• RME Gear & Apparel

BioLite – The Fire-Powered Cell Phone Charger

jinxspot

jinxspot

~ Bush Eater's Offroad ~
Location
Salt Lake Utah
[SUB]Pretty cool gadget for sure!!!


http://biolitestove.com/campstove/camp-overview/features/


http://cooldudestuff.com/2012/11/biolite-the-fire-powered-cell-phone-charger/

BioLite-The-Fire-Powered-Cell-Phone-Charger_3.jpg



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Using nothing but twigs and grass around you, the BioLite stove/charging station is “quick to light, fast to boil and easy to use.” The purpose of the device is to eliminate the need for heavy, expensive, polluting petroleum gas stoves (and charge your iPhone in while camping!).
The BioLite works by using something called thermoelectric technology, and converts heat into electricity. The electricity from the stove is then used to both power a fan to make the fire ultra-efficient, and charge you toys (Cell Phone).
You can buy it for $129.

The CampStove is compatible with most devices that can be charged through a standard USB port. This includes cell phones, smartphones, MP3 players, LED flashlights, headlamps, and rechargeable battery packs, among other devices. Please note that not all manufacturer’s products may be included.

Charging times vary by device, as well as by the strength of the fire and other variables like outside temperature. For an Apple iPhone 4S (2G), 20 minutes of charging with a strong fire can provide you with 60 minutes of talk time.
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Spork

Spork

Tin Foil Hat Equipped
Location
Saratoga Springs, UT
Saw an article on it last week, they look cool. I saw they also had a larger model (homestove) but no prices on it yet. The larger one looks similar to a rocket stove (which I've wanted to make anyway).
 
DOSS

DOSS

Poker of the Hornets Nest
Location
Suncrest
The problem is 20 minutes of fire.. when I am backpacking the longest my stove is usually on for is about 10 minutes to boil some water.. I don't want to sit around for 20 minutes just to get a few minutes of Talk time on my phone.. Solar seems to be the more effective option out there still.
 
jinxspot

jinxspot

~ Bush Eater's Offroad ~
Location
Salt Lake Utah
I guess the thread title is a bit missleading.... phone, mp3, GPS, headlamp/flashlight.... anything DC voltage related really could be charged.

Oh and I really like the idea of not having to carry any fuel for the "stove" portion of the tool.
 
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TracYJ

TracYJ

Po Po 5-0
Location
On the trail....or in jail!
DOSS said:
The problem is 20 minutes of fire.. when I am backpacking the longest my stove is usually on for is about 10 minutes to boil some water.. I don't want to sit around for 20 minutes just to get a few minutes of Talk time on my phone.. Solar seems to be the more effective option out there still.
Click to expand...

I agree with the solar being more effective. Not to bust chops, but what happens on a real cloudy day or at night? I can see where this stove charger has it's place. Pretty neat product.
 
DOSS

DOSS

Poker of the Hornets Nest
Location
Suncrest
TracYJ said:
I agree with the solar being more effective. Not to bust chops, but what happens on a real cloudy day or at night? I can see where this stove charger has it's place. Pretty neat product.
Click to expand...

I don't know.. maybe enjoy the fact that you are in the mountains without contact with the outside world for a little bit :).. most of the solar systems also have a battery to them as well so since it charged your phone and its battery yesterday you can just charge your phone today with the battery and spend more time with your electronics instead of enjoying the great out doors :)... at night I suggest you just go to sleep and wait until morning because if you are out scrounging around for little pieces of wood at night to burn in your stove/charger you are likely to fall and break something so you have to go home instead of spending your time in the outdoors on your phone :)
 
jinxspot

jinxspot

~ Bush Eater's Offroad ~
Location
Salt Lake Utah
6's really on UV charge verses Heat transfer charge... (although if fuel & ventilation permitted you could use heat xfer 24 hours a day)
Main reason it stood out to me was because this product became very very popular on the East coast because of the recent storms causing extended power loss and emergency situations... not necessarily relaxing in the mountains or specifically vacationing away from electrical sources. That goes hand in hand with other discussions threads on RME about folks gathering disaster relief gear so there ready when the time comes. I would assume (like any specific outdoor product) that its mostly for a person who "needs" to actually charge their DC batteries regardless of their reason, or boil water, heat food, etc, etc etc. Either way most of the time I stay up drinking around a nice fire at night with friends for at least 3 to 4 hours and again in the morning to make coffee and breakfast for another 1-2 hours so this would in my case go in parallel with those events for recreational use of batteries for amenities on the trail and not particularly cell phone use... other than Google Earth app. Plus during those campfire fun times I've never had a lack of sticks/dead vegetation available to support the charging of batteries with such a generator, but then again I usually don't camp in a barren desert. Hands down, if in an emergency it keeps my GPS/Sat phone/am-fm radio charged and my camp light glowing without sitting around burning daylight hours using a solar panel it def makes me thankful this technology has come to a fruition to the general public... oh and lots of GoPro footage of extreme events I seem to run into!!!


also check out the PowerPot, but it requires a firepit or stove:
https://www.thepowerpot.com/powerpot-v
 
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airmanwilliams

airmanwilliams

Well-Known Member
Location
Provo, Utah
Thanks for posting this Jinxspot. My wife an I have been meaning to redo our emergency packs and have added this to the list of things to get for out packs in our vehicles and our home packs when tax return season comes.
 
DOSS

DOSS

Poker of the Hornets Nest
Location
Suncrest
I don't know I still don't see that I want to have to keep a fire going for hours to charge my phone.. What about something like this for emergency purposes.. http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B0071BTJPI/ref=nosim/dancarlincom-20 recharges itself VIA Solar or hand crank, weather radio, charge your cell phone and a emergency flashlight... then you can save your cooking fuel for cooking in a emergency situation and all the time you have to sit waiting for things you can charge your phone or have your kid crank it so they shut up and have something to do while you search for firewood to keep your family warm :)..
 
Spork

Spork

Tin Foil Hat Equipped
Location
Saratoga Springs, UT
Tangent time. I saw this today GravityLight http://deciwatt.org/ basically it's a gravity powered light. From the description you hook a weight (bag of sand/rocks) and as it falls (slowly) it powers the light/device for up to 30 minutes. Looking at the device it looks like it also has output so in theory you can power other devices. It's targeted at developing nations but I believe there is a demand if they made it available.
 
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