Biolite stove

[izzyscout21]

Seen this on-line while checking out some videos and was dumbstruck at the simplicity and massive usefulness of it. A rocket stove that can charge your cell and cook your meal at the same time, truly a modern marvel and one of the best pieces of survival/prep gear i've ever seen. It uses no gas fuel, only natural fuel so no lugging around canisters or bottles just pick up sticks and detritus and burn them.

Sure, the price of $129.00 is a bit high for a rocket stove but it eliminates having to carry a solar charger for your electronics that only work with good full sun. And it's small enough to stow in your I.N.C.H. (I'm Never Coming Home) kit.

Might just be me but i find this thing fascinating and it appeals to my inner geek and outdoorsmen at the same time causing a brain overload and excessive drooling.

http://biolitestove.com/campstove/ca...view/features/ (http://biolitestove.com/campstove/camp-overview/features/)

[Echo2]

A friend of mine got one.....you're gonna have to have a lot of twigs to charge a smartphone.....and a small forest to do a laptop.

Interesting idea though.

[bourneshooter]

Anybody got one and using it in lue of a MSR Whisperlite/Jetboil/Etc?

I just got one, but haven't fired it up to see how it compares yet.

[Sniper-T]

I've had one of these on my list for a while now... gonna have to bite the bullet one of these days

[ElevenBravo]

Notice: The first thing that comes to mind is charging AA batteries for GPS & flashlights, which I think would be a grand idea! However, carrying extra batteries is also a grand idea...

EB

[ElevenBravo]

BTW, it is a thermoelectric system that generates electricity from heat, if you are interested in the technical aspect of how the stove works, its nothing new, but its a nifty application (Biolite) of heat to juice....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltier-Seebeck_effect

I am looking into a way to generate similar/same power from *any* camp fire using only the coupling and nothing else, one of my electronics projects thats been on the back burner for years....

EB

[bourneshooter]

Finally got mine out and used it a few times.

It's not as user friendly as a JetBoil, but it doesn't run out of fuel like the JetBoil would should long term SHTF.

It does have a learning curve, specifically to learn what fuel types in your AO are good for use in it, and what are not. Generally small twigs work best.

Here it is in action.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g33/Mattlevi/Jetboil2.jpg

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g33/Mattlevi/Jetboil1.jpg

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g33/Mattlevi/Jetboil3.jpg

[Evolver]

Did you need to add any more twigs while the water was heating or did it come to a boil with the first batch of twigs?

[ElevenBravo]

Ive got a Whisperlight, tried to fire it with denatured alcohol.. waste of time. As soon as I drained the tank and ran white gas, thing ran like a wonder! Took it hiking and worked like a champ!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhyJYfnDNvQ#t=10m15s

HTH,
EB

[bourneshooter]

You have to keep feeding it fuel while burning to get the water to boil. Learning what fuel's you have burn longest takes practice. I tried some dried sagebrush pieces and they burned fast so I had to keep feeding the fire to get the water to boil.

Wood pellets from a pellet stove, no problems once I got the fire going.

[bourneshooter]

For what it's worth, the Jetboil is still my daily carry stove and backpacking stove, but for long term preps, the BioLite is my plan.