Some Observations
It’s a proper fire! When the cooking’s done, the tea’s made and the marshmallows toasted I still found myself reluctant to put the stove out as it was pleasant to just sit in front of it. Plus the stove actually keeps you warm. Sitting outside with it for 30 minutes while cooking kept me quite comfortable, even with the ambient temperature dropping to 9°C. Collect more fuel than you think you’ll need, trust me on this.

I raced the Biolite against my trusty MSR Whisperlite and the Biolite Stove could boil 1 litre of water (initial temperature 15°C) in 6-7 minutes compared to the Whisperlite (burning Shellite/White Gas) boiling it in 5.5 minutes. The Biolite Stove could be up and running and ready to heat water in 2.5 minutes (vs 2 minutes with the Whisperlite) so they’re both great for a quick cup of coffee on the side of the trail. Once the ashes were tipped out (and extinguished of course) the Biolite Stove was cool to touch within 5 minutes courtesy of its fan.

You can pick the stove up while it’s running by grabbing the orange power unit, so theoretically you could start the stove outside and bring it inside a hut when it’s up and running and burning cleanly. The fan-forced fire does mean there is almost no smoke, but there is still a slight smoky smell. Strangely it smells a bit like a steam train which greatly tickled my nostalgia. You’ll also need covered cookware to keep out the ash, and the base/sides of your cookware will go black.

Although you won’t need to carry fuel with the Biolite Stoves, you’ll still need something like a small folding saw or knife to split sticks. Fire-lighters were very handy as well. I managed to start the stove with dry grass and small sticks, but with a fire-lighter I was up and running and ready to cook with a lot less smoke in my face.

Just because you can charge your phone with your camping stove, doesn’t mean you should. Aren’t you camping to get away from everything? In my experience, for the Biolite Stove to fully recharge a phone you will probably need to keep it running for 3-4 hours, but you’ll still need to switch it off and empty out the ash periodically. I think it’s way more useful to use it with a little LED light as a light supply for the campsite. You will also want to pack a long USB cable and/or a heat-resistant case for your phone if it’s going to be charged for any length of time.

Conclusion

The Biolite Stove is an inspired device and the Biolite people have got so much right with their first product. The Biolite allows you a lot more flexibility when you travel and frees you from the tyranny of batteries and solar chargers should you decide to carry technology. It would be great if the Biolite had its own built-in LED work light to assist with cooking at night, especially as the stove works quite well sitting up on a table but suspect it may compromise the charging ability.

Mountaineers need not apply, obviously. The stove needs dry wood to burn properly so I’d say it’s useless above the tree-line, or in a rainforest. Never having lived in a snowy climate I can’t comment on its ability in conditions below freezing but my guess is this is a temperate area stove. The stove isn’t for everyone and may not be for all climates, but for weekend hikers or short stays in nice weather it’s the perfect stove to get away from it all. Biolite are selling them now for US$129 so grab one before the first lot runs out. Highly recommended.

Continue Reading… 1 2 [View All]