanous night? The Biolite CampStove.
Now I have to admit that I misunderstood this little marvel at first glance. I thought it was just a stove with a gizmo that used fire* to charge your USB stuff (Phones, GPS, flashlights and MP3 players) but it is more than that. Using dry sticks and twigs for fuel, the Biolite Stove not only charges your gadgets, but it also powers a little two speed fan that feeds oxygen into the burn chamber, making your fire hotter and more efficient while keeping you from having to blow yourself dizzy trying to get things going. Making the fire was easy enough, using some dry twigs and a couple of pages from one of the four different instruction manuals that came with it (it also comes with some fire starter sticks (stinky!)). After the fire is lit for about ten seconds, you push the power button to start the fan at low speed,which turns the flicker to flame pretty quick. Once the fire is hot, click it into high and it turns flame into a little rocket. On my first attempt, I had water boiling in about 4 ½ – 5 minutes. After about ten minutes the orange power light turned green, meaning the power module was ready to charge. I plugged in my phone and the familiar tone let me know it was charging. Everything worked well, but the little burn chamber is fuel hungry, so it went through my pile of twigs pretty quickly. Other than that, the power module needs to be charged for about six hours before the first use. They say that if you use it at least every six months, that you should only have to do this once.
All in all, The Biolite CampStove is a nice little multi-use gadget to bring along camping or to keep in the car or fallout shelter, in case you need to charge your ipod and drown out the howler monkeys, wolves or air raid sirens, so you can get some sleep. Or make a nice cup of tea.
The Good:
- Compact
- Lights easily
- Fan stokes the fire
- Charges your stuff
- Lots of extra manuals for kindling
- Not just for camping
- Looks like a spaceship
The Bad:
- Fuel hungry
- Have to remember that first time charge
- Man those fire starters stink
The BioLite CampStove – $130 on Amazon
The More You Know: While thermoelectric generators are typically less efficient than their mechanical counterparts (Sterling engines), they are smaller and less prone to breakdown. That is why they are often used in spacecraft, including the Mars Curiosity Rover, which uses nuclear material for heat instead of dry twigs. Not many twigs up there I suppose.
Boring stuff: All images via Biolite.com. BioLite provided me with a review sample of the camp stove. This in no way effected my opinion or review.