Why We Chose The BioLite Campstove 2 Bundle: Efficient, versatile, innovative
Price: £220
Weight: Campstove 935g, KettlePot 465g, Grill 850g
More info: uk.bioliteenergy.com
Perhaps we’re getting cynical, but it seems that the word ‘innovative’ is over-used in the outdoor industry. Every season, a raft of new gear arrives with plenty of accompanying hype that invariably heralds some amazing, game-changing ‘innovation’. When BioLite arrived on the scene a couple of years ago, however, we genuinely stood up and took notice. This was a camp stove that ran on biomass fuel – twigs, pine cones and such like – which could generate electricity and charge smartphones in the field. It achieved this via some very clever tech, and although the stove wasn’t perfect, it genuinely worked.
With the revised Campstove 2, the design has been further refined for improved performance and efficiency. When bundled with a portable grill and kettlepot, it now creates a fully integrated system that can grill, boil, cook and charge on the go. There’s even a USB FlexLight to plug in for added illumination. At full capacity, the stove generates 3W of power to charge your devices, and has an in-built 2600mAh rechargeable battery to store energy. It burns biomass cleanly and smokelessly thanks to an internal fan, so there’s no need to carry liquid fuel or gas canisters – you can just burn whatever sticks, chips and other bits that are to hand.
Related: Best Camping Stoves Reviewed
It’s still not the lightest camping stove around, but it is a versatile cooking system that means you can do a lot more than just boil water, like most ultralight backpacking stoves.
There’s another element to what BioLite does too, which is where it has its most significant environmental and human benefits. It is a sad fact that more than three billion people across the globe are forced to cook on smoky, toxic open fires. This causes over 4 million deaths per year, according to World Health Organization data. These open fires also release CO2 and produce a staggering 25% of global black carbon emissions. This is more than all the world’s cars and lorries combined.
