I've played with the Biolite stove and am not particularly impressed to be honest. The charging function (and the fact that it was shiny!) was what first attracted me to this bit of kit, as on longer trips - particularly in sub-zero conditions - having an effective means of re-charging phones, tablets, cameras, GPS etc was attractive. The stove element itself was a bit of a disappointment - good flames & heat but not exactly controllable (two fan speeds equates to hot and very hot), and putting pots on the relatively narrow top didn't fill me with confidence. So what about the charging? Again, not impressive. Charging light kept going on and off, and took forever to put 10% charge increase on my admittedly old Sony phone. And you needed to keep feeding it constantly, as the Biolite gobbles wood on high fan. Added to that it would only charge via the biolite stove, and you still needed to pack pots if you wanted to boil water or attempt to cook on it. Price-point? Currently available on UK Amazon for £106.
As a fan-assisted woodstove, the Vital stove knocks spots off the Biolite. Not only will it comfortably handle all sizes of pots (from a GSI cup up to and including Dutch ovens), but a combination of the two-speed fan and the damper on the air-intake allows you to simmer a stew, or melt snow almost twice as quickly as my Primus Omnifuel on full-bore! It has the same drawback as the Biolite re eating wood rapidly at full chat though. And it had no inherent charging capability. It also needs a couple of AA batteries to run the fan. (although again to be fair, these have a life of about 40 hours, and sub-zero temps in Norway didn't phase it at all.) Weights? Biolite 900gm, Vital 800gm.
So. What else is available? You can get battery packs with USB connections on ebay for relatively little nowadays. I've got some allegedly 20amp and even 50 amp packs that work well for a few phone charges, but a tablet/ereader will drain them pretty quickly - not really practical for 7+ days in the sub/Arctic. Solar packs are coming down in price too, and are a viable alternative, but you are dependent on good sunlight - not always guaranteed in the UK, and certainly not in the Arctic in winter!
I recently bought a Powerpot 5 (about £82 0n UK Amazon). Having had a few plays with this little beasty, I am really impressed. It comes with two pots - a litre one with the charging (Peltier module?) in the base, and a lid/bowl of about 0.4 litre. Hard-anodized aluminium. The lid is an ideal size for a big bowl of porridge, but being curved, not much good as a frying pan. The weight of the Powerpot 5 is about the same as the Biolite stove.
Charging? Using two different stoves (a small Paraffin stove - for the stovies a Monitor No 1 Cyclist 1/2 pint cabinet stove, and an alcohol stove - Turm sports stove - really a simmering stove - ideal for percolating coffee in a "relaxed" manner) In both cases there was a breeze blowing which reduced their respective power outputs quite a bit. However, this points out a great advantage of the Powerpot - it can be used on absolutely any stove, including a woodburner tent stove.
Re the charging - it put 10% on my old Sony phone in about 12 minutes, and started charging within 10 seconds of going on the stove. THe powerpot is water-cooled (ie you put water in the pot) and works via the Peltier effect of the difference in temperature between the cooling medium and the flame applied. So it actually works most efficiently with ice-cold water and a really hot flame. In the Arctic, just throw in another snowball!) However, even when its boiling, the flame is still much hotter than the water, so it continues to charge. (The Biolite is air-cooled via the fan). You will damage it if the pan boils dry, although the lid cuts down evaporation of the water substantially. Even the relatively low-temp alcohol stove in the wind showed 3 bars (ie 3 watts of power generated) with water at tap temperature, dropping to 2 bars - 2 watts - at boiling.
Both pans can be used for normal cooking, and when in charge mode the large pan's boiling water can be used for whatever you want to use boiling water for. Just don't completely empty it as this could also damage the Peltier unit. I can't see any reason for not charging your phone at the same time as cooking a boil-in-the bag meal.
Overall therefore I'm very impressed with the Powerpot 5, (the 5 refers to the maximum watts output) although on reflection I might have gone for the Powerpot 10 which is another £20 or so.
As a fan-assisted woodstove, the Vital stove knocks spots off the Biolite. Not only will it comfortably handle all sizes of pots (from a GSI cup up to and including Dutch ovens), but a combination of the two-speed fan and the damper on the air-intake allows you to simmer a stew, or melt snow almost twice as quickly as my Primus Omnifuel on full-bore! It has the same drawback as the Biolite re eating wood rapidly at full chat though. And it had no inherent charging capability. It also needs a couple of AA batteries to run the fan. (although again to be fair, these have a life of about 40 hours, and sub-zero temps in Norway didn't phase it at all.) Weights? Biolite 900gm, Vital 800gm.
So. What else is available? You can get battery packs with USB connections on ebay for relatively little nowadays. I've got some allegedly 20amp and even 50 amp packs that work well for a few phone charges, but a tablet/ereader will drain them pretty quickly - not really practical for 7+ days in the sub/Arctic. Solar packs are coming down in price too, and are a viable alternative, but you are dependent on good sunlight - not always guaranteed in the UK, and certainly not in the Arctic in winter!
I recently bought a Powerpot 5 (about £82 0n UK Amazon). Having had a few plays with this little beasty, I am really impressed. It comes with two pots - a litre one with the charging (Peltier module?) in the base, and a lid/bowl of about 0.4 litre. Hard-anodized aluminium. The lid is an ideal size for a big bowl of porridge, but being curved, not much good as a frying pan. The weight of the Powerpot 5 is about the same as the Biolite stove.
Charging? Using two different stoves (a small Paraffin stove - for the stovies a Monitor No 1 Cyclist 1/2 pint cabinet stove, and an alcohol stove - Turm sports stove - really a simmering stove - ideal for percolating coffee in a "relaxed" manner) In both cases there was a breeze blowing which reduced their respective power outputs quite a bit. However, this points out a great advantage of the Powerpot - it can be used on absolutely any stove, including a woodburner tent stove.
Re the charging - it put 10% on my old Sony phone in about 12 minutes, and started charging within 10 seconds of going on the stove. THe powerpot is water-cooled (ie you put water in the pot) and works via the Peltier effect of the difference in temperature between the cooling medium and the flame applied. So it actually works most efficiently with ice-cold water and a really hot flame. In the Arctic, just throw in another snowball!) However, even when its boiling, the flame is still much hotter than the water, so it continues to charge. (The Biolite is air-cooled via the fan). You will damage it if the pan boils dry, although the lid cuts down evaporation of the water substantially. Even the relatively low-temp alcohol stove in the wind showed 3 bars (ie 3 watts of power generated) with water at tap temperature, dropping to 2 bars - 2 watts - at boiling.
Both pans can be used for normal cooking, and when in charge mode the large pan's boiling water can be used for whatever you want to use boiling water for. Just don't completely empty it as this could also damage the Peltier unit. I can't see any reason for not charging your phone at the same time as cooking a boil-in-the bag meal.
Overall therefore I'm very impressed with the Powerpot 5, (the 5 refers to the maximum watts output) although on reflection I might have gone for the Powerpot 10 which is another £20 or so.
