Biolite Campstove --Efficient, Low Smoke, Wood Conserving & Charges Cell Phone, light

[Amaranth]

A camp stove has been developed to use wood very efficiently, reduce smoke significantly, and also charge your cell phone, run lights and more.

It's designed for camping as well as household use in areas without electricity.
Recently they have also developed an oven to go on top of the grill so you can bake things including pizza.

http://www.bioliteenergy.com/products/biolite-basecamp

There's also a lighter version for backpacking.

[bae]

I will be blunt.

These are crap.

They are built/designed for the hip-and-trendy wealthy REI set, who like to buy expensive shiny items so they can dream about their rugged woodsy expeditions. This gear does *not* hold up in the field for extended use, and there are far better solutions available.

Biofuel stoves rock, get a good one, or make one yourself. Generating power in the field is good, the Biolite isn't a particularly good solution. Powerfilm solar panels are a much better approach, for instance.

And learn to substitute skill/knowledge for shiny gear.

[Amaranth]

Have you known people to have trouble with the biolite in particular or this design idea in general?

Which are your favorite biofuel stoves for larger group base camping and for 1-2 people backpacking?

[bae]

Have you known people to have trouble with the biolite in particular or this design idea in general?

I'm an engineer. And spend a lot of time in harsh conditions outdoors doing search/rescue, archeological expeditions, hunting, or just hunting.

The biolite screams trouble - it's too heavy, has cheezy plastic parts, is fragile, and isn't field-repairable.

I borrowed one to evaluate, and wasn't impressed, I'd rather have a better cookstove, and a better power generation source (I use Powerfilm for this, and LiFePO4 batteries).


Which are your favorite biofuel stoves for larger group base camping and for 1-2 people backpacking?

I have had great luck with the products from:

Four Dog Stoves
Solo Stove
Kelly Kettle

If you relax the biofuel requirement, the MSR Microrocket and the Jetboil are great things to have along.

The Bushcooker series from Four Dog is silly efficient, and insanely light weight, a handful of twigs was sufficient for this:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88BJEglYKII

[Amaranth]

Thanks for the info about the stoves and solar option.

With the bushcooker, do you load it up with twigs and then cook or can you feed in more twigs as needed?