Thanks for the video, Andy, really appreciate your input on this. I bought one (a Biolite 2) almost 3 years ago(?) around when this model first came out. Thought I'd share my experience with you. I have used it several times while camping/picnicking with family and friends. I have cooked hot dogs, brats, steak, chicken on the grill attachment, and heated up water for dehydrated food, making coffee, etc. The only thing is that there was a learning curve for me. I used it a few times to get the hang of how much to load the stove, how to use the fan settings, how much twigs, wood chunks, or pellets, etc. to use effectively for the cooking or heating I was doing. Some of that info is in the instruction book (a very small print booklet with lots of pages), however, they do have videos now that explain the lights, the fan use, and the overheating which shuts the unit down so that it doesn't overheat and destroy the electrical part. One still has to experiment with different biomass to get the hang of cooking on it though, but once you do it works great. It is heavy as you said ( I think between 2 and 2 1/2 lbs with grill), so for me, it's not for hiking unless I'm doing an overnighter or short weekend that I want to grill - so that is a personal choice. Open fires are frowned upon where I do a lot of my hiking so this stove (which is okay to use) or obviously another type of stove has to come along, however - the charger on this works perfect for my phone, tablet, and chargeable headlamp, hammock lights, etc. and so I don't have to take a power pack or worry about energy use. That makes it a great choice for those occasions. Now it permanently resides in my car boot (when not in use) with a pound of wood pellets and a small bag of split wood chunks and is magically produced anytime I want to boil water, gril/cook some food, or even have an open fire and I really hadn't planned on doing that sort of thing when I left home. Sorry, this might be too long for a 'comment', but I thought I would share what I've learned from using this as you have shared so much knowledge/information for your subscribers like myself. ATB stay safe.
I got one of these last Year Andy, (minus the Grill) and tested it a couple of times during normal family camping, and I got over 1 hours burn on pellets about 3 quarters full. Very quick to boil a pan of water too. These are very efficient and clean, well worth the money. Nice review!
I like the looks of this and how it works but the sound of the fan....a no-go for me. Same reason I don’t have a jet-boil type stove either. Nice review Andy!
@@kentsurvivalgearreview586 Since I put up with gas stove noise for decades, I could live with this for cooking: modern light doodads would make the battery resevoir much better company than my gas lanterns.
That is one of the most effective camp things I’ve seen yet. Love the electric generation from just doing normal camping stuff. Genius. Thank you for showing that. Oh and that generator would be supreme on a camping wood stove.
I’ve been so close so many times to adding the stove to my basket, it’s great to see a full review on it, I’m still not sure as I love my jetboil which does it all apart from the charge bit, that said I do think you should coin the idea about hot tent application, this would fit right in 👍👍
Its definitely a niche I think, has its place but for some a small power bank is enough. I suggested the hot tent thing to them but I don't think marketing were very interested in passing it along.. id make one if I had knowledge, you can buy thermoelectric generators on ebay.
@@kentsurvivalgearreview586 Could you not just slightly modify an existing hot tent stove, (small hole for the heat sensor and a simple method of attachment), and use the actual Biolite battery pack/fan/charger itself? No reason I can think of why that wouldn't work. The only thing is from what I can tell, they don't sell the battery pack/fan/charger unit separately so, you'd end up buying this stove anyway. But still, can't see why it wouldn't be interchangeable with a modified hot tent stove. 🤷♂️ (sounds like a neat project/video idea for an ambitious and creative TH-camr....*hint hint*😉)
This technology was developed to help prevent respiratory diseases due to the use of wood burning stoves in developing countries - it looks like they are now using the technology more widely. I applaude this. This has wider issues, glaciers in Northern India are becoming so blanketed in black smoke particles from local villages that they are melting due to warming from the absorption of the sun's IR rays.
I prefer wood stove you can also burn coal in them. I have a mine bbq one :) I think it is better than electric one cause electric too much noise and you might attract predators in the forest some want to keep a low profile.
This is just a peltier unit, you could build one or buy a bit of it off ebay as they're used in electric cool boxes, just need to reverse the current. What they should really build is a unit to stick next to a fire to generate power. Take a look on Ebay you can buy the components off there for a fraction of the price.
They also now make a pizza dome kit for their larger base camp burner, solar products and a whole slew of lighting options from headlights to table/tent lanterns and string lights. I have one of their rechargeable headlights and it's brilliant! (pun intended!) SUPER bright with several different settings (dimmable, flash, red light). It's also a very light.....light! I don't even know I'm wearing it most times. Great and pretty ingenious products. 👍 Great review Andy! Hope you're keeping safe and ATB from Nova Scotia 🇨🇦 - Darby
Nice vid' Interesting technology. Very useful in certain situations. I bet you were happy when the fan turned off and that whirring noise went away. I was!! 😁
If bio Lite adressed the fact that you can NOT change the battery, so when (about 1 year ) the battery does not hold a charge any more, all you have is a pricey hobo stove,
That's an interesting gadget, a little bit rich for my budget but it's good to see these things put to the test and who better to do it than you Andy. thanks for the demo :)
this is such a terrible design, since it uses Peltier devices to make electricity, why not put them all around the source of heat? Terribly inefficient. 3:50 I assume the cold side is simply ambient temperature? Why not use water as a coolant? If you fitted it with aluminum CPU coolers and piped cool stream water through it you could have more heat differential, and thus a steadier flow of electricity, though output would be limited by the single Peltier device. For 229 pounds (dunno what that's in USD) I could make a MUCH more powerful design, and so could they. This is a gimmick. you are paying for a bit of control circuitry and a battery attached to a single 5 USD Peltier device. The molded plastic is an unnecessary additional cost, and environmentally unfriendly. Are the metal parts stainless steel? Or Aluminium? How big is the battery pack inside? A single cell? Three? I would LOVE to get them to send me a unit so I can tear it apart.
I rented one of these for a week long back country bicycle trip, August 2018. I was not impressed. Maybe it was because I was over 6000 feet above sea level, and all I had to burn was pine. Nice fire, but hardly any recharge ability. Maybe at a lower altitude and with hard wood, might do better. Good thing I had an Anker Power core battery and solar panel to charge my devices.
I could totally see the biolites for people that live 100% off grid. They still need to charge things. The sound is a bit obnoxious but no more then my svea or coleman white gas stoves. Not like you'd spend hours with your stove running. I've almost bought a few of their products several times since they released them.
I started owning BioLite products with the Campstove2 which you just reviewed and was almost disappointed with it until I tried using wood pellets. Normal twigs or small wood pieces make refuelling the stove a constant demand in your attention and difficult to cook with. Using wood pellets by filling the stove with pellets to about 10-20mm below the heat probe and lighting it on top REALLY solved all problems as you now get a maintenance free fire which burns almost 100% with very little ash and residue for about 45-50 mins. This is perfect for cooking or looking away from it for a couple of minutes without the fire dying. But if you are cooking for groups then the Basecamp stove is truly awesome. We fed our family of 5 for 2 weeks using both stoves and the basecamp one comfortably runs off wood. It really benefits from a small grate to prevent coals chocking up the burn chamber. We use this as our portable bbq and are cooking in 5 mins compared to charcoal bbq’s which have to cool down. It’s better at charging stuff, with a bigger battery and I charge powerbanks with the Basecamp stove. Adding the green egg set of grill grates really helps even out hot spots and cook fantastic tasting food, but I would say the grate is essential for cooking longer than about 40mins. The Basecamp stove fan is also almost silent... I also bought the BioLite lantern as a work light for dark spaces and phone charger if running low. All awesome products with multiple uses.
I carry this same stove packed inside the biolite kettlepot and perculator in my backpack, I've carried it all 2,198 miles last season when we hiked Maine to Georgia. I wouldn't recommend packing the grill part, but i don't have any issues with the weight like some ul hikers whine about but yeah i absolutely love packing this thing , cooks charges my camera,Satellite communicator and my headlamp, its awesome 👌 great review by the way, tip use pine cones and the fire vortex is hotter for boiling water for coffee and i highly recommend the percolator accessorie for the kettlepot
Too noisy. Too weak a charger. Too heavy. Too expensive. Too awkward with damp wood. . I have all this kit from this video. It's a lot of fun to play with, but it's not a practical solution. A simple collapsible firebox will work better... Or do as I do and make hobo stoves from IKEA cutlery holders.
I confirm your statements. I also tested wood pellets in this stove and it is a good option, but I would suggest to use hard wood ones, as they last longer (same as in a wood stove or a fireplace). The difference was really huge. Grill: well, it works, but it remains a small (and bulky!) one :-) Using its lid to control the heat is quite effective. While using the grill, my experience is to refuel it regularly, with a small amount each time, too avoid big flames, as they tend to burn the meat and to bring soot onto it. Hence, a little less wood or pellets will give enough heat but smaller flames. Another way to "control" heat is to observe the grill, as there are different areas, speaking of heat. Typically, the sides are "cooler" :-) Thank you for this interesting video. ATB
I have this as part of my bug out pack. I like it as it burns well with small sticks and pine cones with little or no smoke (won’t draw attention to my location) and brings water to a boil quickly. The ability to charge my phone, radio or gps is a great plus. I don’t carry the grill with me. Sure I can cook with regular fire pit but there maybe situations that I don’t want the light and smoke being seen. To be able to boil water quickly, eat and move on in less than 30min is my goal. Great video for those that have seen the product on the shelf and decide if it fits with their needs. Thanks
It's interesting. It's obviously not a backpacking stove, so I'm curious what the use case is for car camping. If I didn't want to use propane, why would I buy this Biolite stove over a Solo Stove, Firebox, or Bushbox stove? I've seen the Biolite in use and it looked like a struggle to keep it going, especially with the pot on. That may be better now with the newer unit, but it was an issue. I have and use a Firebox Gen2 5" stove when car camping and have a Nano I use sometimes when backpacking. Those stoves are great. Not criticizing the Biolite, just wondering what the sales pitch is and who the intended customer is. Other than being a gear nerd, why would I want one?
No the bigger version was developed for third world countries. This little job is just the camping stove. Dunno how far they have come developing the big version yet! Haven’t heard about it anyway.
Thanks, Andy. I came across this idea - a fan driven stove - a few years ago. It was developed for use in regions that had to use open, smoky fires indoors. The smoke from the traditional indoor cooking fires caused respiratory diseases. This method makes the wood pyrolyse and produce combustible gas that burns much more efficiently with much less of the nasty, carcinogenic smoke. So yes, you can heat hotdogs on a fire in your garden (taking five minutes?), but if you need to cook food INSIDE your (one room?) home taking hours, plus heating water for washing and cooking, that's a totally different prospect! Respect to the inventors! It looks like the system that generated electricity for the electric fan now also charges a battery and provides a 5V USB output.
Big thumbs up for reviewing a Biolite product - (I'm amazed its taken you so long!) They're amazing bits of kit supporting a genuine cause for good. Can I talk up their social responsibility aspect - theres a real issue in developing countries with cooking on open fires - fundamentally (anyone who's gone from a living in a house with a wood burner or multi-fuel stove to an open fire will understand) a closed stove burns so much more efficiently than an open fire ie you need less fuel for the same benefit, but to have a closed stove costs more money up front. Also as noted in another comment they've proved their worth in disaster relief. Yup, not a lightweight camping bit of kit but good fun for car camping - I have the fire pit and it genuinely works as a BBQ and also the fan unit very much helps reduce the 'smoke in the eyes' effect you often get from normal fire pits!
i got a set a couple years ago basically for free at REI with a sale price/credit card rebate combo. Skeptical at first, but it has proven useful. grilling a steak, boiling water for coffee, all on a handful of twigs. The actual usefulness of the charging system however could use some improvements
I had one of these. Hated the stove, but I have to admit the BBQ attachment was pretty good. I got a firebox and never regretted the switch. As for the helping 3ed world countries, I strongly suspect that's just marketing
These stoves were originally developed for the parts of the 3rd World that have to cook indoors on wood burning stoves. They have a high incidence of CO poisoning in those countries and needed a stove that burned the scarce fuel without producing as much CO so it would be safer and would require less fuel gathering. The people in these areas have cellphone service around them and rely on it for communication and news, but they didn't have electricity to charge the phones. They would have to walk many miles to get to a village that had electricity and then wait as their phone charged before walking back. Since these stoves had to generate their own electricity to run the fan it was the perfect way to also charge a cellphone, so they built in the USB port. The ones donated to these people are much bigger, I think, for preparing large family meals and they charge multiple phones as well. I thought they were very cool when I first heard of them and still do.
I've owned this setup for close to 10 years. The charger is not good, better off with a solar charger. The grill works good but if u are burning sticks it's more work then it's worth.Since I went to Jetboil the biolite is a paperweight
Why don't you modify the woodlander and use the generator for it? Especially if you have an extra. You could probably use an angle grinder on the Bio Lite unit and then weld the plate onto the woodlander. Maybe at the rear? Just a random thought.
is the constant humming from the fan as annoying as it sounds like it is? dont know if i could put up with that...i like hearing the sounds of nature when i'm out
My brother has one. We started cooking at the same time. I had a standard charcoal grill. I finished cooking first and we ate what was cooked on my grill. His bio grill didnt cook his meat thoroughly enough after several hours. He gave up and threw it on my grill
Really enjoyed this Andy, seeing this type of kit was really interesting, don’t think I’d go for one just because of the noise. Thank you for showing it 👍🏻😁
Go for it! It’s very useful when car camping to have a 2nd hob. We used the Basecamp for grilling meat and the campstove 2 for the rice and veg with wood pellets. Family of 5 fed for 2 weeks all meals like this 👍
what a load of crap.... buy a firefox stove or similar, if you must get a battery pack and small fan.. as much as I want to believe the battery charges up on the fire I simply don't believe a word of it. what your seeing when the bar moves up is exactly what to expect when you warm up a battery. glorified con job.
Just for me.. theres somethin to cook on.. and somethin efficient that powers its own fan. I dont really care whether itd charge my phone in the scenario Im thinkin about. I really like the video though. Very informative
What happens when you use up the rechargeable battery ? What is the battery life if you use it two or three times a week? Does It end up in the local land fill because this very conscientiously minded company does not provide a easy way to replace the battery after a few years in the field? I know the answers to these questions as it applies to the first models,if you want to spend a couple hundred bucks to find out ......?
Very interesting but have to admit I am torn on this. Part of the reason I head into the woods is to get away from modern life and technology so taking another means of using electrical technology just seems counter-intuitive. But I can also see it being handy for charging a GPS unit for instance. But my god that fan is annoyingly loud and would be a deal breaker for me. Would hate to be out in the silence of the woods and then have that horrid whine droning on like that. It would just kill any relaxation or solitude | was out there for. But cool tech nonetheless.
Just drill a hole in the side of your camp stove and hang this unit on it next time you go camping. nothing special just use unit. and do a re-review with the new mod.
Great video! I’m in the market for a good knife, what type of knife are you using? Especially when your cutting small pieces of wood, any suggestions on a knife? Thanks
Fairly poor review of a really excellent product. Perhaps should have had a bit more experience with it before making the Video or at least read the instructions
I wonder if I could cut the same type of holes on the side of a tent stove and just use the power unit on it if it gets it’s power from the heat electrode
It's the Peltier effect, in this case a temperature difference between the probe in the heat of the flame and the outside produces a voltage and a large current. This is just like a thermocouple, but the thermocouple produces only a very small current (but still a voltage), certainly not enough to charge a battery or power a USB output.
Even after burning for over three hours I could not get my unit to charge up over half way, infact it only lites up three green lights with the fourth flashing away for hours and not any further. This makes it next to useless if you want to charge anything up post cook or later in the evening. Don't bother this gadget is a gimmick, not worth the money. You'll use it once which in validates any chance of a refund then store it at the bottom of a cupboard under an inch of dust.
You're 'mixed grill' worked well (that made me chuckle when you said that) It's really strange you mentioned the tent stove, I wrote to a company a couple of weeks ago that make woodstoves asking them if the tech was available to make a small generator to light a house kitchen with LED's or similar and charge appliances. I haven't had a reply.
Interesting product, its come on since the first edition. I was thinking of a rapid boil system and this would do it without the need for gas canisters and associated waste perhaps.
That is the maddest thing I have ever seen on the grill front. Brilliant, just brilliant tech for remote location villages and hut dwellers. I agree, imagine that on the side of a hut grill, charge the lights, phones or whatever. Amazing.
I like the concept of this Andy a great idea but it’s probably not practice to carry this about for a trekking camp.All the beest pal stay safe 🏴🏴🏴👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Technology quite amazing.... The charged internal battery - how long will that take to charge phone fully out of interest? Like yourself, I'm hoping they come up with one for my Winnerwell stove! :)
I treated myself to one of these and also the base camp pizza oven stove. I was sent a damaged base camp stove by biolite and when I asked to return it and get a replacement the biolite customer service was atrocious. I ended up having to threaten them with trading standards to get them to comply with basic consumer law (replacing something that was damaged on arrival), their last email to me ended with them saying they would send me a replacement but I was never ever to contact them again. Absolutely disgusting! I brought directly from them happy to pay a bit more to support their charitable works, NEVER AGAIN! This replacement worked lovely (athough I had to use a leg from the damaged one (which they didn't want back) as the replacement one they sent was missing a leg!). It worked lovely twice, then about 6mnths later I tried to use it on a camp and the battery had died. There is no way to charge the battery at home (bad design) and I really couldn't cope with dealing with biolite again so that was the best part of £400 wasted I was gutted especially as I had spent so much on the pizza oven lid too. So far so good with the biolite2 (which you can charge from home) and grill, although it is very slow to charge things from. My advice is do not buy direct from biolite and don't waste your money on a base camp stove, with the grill attatchment the biolite2 is plenty, if you want pizza just order one to be delivered.
I have the Campstove and Campstove 2. The 2 charges and the other just has the fan. I also have the grill. I love them. I take them instead of my Coleman dual fuel stoves when I’m not over landing. I don’t do bush craft, and I’m not into ultra light backpacking. I don’t like messing with little propane tanks, that’s why I never considered the Jetboil. I’ve had them for about 3 years, and they work great. I’ve even used them to grill at the house. I’m going to get the Fire pit this spring for at the house.
Love the concept, hate the noise unfortunately. I think the whole idea/technology is still relatively new. I’d like to be able to turn the fan off at times but still have it charge the battery. I’m not a fan of the jetboil or gas stoves because of the noise. I know there’s a time and a place for gas obviously but if I’m relaxing in the woods it has to be a standard wood fire. Thanks got the review Andy, you’ve saved me £230. Hehehe 😉
There’s one other company in Belgium selling this for ages. 😂🎉🤩🪄🛸 A lot of noice in the woods, it seems it is a kind of glam thing, are you really going that way? I hate it already.
I bought one a while back as I was really excited about the idea of turning twigs into electricity... but after a few practice runs in the garden I eventually decided it was just a gimmick really. Too heavy/bulky for backpacking in practice. If you have perfectly dry wood in the right shape and size it works but using twigs often just seemed to generate smoke, noise (from the fan) and not a lot of heat for cooking or electricity for charging. When it came to an actual backpacking / camping trip I just took a BCB Firedragon stove and a powerbank. As you say though it might make sense for a long trip in the wilderness where eventually the weight / bulk / cost of powerbanks might exceed that of the biolite stove.
Thanks for the video, Andy, really appreciate your input on this. I bought one (a Biolite 2) almost 3 years ago(?) around when this model first came out. Thought I'd share my experience with you. I have used it several times while camping/picnicking with family and friends. I have cooked hot dogs, brats, steak, chicken on the grill attachment, and heated up water for dehydrated food, making coffee, etc. The only thing is that there was a learning curve for me. I used it a few times to get the hang of how much to load the stove, how to use the fan settings, how much twigs, wood chunks, or pellets, etc. to use effectively for the cooking or heating I was doing. Some of that info is in the instruction book (a very small print booklet with lots of pages), however, they do have videos now that explain the lights, the fan use, and the overheating which shuts the unit down so that it doesn't overheat and destroy the electrical part. One still has to experiment with different biomass to get the hang of cooking on it though, but once you do it works great. It is heavy as you said ( I think between 2 and 2 1/2 lbs with grill), so for me, it's not for hiking unless I'm doing an overnighter or short weekend that I want to grill - so that is a personal choice.
Open fires are frowned upon where I do a lot of my hiking so this stove (which is okay to use) or obviously another type of stove has to come along, however - the charger on this works perfect for my phone, tablet, and chargeable headlamp, hammock lights, etc. and so I don't have to take a power pack or worry about energy use. That makes it a great choice for those occasions.
Now it permanently resides in my car boot (when not in use) with a pound of wood pellets and a small bag of split wood chunks and is magically produced anytime I want to boil water, gril/cook some food, or even have an open fire and I really hadn't planned on doing that sort of thing when I left home.
Sorry, this might be too long for a 'comment', but I thought I would share what I've learned from using this as you have shared so much knowledge/information for your subscribers like myself. ATB stay safe.
I got one of these last Year Andy, (minus the Grill) and tested it a couple of times during normal family camping, and I got over 1 hours burn on pellets about 3 quarters full. Very quick to boil a pan of water too. These are very efficient and clean, well worth the money. Nice review!
I like the looks of this and how it works but the sound of the fan....a no-go for me. Same reason I don’t have a jet-boil type stove either. Nice review Andy!
I know what you mean.. its about the same noise as a gas stove.. good on long trips for quick boils but not so much for chilling in nature
@@kentsurvivalgearreview586 Since I put up with gas stove noise for decades, I could live with this for cooking: modern light doodads would make the battery resevoir much better company than my gas lanterns.
Unnatural sound?
🤔 just in case volume/weight and especially money won’t matter this one seams to be a funny gimmick to impress 🤪
not really gimmick. ive seen these bout for a few years not and from wot folk hve told me theyre pretty good things to have
I love Biolite stuff. This stove is a melding of our oldest and newest technologies, in a nice useful little package.
That is one of the most effective camp things I’ve seen yet. Love the electric generation from just doing normal camping stuff. Genius.
Thank you for showing that. Oh and that generator would be supreme on a camping wood stove.
I’ve been so close so many times to adding the stove to my basket, it’s great to see a full review on it, I’m still not sure as I love my jetboil which does it all apart from the charge bit, that said I do think you should coin the idea about hot tent application, this would fit right in 👍👍
Its definitely a niche I think, has its place but for some a small power bank is enough. I suggested the hot tent thing to them but I don't think marketing were very interested in passing it along.. id make one if I had knowledge, you can buy thermoelectric generators on ebay.
@@kentsurvivalgearreview586 Could you not just slightly modify an existing hot tent stove, (small hole for the heat sensor and a simple method of attachment), and use the actual Biolite battery pack/fan/charger itself? No reason I can think of why that wouldn't work. The only thing is from what I can tell, they don't sell the battery pack/fan/charger unit separately so, you'd end up buying this stove anyway. But still, can't see why it wouldn't be interchangeable with a modified hot tent stove. 🤷♂️ (sounds like a neat project/video idea for an ambitious and creative TH-camr....*hint hint*😉)
When we were kids you just put your hotdog on a stick and stuck it in the fire. What's next, campfire microwave?
Professional chef's tent next to sleeping tent complete with convection oven pizza oven sterling silver sink and marble countertop? ☺😏
Yep not going to survive without all this stuff and a supermarket nearby this is just a outdoor cooking program
This technology was developed to help prevent respiratory diseases due to the use of wood burning stoves in developing countries - it looks like they are now using the technology more widely. I applaude this. This has wider issues, glaciers in Northern India are becoming so blanketed in black smoke particles from local villages that they are melting due to warming from the absorption of the sun's IR rays.
I prefer wood stove you can also burn coal in them. I have a mine bbq one :) I think it is better than electric one cause electric too much noise and you might attract predators in the forest some want to keep a low profile.
Ingenious device The noise though..... I go to the woods to escape the sounds of the city.
Turn on the fan immediately and it will light right up.
This is just a peltier unit, you could build one or buy a bit of it off ebay as they're used in electric cool boxes, just need to reverse the current. What they should really build is a unit to stick next to a fire to generate power. Take a look on Ebay you can buy the components off there for a fraction of the price.
Nice review, you don’t see these used too often I guess coz of the price tag. The gasification and fan looked good.
The price Tripled...I was going to get one(just the Burner" now it's 150$
They also now make a pizza dome kit for their larger base camp burner, solar products and a whole slew of lighting options from headlights to table/tent lanterns and string lights. I have one of their rechargeable headlights and it's brilliant! (pun intended!) SUPER bright with several different settings (dimmable, flash, red light). It's also a very light.....light! I don't even know I'm wearing it most times. Great and pretty ingenious products. 👍 Great review Andy! Hope you're keeping safe and ATB from Nova Scotia 🇨🇦 - Darby
Always wondered about their stoves, thanks for the video 🤙🤙🤙
Always seen these on the shelves never seen one work before. Another good review
Nice vid'
Interesting technology. Very useful in certain situations. I bet you were happy when the fan turned off and that whirring noise went away. I was!! 😁
If bio Lite adressed the fact that you can NOT change the battery, so when (about 1 year ) the battery does not hold a charge any more, all you have is a pricey hobo stove,
Change them out for lifepo4 batteries, they have a far greater lifespan of 20,0000 cycles! So about 20 years
@@thesurvivalist. agreed , there are better batteries out there but biolite is a sealed unit, you have to break it to get to the batteries
@@beanoc6675 Thanks!
This isn't too bad...especially for an emergency when you dont have place to charge your phone...
Nice intro...nicer than on main channel 🙂
If the unit lasts it lookz like it might be a good unit .
That's an interesting gadget, a little bit rich for my budget but it's good to see these things put to the test and who better to do it than you Andy. thanks for the demo :)
this is such a terrible design, since it uses Peltier devices to make electricity, why not put them all around the source of heat? Terribly inefficient. 3:50 I assume the cold side is simply ambient temperature? Why not use water as a coolant? If you fitted it with aluminum CPU coolers and piped cool stream water through it you could have more heat differential, and thus a steadier flow of electricity, though output would be limited by the single Peltier device. For 229 pounds (dunno what that's in USD) I could make a MUCH more powerful design, and so could they. This is a gimmick. you are paying for a bit of control circuitry and a battery attached to a single 5 USD Peltier device. The molded plastic is an unnecessary additional cost, and environmentally unfriendly. Are the metal parts stainless steel? Or Aluminium? How big is the battery pack inside? A single cell? Three? I would LOVE to get them to send me a unit so I can tear it apart.
I rented one of these for a week long back country bicycle trip, August 2018. I was not impressed. Maybe it was because I was over 6000 feet above sea level, and all I had to burn was pine. Nice fire, but hardly any recharge ability. Maybe at a lower altitude and with hard wood, might do better. Good thing I had an Anker Power core battery and solar panel to charge my devices.
I think it would be around $500 in Aus? Great idea.
I could totally see the biolites for people that live 100% off grid. They still need to charge things. The sound is a bit obnoxious but no more then my svea or coleman white gas stoves. Not like you'd spend hours with your stove running. I've almost bought a few of their products several times since they released them.
I started owning BioLite products with the Campstove2 which you just reviewed and was almost disappointed with it until I tried using wood pellets.
Normal twigs or small wood pieces make refuelling the stove a constant demand in your attention and difficult to cook with.
Using wood pellets by filling the stove with pellets to about 10-20mm below the heat probe and lighting it on top REALLY solved all problems as you now get a maintenance free fire which burns almost 100% with very little ash and residue for about 45-50 mins.
This is perfect for cooking or looking away from it for a couple of minutes without the fire dying.
But if you are cooking for groups then the Basecamp stove is truly awesome.
We fed our family of 5 for 2 weeks using both stoves and the basecamp one comfortably runs off wood.
It really benefits from a small grate to prevent coals chocking up the burn chamber.
We use this as our portable bbq and are cooking in 5 mins compared to charcoal bbq’s which have to cool down.
It’s better at charging stuff, with a bigger battery and I charge powerbanks with the Basecamp stove. Adding the green egg set of grill grates really helps even out hot spots and cook fantastic tasting food, but I would say the grate is essential for cooking longer than about 40mins. The Basecamp stove fan is also almost silent...
I also bought the BioLite lantern as a work light for dark spaces and phone charger if running low.
All awesome products with multiple uses.
I carry this same stove packed inside the biolite kettlepot and perculator in my backpack, I've carried it all 2,198 miles last season when we hiked Maine to Georgia. I wouldn't recommend packing the grill part, but i don't have any issues with the weight like some ul hikers whine about but yeah i absolutely love packing this thing , cooks charges my camera,Satellite communicator and my headlamp, its awesome 👌 great review by the way, tip use pine cones and the fire vortex is hotter for boiling water for coffee and i highly recommend the percolator accessorie for the kettlepot
Too noisy.
Too weak a charger.
Too heavy.
Too expensive.
Too awkward with damp wood.
.
I have all this kit from this video. It's a lot of fun to play with, but it's not a practical solution. A simple collapsible firebox will work better... Or do as I do and make hobo stoves from IKEA cutlery holders.
I confirm your statements. I also tested wood pellets in this stove and it is a good option, but I would suggest to use hard wood ones, as they last longer (same as in a wood stove or a fireplace). The difference was really huge.
Grill: well, it works, but it remains a small (and bulky!) one :-) Using its lid to control the heat is quite effective. While using the grill, my experience is to refuel it regularly, with a small amount each time, too avoid big flames, as they tend to burn the meat and to bring soot onto it. Hence, a little less wood or pellets will give enough heat but smaller flames. Another way to "control" heat is to observe the grill, as there are different areas, speaking of heat. Typically, the sides are "cooler" :-)
Thank you for this interesting video.
ATB
Seems good for certain things but to call it Bio-Lite when reviews I've seen state it's fairly hefty kit. 🤔
Should have been called BioWeighty! 😁
I have this as part of my bug out pack. I like it as it burns well with small sticks and pine cones with little or no smoke (won’t draw attention to my location) and brings water to a boil quickly. The ability to charge my phone, radio or gps is a great plus. I don’t carry the grill with me. Sure I can cook with regular fire pit but there maybe situations that I don’t want the light and smoke being seen. To be able to boil water quickly, eat and move on in less than 30min is my goal. Great video for those that have seen the product on the shelf and decide if it fits with their needs. Thanks
It's interesting. It's obviously not a backpacking stove, so I'm curious what the use case is for car camping. If I didn't want to use propane, why would I buy this Biolite stove over a Solo Stove, Firebox, or Bushbox stove?
I've seen the Biolite in use and it looked like a struggle to keep it going, especially with the pot on. That may be better now with the newer unit, but it was an issue. I have and use a Firebox Gen2 5" stove when car camping and have a Nano I use sometimes when backpacking. Those stoves are great.
Not criticizing the Biolite, just wondering what the sales pitch is and who the intended customer is. Other than being a gear nerd, why would I want one?
Interesting but to much tech. i will stick with my firebox stove. Thank you Andy for taking the time to review this.
No the bigger version was developed for third world countries. This little job is just the camping stove. Dunno how far they have come developing the big version yet! Haven’t heard about it anyway.
Imagine charging your E-Bike with this! Probably only 5V and how many amps? But certainly enough for charging a phone or camera!
Thanks, Andy. I came across this idea - a fan driven stove - a few years ago. It was developed for use in regions that had to use open, smoky fires indoors. The smoke from the traditional indoor cooking fires caused respiratory diseases. This method makes the wood pyrolyse and produce combustible gas that burns much more efficiently with much less of the nasty, carcinogenic smoke. So yes, you can heat hotdogs on a fire in your garden (taking five minutes?), but if you need to cook food INSIDE your (one room?) home taking hours, plus heating water for washing and cooking, that's a totally different prospect! Respect to the inventors! It looks like the system that generated electricity for the electric fan now also charges a battery and provides a 5V USB output.
Big thumbs up for reviewing a Biolite product - (I'm amazed its taken you so long!) They're amazing bits of kit supporting a genuine cause for good.
Can I talk up their social responsibility aspect - theres a real issue in developing countries with cooking on open fires - fundamentally (anyone who's gone from a living in a house with a wood burner or multi-fuel stove to an open fire will understand) a closed stove burns so much more efficiently than an open fire ie you need less fuel for the same benefit, but to have a closed stove costs more money up front. Also as noted in another comment they've proved their worth in disaster relief.
Yup, not a lightweight camping bit of kit but good fun for car camping - I have the fire pit and it genuinely works as a BBQ and also the fan unit very much helps reduce the 'smoke in the eyes' effect you often get from normal fire pits!
I Can not believe how Expensive These got... They used to be 50$. Now it's 140$ just for the biolite
i got a set a couple years ago basically for free at REI with a sale price/credit card rebate combo. Skeptical at first, but it has proven useful. grilling a steak, boiling water for coffee, all on a handful of twigs. The actual usefulness of the charging system however could use some improvements
I had one of these. Hated the stove, but I have to admit the BBQ attachment was pretty good.
I got a firebox and never regretted the switch. As for the helping 3ed world countries, I strongly suspect that's just marketing
These stoves were originally developed for the parts of the 3rd World that have to cook indoors on wood burning stoves. They have a high incidence of CO poisoning in those countries and needed a stove that burned the scarce fuel without producing as much CO so it would be safer and would require less fuel gathering. The people in these areas have cellphone service around them and rely on it for communication and news, but they didn't have electricity to charge the phones. They would have to walk many miles to get to a village that had electricity and then wait as their phone charged before walking back. Since these stoves had to generate their own electricity to run the fan it was the perfect way to also charge a cellphone, so they built in the USB port. The ones donated to these people are much bigger, I think, for preparing large family meals and they charge multiple phones as well. I thought they were very cool when I first heard of them and still do.
Had one for a few years now..
its pretty amazing..
made much coffee and many breakfasts on it..
Not cheap though or real practical !!
I've owned this setup for close to 10 years. The charger is not good, better off with a solar charger. The grill works good but if u are burning sticks it's more work then it's worth.Since I went to Jetboil the biolite is a paperweight
Why don't you modify the woodlander and use the generator for it? Especially if you have an extra. You could probably use an angle grinder on the Bio Lite unit and then weld the plate onto the woodlander. Maybe at the rear? Just a random thought.
is the constant humming from the fan as annoying as it sounds like it is? dont know if i could put up with that...i like hearing the sounds of nature when i'm out
its louder on camera due to the directional mic, but I do agree, if you use gas its no worse
My brother has one. We started cooking at the same time. I had a standard charcoal grill. I finished cooking first and we ate what was cooked on my grill. His bio grill didnt cook his meat thoroughly enough after several hours. He gave up and threw it on my grill
Really enjoyed this Andy, seeing this type of kit was really interesting, don’t think I’d go for one just because of the noise. Thank you for showing it 👍🏻😁
we have the stove and the pia dome bundle base camp kit and love it !! i am a stove junky I want to get this bundle too
Go for it! It’s very useful when car camping to have a 2nd hob.
We used the Basecamp for grilling meat and the campstove 2 for the rice and veg with wood pellets.
Family of 5 fed for 2 weeks all meals like this 👍
what a load of crap.... buy a firefox stove or similar, if you must get a battery pack and small fan.. as much as I want to believe the battery charges up on the fire I simply don't believe a word of it. what your seeing when the bar moves up is exactly what to expect when you warm up a battery. glorified con job.
Just for me.. theres somethin to cook on.. and somethin efficient that powers its own fan. I dont really care whether itd charge my phone in the scenario Im thinkin about. I really like the video though. Very informative
What happens when you use up the rechargeable battery ?
What is the battery life if you use it two or three times a week?
Does It end up in the local land fill because this very conscientiously minded company does not provide a easy way to replace the battery after a few years in the field?
I know the answers to these questions as it applies to the first models,if you want to spend a couple hundred bucks to find out ......?
Very interesting but have to admit I am torn on this. Part of the reason I head into the woods is to get away from modern life and technology so taking another means of using electrical technology just seems counter-intuitive. But I can also see it being handy for charging a GPS unit for instance. But my god that fan is annoyingly loud and would be a deal breaker for me. Would hate to be out in the silence of the woods and then have that horrid whine droning on like that. It would just kill any relaxation or solitude | was out there for. But cool tech nonetheless.
Bought mine for 60 bucks with the grill plate and light pretty happy about the buy.
Just drill a hole in the side of your camp stove and hang this unit on it next time you go camping. nothing special just use unit. and do a re-review with the new mod.
I had no idea this even existed until you mentioned it in another video. Really impressive.
Great video! I’m in the market for a good knife, what type of knife are you using? Especially when your cutting small pieces of wood, any suggestions on a knife? Thanks
I use a condor bushlore, personally I love it, its done everything I need it too
Fairly poor review of a really excellent product. Perhaps should have had a bit more experience with it before making the Video or at least read the instructions
These proved vital in hurrican katrina.power and heat through the debris of disaster
a good point Alan, thanks
Great Review. What a useful piece of kit. Thank You.
I wonder if I could cut the same type of holes on the side of a tent stove and just use the power unit on it if it gets it’s power from the heat electrode
Will it still charge the battery when the fan and the lights aren't on and will it still charge a device when powered off?
Please make a full English with poached eggs
Are you allowed to use something like this at UK camping sites?
Looks great but noisey..👌
yeah, bit blowy haha, I guess not really noisier than a gas stove though
I get it, I really do, it's a fabulous piece of kit but I go into the woods to get away from too much tech. I still keep my phone with me though.😀
it has its place :)
Your thoughts on a wood stove in a camp same as mine ! May get way more power over a way longer time period. Better review than some I watched.
I had no idea this type of thing existed, just seems like black magic
That’s the version 2, I still have version 1!
Pelliter device...
It's the Peltier effect, in this case a temperature difference between the probe in the heat of the flame and the outside produces a voltage and a large current. This is just like a thermocouple, but the thermocouple produces only a very small current (but still a voltage), certainly not enough to charge a battery or power a USB output.
The USB ports ha e been changed recently. Does the stove and the fire pit attachment have the new USB port or an adapter ??
What an extraordinary device!
Any chance you could add a rough idea of prices to your reviews please Andy
That little stove is nifty. Would love to see a long term test and review. Great video!!
Had mine for seven years now where’s everybody been mine still going strong
Very cool! I can see off grid uses ✨👌
Even after burning for over three hours I could not get my unit to charge up over half way, infact it only lites up three green lights with the fourth flashing away for hours and not any further. This makes it next to useless if you want to charge anything up post cook or later in the evening. Don't bother this gadget is a gimmick, not worth the money. You'll use it once which in validates any chance of a refund then store it at the bottom of a cupboard under an inch of dust.
I’ll buy it from you
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🇱🇰🇱🇰🇱🇰🇱🇰
The sound it makes would drive me bananas.
You're 'mixed grill' worked well (that made me chuckle when you said that)
It's really strange you mentioned the tent stove, I wrote to a company a couple of weeks ago that make woodstoves asking them if the tech was available to make a small generator to light a house kitchen with LED's or similar and charge appliances. I haven't had a reply.
A nice bit of kit Andy, thanks for showing it x
Great review brother!
You can go online and buy a thermal generator that goes on a wood stove
Interesting product, its come on since the first edition. I was thinking of a rapid boil system and this would do it without the need for gas canisters and associated waste perhaps.
certainly an efficient burner
£249 for a camping stove
That is the maddest thing I have ever seen on the grill front. Brilliant, just brilliant tech for remote location villages and hut dwellers. I agree, imagine that on the side of a hut grill, charge the lights, phones or whatever. Amazing.
Pretty amazing technology
They have a small wood stove as well runs on wood or charcoal
I like the concept of this Andy a great idea but it’s probably not practice to carry this about for a trekking camp.All the beest pal stay safe 🏴🏴🏴👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Nice. But the noise is a drawback.
Why has this been re-uploaded?
I don't like the noise it makes while camping
You forgot to try grill with fan speed 2 or more
As always a graet revue!
A hot tent stove with this tech on the side would be incredible
was this sponsored? these things eat wood and don't produce that much electric for the price. you are better off getting solar panels
Hi Steven, I don't take sponsorships, just say what I see as a first (well second) impression. Thanks for the info
Ooh hot tent chimney attachment nice to see
Technology quite amazing....
The charged internal battery - how long will that take to charge phone fully out of interest?
Like yourself, I'm hoping they come up with one for my Winnerwell stove! :)
That's brilliant, love it
I treated myself to one of these and also the base camp pizza oven stove.
I was sent a damaged base camp stove by biolite and when I asked to return it and get a replacement the biolite customer service was atrocious. I ended up having to threaten them with trading standards to get them to comply with basic consumer law (replacing something that was damaged on arrival), their last email to me ended with them saying they would send me a replacement but I was never ever to contact them again. Absolutely disgusting!
I brought directly from them happy to pay a bit more to support their charitable works, NEVER AGAIN!
This replacement worked lovely (athough I had to use a leg from the damaged one (which they didn't want back) as the replacement one they sent was missing a leg!).
It worked lovely twice, then about 6mnths later I tried to use it on a camp and the battery had died. There is no way to charge the battery at home (bad design) and I really couldn't cope with dealing with biolite again so that was the best part of £400 wasted
I was gutted especially as I had spent so much on the pizza oven lid too.
So far so good with the biolite2 (which you can charge from home) and grill, although it is very slow to charge things from.
My advice is do not buy direct from biolite and don't waste your money on a base camp stove, with the grill attatchment the biolite2 is plenty, if you want pizza just order one to be delivered.
Absolutely genius this product!!! Didn't even know that existed and I am absolutely fascinated with it!
I have the Campstove and Campstove 2. The 2 charges and the other just has the fan. I also have the grill. I love them. I take them instead of my Coleman dual fuel stoves when I’m not over landing. I don’t do bush craft, and I’m not into ultra light backpacking. I don’t like messing with little propane tanks, that’s why I never considered the Jetboil. I’ve had them for about 3 years, and they work great. I’ve even used them to grill at the house. I’m going to get the Fire pit this spring for at the house.
Love the concept, hate the noise unfortunately. I think the whole idea/technology is still relatively new. I’d like to be able to turn the fan off at times but still have it charge the battery. I’m not a fan of the jetboil or gas stoves because of the noise. I know there’s a time and a place for gas obviously but if I’m relaxing in the woods it has to be a standard wood fire. Thanks got the review Andy, you’ve saved me £230. Hehehe 😉
There’s one other company in Belgium selling this for ages. 😂🎉🤩🪄🛸
A lot of noice in the woods, it seems it is a kind of glam thing, are you really going that way? I hate it already.
I bought one a while back as I was really excited about the idea of turning twigs into electricity... but after a few practice runs in the garden I eventually decided it was just a gimmick really. Too heavy/bulky for backpacking in practice. If you have perfectly dry wood in the right shape and size it works but using twigs often just seemed to generate smoke, noise (from the fan) and not a lot of heat for cooking or electricity for charging. When it came to an actual backpacking / camping trip I just took a BCB Firedragon stove and a powerbank.
As you say though it might make sense for a long trip in the wilderness where eventually the weight / bulk / cost of powerbanks might exceed that of the biolite stove.