Review on 🔥 BioLite CampStove 2: Efficient Wood-Burning Camp Stove with Electricity Generation & USB Charging Capabilities by Chris Wheeler

Surprised by the lack of reviews on Amazon. I bought this Biolite 2 camping stove kit from REI. I also have a small round Ohuhu rod oven (about $20 on Amazon) and a light oven (about $40 from Merkwares, also on Amazon) that I will weigh in the test. The Biolite 2 kit at REI was on sale last summer for $150, so I'll include that price as well. Combustion chamber)Kettle with blue lidFrench press for kettle (coffee, tea)Grill + lidUSB lightPlastic bowlBefore looking at each item, I notice how it is packaged: an electronic device flops directly into the stove's combustion chamber, and this combustion chamber is placed in a bag for things they put up. This will help keep the creosote from getting on your gear when you pack it. The electronics chamber + combustion chamber in the stuff sack fits perfectly into the kettle, even with the coffee/tea press underneath. The long handle of the French press unscrews and you can place it next to the stove in the kettle and the lid fits over the stove and presses into the kettle. With this arrangement, the plastic cup will not fit unless you remove the press. The grill has a plastic lid which is great for keeping soot off your gear or car. I doubt many people will carry a grill attachment with them on camping trips. It's just more. Overview of each: Campstove 2: (Electronic) The electronic part is mainly used as a fan, has 4 fan speeds that fill the combustion chamber with air so that everything that burns in it burns almost to the ground. For a small combustor, this is a good design. It has a built-in battery that can "charge" your phone. It can bring me about 40-50% charge. If the battery is exhausted from charging, it will take several hours. I mean hours. HOURS of branch power to charge the battery with thermal energy. For example, do you want to sit at your campsite for 6-8 hours, constantly feeding twigs, hoping to keep the temperature warm to recharge your batteries? To be honest, it's basically just made to power a small LED light while cooking and a built-in fan. Bring a 21W+ foldable solar panel if you want to charge your phone and use the stove when it's night time and you want to charge your phone, then use the solar panel to charge this stove's electronics during the day. Campstove 2 with kettle and tea strainer: 5 stars for this piece. The kettle is made for this stove. As you can see in the picture it sticks out about an inch from the bottom of the kettle, with 6 holes (in 3 places) so you can direct the flame away from the electronic device. The grips are silicone and I wonder how long they will last. Heavy use of the kettle may require packing a leather glove to pick it up if the handle wears out over time. In any case, if you light a flame and pour some water into the kettle, the flame will come out of the holes in the bottom of the kettle. This is where the design of the cooker shines. - Cleaning with a kettle is very easy, very little soot and everything is just on the bottom, since the kettle shoots hot flames from the bottom and from the sides, it doesn't dress the sides of the kettle with soot. Just a little staining on the bottom when using. Emberlit Comparison: The Emberlit stove is full of soot after use, smells like a campfire at home when you want to clean it because you 5 pieces of metal along with your persilator or pan (whatever water you use) with soot need to clean from all sides accumulated on the sides. For coffee/tea or water, soup, whatever you cook in the biolite 2 kettle, you have less soot to remove. - compared to Ohuhu: the same with Emberlite, but you have a round oven to remove the soot from all parts, and whichever pot you use, the soot is close by. To me, the kettle is what earns this Biolite stove 5 stars for quality. On the grill: I cooked chicken thighs over an open fire and on aluminum foil. It takes about an hour or an hour and a half to be sure. Aluminum foil helps. Pre-cooked hot dogs are reheated and shared almost instantly. The grill will cook unevenly, closer to the fire means the side will cook first. Remember it's on the side of storage so you can only place a limited amount and the more you put on it the less room to move things. Feeding: The grill uses a piece of steel covering the top to spread the flame and cut off the air, it pushes it towards the grill (because the fan moves the flame away from the electronic device). The grill will get too hot on the 3rd and 4th fan speed, so it's best to leave it on fan speed 1 or 2 as instructed. It does the job. This is a good amount of soot to clean. To be honest I haven't seen anyone walk long distances with him. It will be best for auto camping and probably not in bear country. Because the grill is above the stove, you have about 3 inches of room to feed the fire with sticks. Just remember that you have to close this lid to spread the flame, so again the branches have to be small. enough Emberlit has a little grill you can get too but good luck if you can put a lot of things on it. However, it is much more packable. Biolite convinces on the grill with its easy handling. Can't think of how it could be improved on the way it is what it is, I would give it 5 stars for the design. USB Backlight: Uses touch sensitivity to turn on or off and touch and hold to adjust brightness to change. release when desired brightness level is reached This is a USB backlight, works for what it is, 5 stars I believe. My general thoughts: I would give this 4 stars and emberlit 5 stars, here's why: - Biolite is well built, steel, although it has electronic equipment that can fail and needs a new furnace at this point (definitely which would be if scenario) - Biolite has a small combustion chamber that is only fed from the top, nothing can be done about it, adding a feed hole messes up the whole construction - Biolite can turn into smoke very easily due to the small combustion chamber if you don't have it Very good quality dry wood, I use what I have on hand and if it has rained recently there will be some moisture in the wood that needs to be burned off. out. This is life. How it is. I like the stick oven for seeing nice flames and cooking food. Emberlit shows the flame very well, like a small campfire, just enough to warm up. I can stack sticks on the coals to make the flames higher. Biolite not. Biolite has 1 purpose: super efficient burning and fast heating of a kettle for a hot cup of coffee with some creosote for cleaning. I love it for that purpose. It's great to be able to put something in the house and not smell too much of creosote like I do with Emberlite. One star is deducted mainly because of the price. At $150 on sale, there it is. At the regular price of $200, that's a lot higher. If you're thinking about buying, think about it: you're buying one and not the other. If you need a good pack for occasional grilling and quick coffee brews and don't need to see those nice high flames, get this one. If you don't mind getting a little dirty or dealing with soot, get Emberlite or something from that cheap brand. With Emberlite, you don't have to worry about burning electronic equipment if you stack your sticks higher than the stove. You only get more soot to clean. At $150 I'll keep it for what it's worth and use it a lot, but I still love Emberlite for hiking and for making a decent blaze without a full campfire. The Biolite 2 is a great kettle, just consider whether it's worth the cost as you will be using it primarily as a kettle to make coffee. How much does a coffee maker cost? Update 2 years later: I just ordered a second one of these biolithic camping stoves and increased my rating to a 5. I just got a message that I have 100 helpful reviews on this product. Note. This advice is based on my 2 year experience - if you are in a dry climate you may not experience the problems described above. Minnesota has a lot of rain and is cold (very very cold) (slightly below 60) for 6 months. We often only have wet firewood to burn. I found a solution that works here too. I used it on a road trip where I drove to and from the west coast in my car/tent for 3 and a half weeks and survived quite comfortably. (wasn't at campsites except 1 day out of 3 ½ weeks). You can get a 40 pound bag of hardwood pellets at a large store near you (call and ask for prices). Just ask for the ones you burn in a pellet stove to heat your home and the staff will show you where they are. I found Navy Farm had a 40 lb bag of pellets for $4.69, other large stores had 5 and some loose change. They burn and clean surprisingly well in a Biolite 2 camping stove. With the fan speed set to 1, you can burn it 3/4 (just below the top of the holes in the combustion chamber) for about 45 minutes. This is helpful if you plan to use the device to charge your phone with firewood, as you don't have to add branches throughout the 45-minute burn. Blackouts/failures in the normal power grid are possible. A 40 lb bag fills 2 5 gallon pallets pretty well and I can cook all summer with just 1 bag of pellets. Last tip: The Dollar Store is your friend. $1 lighter, $1 cotton swab, $1 petroleum jelly. Dip 2-3 cotton balls in the jelly and remotely light it on the pellets and you don't have to look at the stove for 45 minutes. Enjoy.