Biolite’s efficient camp stove can charge your phone

Some ideas are flat-out cool, like a camp stove that burns easily-obtained fuel from your campsite and charges your phone while cooking your dinner in the backcountry.

The team at Biolite is on a mission bigger than just getting your camp dinner cooked with whatever biomass is handy in the camp woods—their goal is to bring EnergyEverywhere. We go off-grid for fun, but Biolite is helping people who live off the grid in other parts of the world.

The Biolite Campstove 2 burns biomass––think dry pine cones and twigs to crumbled cow patties and wood chips. The rechargeable battery-powered integral fan moves fresh oxygen over burning fuel for a more efficient burn, thus reducing the amount of smoke. The thermocouple jutting into the stove’s firebox generates electricity to recharge the battery. A USB outlet in the battery can be used to charge your phone, light the Biolite cook top with a FlexLight while cooking or charge the battery for later use while the fuel burns. 

The base Campstove 2 functions as a cooking base with your existing camp gear pots, or you can purchase the expanded Campstove 2 Bundle, which comes with kettle, grill, bowl, FlexLight, short charging cables, cover and gear bags. The specially designed kettle with a tight-fitting lid sits perfectly on the stove for efficient heating of liquids. The small grill fits over the fire box, and the diffuser helps heat the stainless steel grate evenly. A small stainless steel lid flips up to allow refuelling of the stove while grilling. The special lid completely encloses the grill when cool and folded flat so charred satay sauce doesn’t mess up the rest of your camping gear.  Everything else fits in two nylon bags that come with the pack.

I used the Biolite Campstove 2 Bundle recently and found the stove boiled water quickly and the Korean barbecue skewers grilled up with a lovely char. The kettle boiled on one load of wood chips from my campsite but I did have to refuel the stove during the grill session. And all the while I charged my phone.

Mountain Equipment Co-op retails the Biolite Campstove 2 with FlexLight for $174.95, and the Campstove 2 Bundle for $279.95. Consider the fact that you will never need to buy or dispose of fuel canisters for this stove when making a purchase decision.

This stove is a clever idea, the result of a couple of bright minds determined to find a solution to packing fossil fuels into your remote camp, while at the same time creating a USB charger for phones and other devices when off-grid.