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Hello!
Yestarday courier delivered me this parcel
from Biolite company, web page biolitestove.com
A little introduction if you have not heard about Biolite yet.
They started first commercially available
wood stoves for camping but not only
and these stoves produce heat and electric power!
Inside the box we have the stove
in polyamide sack with Biolite logo
The stove is folded
We have also manual,
USB Cord for internal battery charging,
and kindling
soaked with something flammable
Campstove has two main parts
The first is fuel chamber
made of steel sheet
outside is steel screen protecting from hot metal surfaces
inside is hearth with jets circulating air in the chamber
and between one more steel sheet. So it is not big but
in total it weighs 3 pounds, it means almost 1,5 kg
so it looks nice and shiny but is terribly heavy
The second and the most important part is this orange gadget
here we have a small built-in fan
this fan pumps air through this lower hole to the chamber
And on the top we have electric generator
How does it work?
You can see a copper probe inside the chamber
This probe transmits heat produced by fire
to thermoelectric cell
Thermoelectric cell needs temperature gradient to produce electricity
therefore on the oposite side of the cell is aluminum radiator
cooled by airflow created by fan
So all the time we have constant temperature gradient
and thermoelectric generator can produce electricity
Of course to start energy production you need start this fan first.
therefore this module also contains a li-ion battery
and small microprocessor which manages the flow of power both to the fan and USB port.
at the bottom of the module we have USB port.
With this USB you can charge battery inside or
when Biolite works and produces energy
you can plug in any device charged via USB
in example GPS, mobile, AAA batteries charger
so thanks to this we can charge almost any gadget
outside, without electrical outlets or powerbanks.
How to assembly this device?
You put this copper probe into upper hole
and unfold these aluminium legs
one leg blocks power module
and after few seconds we stove ready to use
To present how small this stove is
I will compare it with my hobo-stove
made of 0.8 liter can
as you see, it is not big.
Biolite has similar diameter but is a little bit higher
You can fold it
therefore it will not take to much space in backpack.
only problem is the weight.
Lets see how pots will stand on the stove
during my hikes I use small pots like
Primus EtaPower - 1 liter pot with heat exchanger
and as you see I have a little problem here
Pot is almost the same diameter as this stand
and it slides off the stand
so it is a little bit worrying
here I have second pot
titanium JetBoil with heat exchanger
and it fits very nicely.
This set is much more stable but
there is the rose without thorns
This jacket probably will be
damaged by flames from the stove
this neoprene handle will be destroyed for sure
If you took off this jacket, you would have not any handle
and you could not hold warm pot.
so I have to think out
what pot to use with the stove
The stove is butefull and in the next episode I will show you how it works
Thank you for watching, good bye!