Biolite Stove: Review

OK so a camp stove with a USB port is a little outside the realm of traditional bushcraft but it can be a nice luxury item and in times and places where open fires are banned it is a nice alternative.

I started following the Biolite company before they even had their stoves ready for sale. I liked the idea of a simple stove that could also charge my phone and help with global development.  So it was not to long after they came out for sale that I purchased one.

The stove is great for boiling water or frying something quickly. However it is not something where you have a lot of control over the heat. There are only 2 fan settings: Hi or Low so any other control will be based on how much fuel you add and how close to the flame you put things. It does cook well with the use of very little wood.  However it will only charge my kindle not my phone and when it charges the Kindle it only charges it part way. So it has not been a solid charging option for me.


I have had the stove for a few years now and it is starting to show its age. It has a crack in plastic. The tin backing on the fan unit cracked and I had to patch it. Yet so far it continues to work as well as it did out of the box and I plan to keep using it as long as it does. What kind of stoves do you use?

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