BioLite Camping Stove

[mark9atq]

Been thinking about what can be done with endless 5volts at 400mA from the Biolite Stove out in the ZPAW.

An ultra-bright USB LED light. Not some dim little thing but a new cutting edge CREE LED that'll need a heat-sink
to cool it because it puts out so much light. Good for spotting zombies as they try to infiltrate the fighting position.

Dealextreme has a variety of USB light that could do the job if you don't have time to hack together something yourself.
http://s.dealextreme.com/search/3w+led+usb

[zombiepreparation]

I have the USB cables that came with my phone, the LED lights from a laptop bag I bought, and as for length I would just say be careful and walk around it not over it lol.

The LED lights from a laptop bag? I don't think I understand what that means.

I thought of you and this post when I went to the Dollar Tree a couple of days ago. I found a little LED light meant for attaching to a laptop that must be somewhat if not exactly the type you refer to here.

I would never have noticed it if you had not brought it up!

[zombiepreparation]

An ultra-bright USB LED light. Not some dim little thing but a new cutting edge CREE LED that'll need a heat-sink
to cool it because it puts out so much light. Good for spotting zombies as they try to infiltrate the fighting position.

Dealextreme has a variety of USB light that could do the job is you can't hack together something yourself.
http://s.dealextreme.com/search/3w+led+usb

Oooo... another "I want" thing. Not today but definitely in my dream 'want' book. Thanx for the link.

[mark9atq]

Well the day I thought would never come is here.

Biolite sent notification; said the stove is shipped and in transit. Could be
in my hands soon if the global delivery system does not collapse in the next hours!!!

[ineffableone]

Well the day I thought would never come is here.

Biolite sent notification; said the stove is shipped and in transit. Could be
in my hands soon if the global delivery system does not collapse in the next hours!!!

Yay, looking forward to hearing your impressions of it once you have it.

[Jamie]

I was interested in both this project and "The Powerpot" but went with the powerpot because I already have a bunch of stoves, and can use the pot on any of them, or just on a fire.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/120 ... ?ref=email - kickstarter page on powerpot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oGXYLuCbiI - a video of the powerpot

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=92881&p=2125645#p2125645 - the ZS thread on powerpot

The biolite just looked too breakable and likely to tip over to me...lots of parts that all have to work...

Jamie

[Bonecrusher Doc]

After you eat the food you cooked on the stove you can put the leftovers in the fridge...

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/accessories/96b3/

[mark9atq]

OK! It arrived. Its not vapor-ware anymore.
Its real and its shiny and nice looking. Feels solid.
The steel looks like high chrome content stuff. Just like quality silverware.
(To resist oxidation at high temperatures unlike soup can steel)

And Jack-Pot!!! The power unit part can be opened with a screw driver!
Waiting for the wind to die down outside to fire it up.

[ineffableone]

OK! It arrived. Its not vapor-ware anymore.
Its real and its shiny and nice looking. Feels solid.
The steel look like high chrome content stuff. Just like quality silverware.
(To resist oxidation at high temperatures unlike soup can steel)

And Jack-Pot!!! The power unit part can be opened with a screw driver!
Waiting for the wind to die down outside to fire it up.

Congrats, remember to take lots of pictures

[Florida_Tony]

OK! It arrived. Its not vapor-ware anymore.
Its real and its shiny and nice looking. Feels solid.
The steel look like high chrome content stuff. Just like quality silverware.
(To resist oxidation at high temperatures unlike soup can steel)

And Jack-Pot!!! The power unit part can be opened with a screw driver!
Waiting for the wind to die down outside to fire it up.

Pics or it didn't happen

[mark9atq]

One overlooked spec I've -discovered is that a 24oz PBR will just fit into the fire chamber with 2in sticking out.


Cooked a pot of Ramen noodles on it and found it only burned 64grams weight of wood -about a hand full of sticks
each about 4 inches long.

Timeline

0-2mins
kindled a fire inside. watched the flames grow with fan on low.

2-7mins
placed pot on stove, switched fan to high speed and brought to boil. Was feeding a thin stick into fire every 30 seconds.
When boiling started I stopped feeding anymore wood into the fire.

Note at 3min
USB POWER SUDDENLY COMES ON! Phone beeps as it starts BioLite charging.
I unplug phone at 10 minutes when the flames die down to coals, having proved it will charge.

18mins
Fan stops by itself. Tiny amount of white ash inside stove. Carbon is gone! Begin to eat noodles. I could have started eating
earlier but was taking notes.

23mins
Stove is cool to the touch. Dump out ashes.

[mark9atq]

Just for review: heat from the fire in the BioLite stove is converted to electricity 5volt @ 400mA to USB charge gadgets
by a beautifully designed power management system. Meanwhile the excess heat can be used to
boil water or cook as well as the best fossil fuel stove on the market. Note: the fan is not loud at all
and will not attract zombies.

removed 6 screws to see whats inside.

[proteus]

Still waiting on mine to ship and now I want it even more so!

[mark9atq]

The Biolite Camp Stove's tripod legs.

[mark9atq]

BioLite camp stove reviews are showing up on Youtube.

[zombiepreparation]

Note: the fan is not loud at all
and will not attract zombies.

Whew!!!

GREAT REVIEWING! GREAT PICS! Pa-leeze, keep cooking & reporting. I will, I WILL, get one of these... some day. Until then I am living vicariously with those of you who are getting one. <just a small sniffle & whine>

[mark9atq]

Thanks ZP'

side note
--Soot removal from the bottom of cooking pots used over wood fires is made extremely easy if you first coat the entire
outside of a 'DRY' cooking pot with liquid dish soap. -no water-just pure soap- After the first use on a fire the carbon black soot will stabilize this
protective under layer of soap making storing and backpacking the now black cooking pot in a bag ok so it will not rub the protective soap layer
off.

Note my noob mistake here of not coating the entire outside. An SOS pad hardly makes an impression on the soot
now coating the un-soaped upper wall part on my cooking pot while the lower part came clean easy with a plastic dish scrubber.

[bruceson74]

got mine today before work. had the first fire tonight. FYI dont use crushed up paper to start it. it blocked the air flow. lol as soon as i used a stick to move it to the side, it took right off along with some arm hair

ooo and it power up my goal zero lune LED light bar

also found out the the MSR 475 ml stowaway pot can just barely sit on top of the stove. you can make it work, but bump it just a little and you might find out how much the fan pack doesn't like water.

[ineffableone]

Looks like enginer775 was excited about these, here is his video about getting one

[mark9atq]

In an effort to save some weight I hacked together various battery charge adapter plugs to make one zombiefied integrated cable mess to plug into the Biolites
USB port.

Its very basic and requires close monitoring while in active battery charge mode. It violates many safety rules but not all that worried because
if you walk away from the Biolite to do something for more than 10 or so minutes the charging will stop as the fire burns out and that will prevent any overcharging.

It will charge my 3 aaa headlamp batteries, a camera battery (one of those flat Canon 3.7volt Li-ion), and a cell phone--
Weight 3.25 oz.

[mark9atq]

The Biolite stove is 'hot. Its not just a simple water heater like my previous alcohol stove so am rethinking menu items.

Before the alcohol stove was using a white gas Whisper-Lite -(shaker-jet) that was ok on fuel consumption but
after a cook shaking the fuel bottle and feeling how much lighter it was seemed a vague concern at best.

Now with the Biolite only have to worry about how light the food bag is getting when in the bush.

Experimented cooking real rice with the Biolite today
. Tried one cup of rice and 3 cups of water. Once it started to boil
I left the cover off to prevent overflows. -just in case I did not add any salt while cooking- hot salt water splashed
on hot steel is a corrosion multiplier. This $129 gadget might last a while if I take a few simple precautions.

Anyway rolling boiled the rice for about 12 minutes, adding sticks every few minutes to keep fire hot.
After the rice had absorbed enough water to be like a thick stew consistency stopped adding wood
and was able to place the lid on without danger of boil over.

A lot of water evaporates during this type of rice cooking.

After about 18minutes with the rice sitting on the still warm Biolite it was cooked (normal fluffy) and ready to eat.
Got lucky none was burned to the bottom of the pot.

[GOODdaysir]

So I see the general attitude is that its really good?

[Jamie]

Most of the reviews/films I've seen are inside or backyard...I'm interested in seeing what people are saying 6 months from now, when the biolites have been backpacked and hiked and bashed and used in the rain and cold...used 10-20 times...they seem to have lots of little parts that all have to play nicely with each other to cook food and charge electronics...

Jamie


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[TacAir]

Most of the reviews/films I've seen are inside or backyard...I'm interested in seeing what people are saying 6 months from now, when the biolites have been backpacked and hiked and bashed and used in the rain and cold...used 10-20 times...they seem to have lots of little parts that all have to play nicely with each other to cook food and charge electronics...

Jamie



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Well, The Epicenter has the

"It looks like a cooking pan, but it’s really a fire-powered DC generator with a USB charging output!

The Hatsuden Nabe (roughly translated as electricity producing pan), uses thermo-electric technology to convert heat energy into electrical energy and charges USB devices.

At the heart of the Hatsuden Nabe is a thermoelectric generator module (TEG). A TEG is a device that creates a voltage when there is a different temperature on each side of the device. This TEG is made with materials developed in Japan for recovering waste heat in industrial applications and is capable of operation at extremely high temperatures, like found in a wood camp fire. "

basically a pot with a Peltier–Seebeck cell on the bottom. 119 USD, so the price point and output is nearly the same....