Whip out that Iphone, facebook "wish you were here" with a pic of you and your new stove.

"BioLite stoves produce between 1-2 watts for charging cell phones or LED lights. This valuable off-grid power augments BioLite’s improved combustion benefits."

Biolite Stove

I'll admit it's cool and I kind of want one (if it could actually produce usable electricity).

But for the BW I'll stick with my Trangia and leave the cell phone at home.

that's pretty cool.


reminds me of this tho. happy stove

Cool, but at a lb 10 oz it must be made of cast iron.

I love the concept that it powers its own fan with part of the energy from the burning fuel. I don't see the recharging feature as anything I'd use other than an emergency. The regular stove seems large at almost 2 pounds, but looks like they have a smaller version weighing in at 15 oz.

Since it burns solid fuels, I don't think you can use it during a fireban.

As a self-powering forced air stove... cool, albeit not usable during a fire ban.

As a charger... well it outputs enough energy to power a cell phone charger but only for as long as you are cooking. Plus, you need to connect your electronics to something hot on which you are balancing something like a pot of boiling water. Hmmm... maybe better to stick with a solar panel.

It would also be possible to just get a thermoelectric generator dedicated to battery charging and heat it using the fire. Again, no good during a fireban but we have the fire going longer than we cook on any given night.

Or we could just stick with not charging batteries out there.

it doesn't serve every purpose or meet every need, but it demonstrates innovation in an industry that hasn't changed much in a while.

it is a much better design than the "vital stove" featured in the cool gadgets video. and the generator is genius.

this is one to watch once it hits the market.

carrying no liquid fuel would be very nice...

Isn't the biggest problem with stoves that burn wood soot? There are other stoves- kelly ketle etc. that burn twigs, but all tend to leave a layer of soot on the pots.

If it burns really hot with the forced air then there may be less soot. Someone posted here about a double layer tube stove they built that burned really hot. I think it might have had less soot.

the kelly kettles i've seen are designed to heat water directly, not to heat a pan. so this one appears much more versatile.

watching the demo video the pot they use is pretty sooty underneath. even with the fan, i don't think you can charge a wood fire enough to make it burn as clean as pressurized petroleum products.

to me, the primary advantages of this stove is the freedom from liquid fuel (a huge potential weight savings -- more than enough to make up for the stove's extra weight) and its relative simplicity of design.

i'm still interested...

BTW, I do think it is cool too. We used a littlbug senior woodburning stove one year. Definitely a way to carry less fuel. Problems I had were soot and difficulty simmering. In the end we cooked on the fire a lot which is hugely wasteful of fuel (which isn't an issue in the BW where we have a fire for fun anyway) but allowed simmering by moving the pot to the far end of the grate from the hot part of the fire. Possibly the best thing about this stove is that selling them to campers may help fund supplying them to their real market which is 3rd world areas where wood has gotten scarce near villages. Then the ability to burn wood very efficiently without using any batteries is huge.

quote andym: "If it burns really hot with the forced air then there may be less soot. Someone posted here about a double layer tube stove they built that burned really hot. I think it might have had less soot."

What is cool about this stove is it has a self-powering blower. Alot of these small (4" diameter) TLUDs have a blower hooked up to a battery pack. The only problem is that water and electricity don't mix and alot of times things end up getting wet in the BWCA.

Stoves in the 4" diameter category benefit quite a bit from a blower, but I have found that increasing the size eliminates any need for additional forced air. My two-bucket homemade version behaves like a forge and will burn wood that is green or soaking wet.

Any of these stoves are going to put soot on your pots regardless of how hot they burn. Such stoves are generally smokeless, but they still leave carbon deposits.

As far as the cell tower is concerned, it will probably be easier to dump the iphone and go with a Blackberry and some extra batteries. IMHO, even Daniel Boone would have brought up Weather Radar if he had been able to.

Cliff - thanks for reminding me about the soot with your stove. Still like it. Still going to stick with gas. I just don't like soot on my pots. And I like to simmer things. But I do love seeing all these different sorts of stoves.

I bet if you wre to put a few chunks of a radial tire in that forced air stove you could create enough heat to cast alluminum at your campsite, either that or boil water really really fast.

quote andym: "Still going to stick with gas. I just don't like soot on my pots. And I like to simmer things. "

Me too. In the picture you can probably see my Coleman Green Suitcase in the upper left corner. However, sitting around the suitcase in the evening just isn't quite the same.

quote mr.barley: "Since it burns solid fuels, I don't think you can use it during a fireban."

this is true.

4 ounces, 2 lung blower just like the old days. Afterthought, great design, aluminum flashing material was not heavy enough, pretty much turned to rubber after the first burn.


I am going back to the coffee can approach. Cheap and lightweight. Ashes in face as needed.