I took the BioLite out on a backpack in January. It's a lot of fun, although I think it's a little heavy for what it is. For more "fun" trips (family, groups of friends on a casual trip, car camping, etc.), I think it's fine. For a serious backpacking trip where weight is more critical, I don't see it.

When it gets going, it is one rocking wood stove. One guy on the camp out jokingly called it the BioHazard stove instead of BioLite.


As far as the Solo Stove is concerned, it's a proven design. I say proven since it's almost an exact copy of Fritz Handel's Bush Buddy. It's more cheaply made, in China I believe. It's a pretty incredible rip off of Fritz's work. Fritz is just a guy living out in the woods in Canada who lacked the means to copyright his work. So the rip-off may have been inevitable, but the Solo stove brings ripping people off to new heights, even at first advertising their stove as the "new Bushbuddy." It may be a perfectly good stove, but ripping someone off simply because they're impoverished seems like something I don't want to support. Also, I believe the (real) Bushbuddy is 4 ounces lighter.

HJ

Yeah, I agree it's a bit heavy for a stove. Pretty nice if you need to charge electronics like a phone or Kindle. I'm not sure I'd want to bet my life on the reliability of anything with a motor and computer, though. Although to be fair mine has been great so far.

I think I'd rather carry a separate solar solution unless I knew that I'd have stove fuel and no sun. I was a Kickstarter backer of Waka Waka Power (http://www.getwakawaka.com/) and I intend to post a review when I get mine.

ClarkTX and I did a 20-mile overnight backpacking trip this last weekend and he brought along his new BioLite stove to test.


BioLite by merriwether, on Flickr

We weren't impressed. The unit actually contains a battery that you are supposed to charge up at home. The battery by itself was capable of giving almost two full charges to his iPhone. Burning wood inside the stove generates electricity at a very low rate. We calculated it'd take almost five hours of continuous fire to recharge the unit's battery once it was drained. The thing was a major fuel hog, burning through a load of sticks in just a few minutes. He had to keep removing the pot, adding more sticks, and then continue with his cooking. As far as backpacking goes, a small 9volt or multi AA phone charger would make a lot more sense, especially considering how heavy the unit was.

Basically, it was a solution in search of a problem. Even in a grid-down situation a solar panel would more likely be more useful.
-Blast

p.s. After using it for lunch the first day it was too hot to put back into his pack so ClarkTX strapped the burner unit to the outside. Somehow without us noticing, it fell off. In an amazing twist of fate it was found by a group of hikers from Dallas, one of which is a fellow ETS member (Hi John) who recognized me! Clark got the burner back, thank goodness.

Yeah, my impression isn't a whole lot different. The charging thing might work OK if you were just topping off a low usage item every night, maybe a GPS unit or something.

The stove itself does eat fuel like no tomorrow when on high. It's a fun stove, and it does work, but for two pounds or so of weight? I think there are other options.

It does however work and it's nicely put together. Like I say, fun and interesting, but not for serious backpacking trips. If I were car camping and wanted to augment my other gear, then sure.

HJ