Biolite output testing video

[Andy BB]

I've looked at a lot of videos re the Biolite stove, and this one is one of the best I've seen - the guy actually seems to know what he's talking about. also looks at the pot-charger. Don't know if he's connected to the pot-charger company or not, so caveat emptor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58b8Acjwtl4&feature=player_detailpage#t=499s

 

[Wook]

So it looks like the cup charger is superior for charging. I'm not too worried though.

I've got a Biolite on order. The reason I bought it was I had one of those battery powered "Wood Gas" stoves, and I loved it. I looked at the biolite as a more compact version of that which I wouldn't need to buy batteries for, and could be used to charge up phones etc. in an emergency. Charging things was not the primary reason I bought it.

In the role for which I want it, it looks like the Biolite will be the business.

The cup charger is really expensive as well. If all you want is to enhance the endurance of your phone, buy one with removable batteries. For the price of the cup charger you could buy 5 or 6 spares. Unless you absolutely need to be able to charge electronics far from civilisation, the Cup Charger doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Andy BB]

I must admit I am thinking seriously about the biolite. But a couple of problems with charging I've heard of is making me a bit cautious until we get more results in. This video just emphasised the issues - something like 2+ hours of burning and continuous feeding, and still only minimal charge going into the phone doesn't fill me with great confidence at the moment! (and bear in mind the battery in the biolite was fully charged before the testing was started). I do like the idea of a self-charging fan to help things along though on the wood-gasification front.

 

[cbr6fs]

Fantastic find Andy


What an absolute waste of time, money and wood that biolite is, if it's taking 2+ hours to charge a phone to 15% then it's not really much use at all is it.

 

[Wook]

I think that's a bit strong cbr6fs.

No one has suggested that the Biolite is anything but an ultra high efficiency stove. That one of it's extra features doesn't perform how some people would like does not make it useless. I didn't even know about the charge function until I was already placing my order. I assumed it was "just" a self powering thermoelectric wood gas stove, and I thought it was well worth the money even if that is all it did.

The charge function could still be used to put some charge into a flat phone allowing an injured person to call for aid, which is the sort of thing I always envisaged the charge feature as being intended for - that is, emergencies.

I mean seriously, who goes out to the woods planning to charge a phone?

The Biolite stove also funds a much larger version for the third world, with presumably a proportional increase in charging performance. Now those people have a real reason to want off grid phone charging.

Also, bear in mind the man in that video has a link to his website in the description where he sells the Cup Charger, a product which is 15% more expensive than the Biolite and whose only useful functions are as a portable thermoelectric charger and a receptacle for boiling water. It certainly doesn't look like something you'd want to heat beanfeast in......

 

[cbr6fs]

The problem is if the thermoelectric generator does not consistently put out enough power to charge even a small phone battery it's pretty much useless.
Looking at the vid Andy posted there isn't enough juice to consistently power the fan, never mind anything else.


Sure the fan (when it's working) should help create a bit more heat, but it's still looks like it's taking over 10 mins to boil a pot of water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBCrk3wx1eU

So it's not THAT much faster or efficient that a bog standard Honey stove.


The way i see it is:
It doesn't charge a phone, so certainly won't give enough juice to charge a torch or a GPS
It still needs over 10 mins to boil a cup of water so not really much quicker than say a Honey stove (see vid above)
It's 3 x heavier than a Honey stove
It's over 4 x more expensive than a Honey stove
You need to keep removing the pan to keep adding fuel
Reliability is certainly going to be a concern compared to a Honey stove

I don't think my previous opinion as to strong because to be honest i'm struggling to see, what's the point?

Fantastic idea (i was tempted myself when i first read about it last year) but the technology and implementation is a mile off the theory.
Disappointing.


Cheers
Mark

 

[Wook]

Looking at the vid Andy posted there isn't enough juice to consistently power the fan, never mind anything else.

I've not seen anyone complaining about it failing to power the fan. High power phones like the iphone are charged in bursts, which is what they mean when they say "the stove is on". This does not refer to the fan coming on and off.

But we'll see when my one arrives. I'll post a video.

All design is a compromise - it is not possible to have a stove that does everything. But i t is just possible that the Biolite does several things I am interested in very well. We shall see.

 

[Andy BB]

I'm still not totally put off the biolite - as I said I do like the idea of a self-powered fan for enhancing the wood-gas effect (I also looked at the Wild-stove woodgas stove (LE and XL) that uses batteries to provide the fan effect). And th non-fan-powered woodgas stove I got from Wild Stoves is over £40, but at least with that you can fill it up with wood-pellets and it'll burn for up to an hour without refilling. Similarly the Emberlit is much easier to fill/top up than either, the temp is adjustable by limiting wood fed in from side and packs flat (and is cheaper than both). Yet only the biolite will recharge phones, even if very slowly. And it burns through wood at a ferocious rate too when fan on high!

Dunno - all to complicated for me

 

[cbr6fs]

I've not seen anyone complaining about it failing to power the fan. High power phones like the iphone are charged in bursts, which is what they mean when they say "the stove is on". This does not refer to the fan coming on and off.

But we'll see when my one arrives. I'll post a video.

All design is a compromise - it is not possible to have a stove that does everything. But i t is just possible that the Biolite does several things I am interested in very well. We shall see.

Ahhh sorry, i thought they were talking about the fan, thanks for the correction.

Be interesting to see your vid, especially the boil times.
If it does boil a litre of water in just over 4 mins then the design with the fan would seem to be an advantage.

If it's over 10mins (as in the vid i posted) then to my way of thinking the fan really offers no advantage and is just a gimmick.


If it charged my phone in say 1 hour then i'd probably buy one as it would be handy on multi-day trips and i could see myself buying on.
For me though even if it has a 4 min boil time, my Jetboil is quicker, for slightly more weight and price, plus i don't have to restrict my walking to forests, spend 15 mins collection wood, then another 15 mins starting the fire.

I would like to see this biolite stove up against say a Honey stove for boil times though.
The Biolite "should" be quicker, but with having to remove the cup every few mins to restock the fire i'm guessing it's going to be close.

Do you have a Honey stove or something similar you could do a boil time comparison with please?

 

[jamespeskett]

I know I've posted elsewhere that I was underwhelmed with my Biolite stove, but it is in now way as bad as is being suggested here. It does now charge my new iPhone 4S - about 20% in 20 minutes. And it boils a pan of water in 5-6 minutes. But you need to be really careful comparing these boil times between different tests. Ambient temperature, wind a type of fuel all make a difference. Also, people rarely consider the start up time. In this respect, the Biolite is very quick, though. Quicker than a Honey stove or a Trangia, even.

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

It does now charge my new iPhone 4S - about 20% in 20 minutes. And it boils a pan of water in 5-6 minutes.

Thats pretty good imho. plenty enough to keep your phone topped off

 

[Andy BB]

I know I've posted elsewhere that I was underwhelmed with my Biolite stove, but it is in now way as bad as is being suggested here. It does now charge my new iPhone 4S - about 20% in 20 minutes. And it boils a pan of water in 5-6 minutes. But you need to be really careful comparing these boil times between different tests. Ambient temperature, wind a type of fuel all make a difference. Also, people rarely consider the start up time. In this respect, the Biolite is very quick, though. Quicker than a Honey stove or a Trangia, even.

THats good news on the charging front. Any idea why you're now getting much better results?

 

[jamespeskett]

The iPhone 3G just didn't support being charged by the Biolite, the 4S does. Fortunately, I got a good trade in deal on my old phone, otherwise the Biolite was going to end up being more expensive than a central healthing system! Also invested in a little angle poise LED lamp, designed for laptops I think, which is a pretty natty way of lighting up camp when cooking in the dark. Only around a fiver from Amazon.

 

[Sale]

I know I've posted elsewhere that I was underwhelmed with my Biolite stove, but it is in now way as bad as is being suggested here. It does now charge my new iPhone 4S - about 20% in 20 minutes. And it boils a pan of water in 5-6 minutes. But you need to be really careful comparing these boil times between different tests. Ambient temperature, wind a type of fuel all make a difference. Also, people rarely consider the start up time. In this respect, the Biolite is very quick, though. Quicker than a Honey stove or a Trangia, even.

That's nice. I have a couple of spare Peltier cells...may try a homemade version. But why there is such a big difference in charging times compared to the video? The iPhone in the video is also a 4S, isn't it?

 

[Wook]

Maybe his was defective.

Or maybe he thought he could make his own product look better by denigrating another. If he turned on bluetooth, full screen brightness, every app he could think of and portable wifi tethering just on the Biolite phone, the results would probably look like that.

Maybe not. I can't decide till I see the stove for myself.

Either way, I'm not too impressed with his "Buy a cup charger because the Biolite is rubbish" spiel. He should be selling the cup charger on what is good about it, not what he claims is bad about vaguely similar devices. I hate negative advertising - puts me right off a product. It is a bit disingenuous of a man who sells the cup charger to post a "review" of the Biolite compared with his product. It is more like an advert for the cup charger. He may well have been honest about how he conducted the test, but it would still be an advert.

His video channel is full of things he calls "reviews". The products he rates favourably are the ones he sells on his website.

 

[swright81076]

I've made a few fan powered gasifiers and they work a treat, with tremendous boil times. With a TEC or TEG in there to power the fan it would be fantastic. I've not used a biolite! So I'm unsure of the output for charging, but would have thought boil times would be affected while charging. However, as long as it charges and boils the water for a pot of tea, who cares.
If I was in desperate need of instant hot drinks, I'd stay at home with a kettle and phone charger.
When I'm outdoors, I'm in no rush for the pot to boil.

sent from my Jelly Bean'd galaxy nexus.

 

[Rob]

I got my Biolite yesterday. Really impressed with both performance and some of the design elements - the way that the legs fold away and the way that the fan unit gets secured in place by one of the legs is great. I haven't tried to charge anything on it as yet, but I will plug something in to it next time i get a chance.

I threw some pretty soggy bits of wood on (leftovers from bow making that have been out in this year's summer) and after a little bit of steam and smoke they went up a treat.

I left the stove to it after i finished boiling some water. The residuals were minimal and I am amazed at how clean the inside of the stove is after use.

Left the fan running after i emptied the ash and it cooled down really quickly.

Unless you are an ultralite person, the weight should not be an issue. I was surprised about how light it felt in the hand. If you are carrying your water with you and not foraging it, then i really don't see the problem. Size wise, smaller packed down than i expected as well.

 

[Wook]

Well mine finally arrived

I've been playing with it all evening and collected some stats for you. It brought exactly 1 litre of cold tap water to a strong rolling boil in 8 minutes and 20 seconds. The water was uncovered in a British Army mess tin, so using a pot with a lid would improve on this.

I don't own an IPhone (or even a smartphone) so I plugged my Sansa Clip MP3 player into it. It seems to charge it approximately 4% for every 5 minutes of use (I only watched it for 5 minutes).

I don't know what the run times will be for wood, but I filled it all the way up with wood pellets and it has been running for 25 minutes so far and is still going.

If there is an appetite for it I could do a video review or post some photos, although it does look exactly as it is depicted on the Biolite website, so I'm not sure how informative that would be.

I don't think comparisons with other types of stove are entirely fair because it is a very different design. But I can compare it with the "Wood Gas Stove" (the battery eletric one) because I have owned one and aside from the thermoelectric generator they are very similar.

The Biolite is much more slick, and seems to produce a much hotter flame with a cool swirly flame vortex thingy. That and not needing batteries I would say it is a much better stove.

Although it is twice the price, so I guess it is up to you whether to get one...

 

[cbr6fs]

Thanks for the update wook, much appreciated.

Be good to hear how you get on with it over time, the engineer in my head says that the fan isn't likely to last long, working under the conditions it needs to, but real world use trumps the engineer in my head

 

[Wook]

cbr6fs, I had the same feeling about the longevity of my battery Wood Gas stove. I lost it for months and months, and when it eventually turned up at the bottom of the garden shed I felt sure that with exposure to flammable gases and ash, all of the motor components would be seized solid. And yet, it powered up first time as if it had never been out of use.

I'm sorry to say that I have since misplaced this stove again, although I am hopeful that it will turn up. In the meantime I'd say the Biolite more than replaces it.