Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Surprised to see no reviews on amazon. I bought this Biolite 2 campstove bundle at REI. I also have a small round ohuhu twig stove(about $20 on amazon) and an emberlit stove (about $40 from merkwares, also on amazon) that I will weigh into the review. Biolite 2 bundle at REI was on a pre-summer sale for $150, so I'll weigh that cost in as well. What you get: Campstove 2 (the electronic thermal device with a battery in it that puts out a fan, along with the burning chamber) Kettlepot with the blue pour lid French Press for kettle pot (coffee, tea) Grill + cover USB Light Plastic bowl Before reviewing each item I'll note how it packs: The electronic device plops right down into the burn chamber of the stove, and that burn chamber fits in a stuff sack they include. This will help keep the creosote off your gear a bit when packing with it. The electronic + burn chamber in the stuff sack fits nicely into the kettlepot, even with the coffee/tea infuser press at the bottom. The long handle for the french press screws off and you can place it alongside the stove within the kettlepot, and the lid will fit with the stove and press in the kettlepot. In this arrangement, the plastic bowl does not fit unless you remove the press. The grill has a plastic cover which is great to keep soot off your gear again, or off of your car. I doubt many would carry the grill addon backpacking. It's just bulkier. Review of each: Campstove 2: (Electronic) The electronic part is mostly used as a fan, has 4 fan levels that fill the burn chamber with air, so whatever is burning inside burns down to near nothingness. For the small burn chamber it has, that's good design. It has a built in battery that can "charge" your phone. It can get mine about a 40-50% charge. Once the battery is down from charging, it takes hours. I mean hours. HOURS of feeding twigs to get the battery recharged by thermal power. Do you want to sit out at your campsite for say 6-8 hours feeding twigs constantly hoping to keep the thermal temperature up to keep it recharged? Honestly it's mostly just made to power the little led light while you are cooking, and the built in fan. Bring a 21w+ foldable solar panel if you want to charge your phone, and use the stove if it's night and you want to top off your phone, then use your solar panel to recharge the electronic on this stove when day hits. Campstove 2 with kettlepot and infuser: 5 star for this part. The kettlepot is made for this stove. It props up an inch or so from the bottom of the kettle as you can see in the picture, with 6 holes (in 3 places) so you can aim the flame away from the electronic device. The handles are silicone and I wonder how long they will hold up, with heavy use the kettle pot may require you to pack a leather glove to pick it up if the handle wears over time. Anyway when you get the flame going and put some water in the kettlepot the flames shoot out the holes in the bottom of the kettlepot. This is where the design of the stove shines. -Cleanup with kettlepot is very easy, very little soot and all just on the bottom, as the stove shoots hot flame on the bottom and out the sides, it doesn't line the sides of the kettlepot with soot. Just a little coloration on the bottom wiith use. -Comparing Emberlit: The emberlit stove after use is full of soot, smells the house up like a campfire when going to clean it as you have 5 pieces of metal to clean along with your percilator or pot (whatever you use for water) having soot built up on the sides all around. For coffee/tea or water, soup, whatever you cook in the biolite 2 kettlepot, you have less soot to clean up. -comparing to Ohuhu: Same with emberlit, but you got a round stove to clean soot off all the parts of, and whatever pot you use, soot all around. Kettlepot for me is what makes this biolite stove worth 5 star for quality On to the grill: I've cooked chicken legs on open flame, and on aluminum foil. It takes about an hour or hour and a half to be safe. Aluminum foil helps. Pre-cooked hot dogs heat up and split wonderfully in almost no time. The grill does not cook evenly, closer to the flame means that side gets cooked first. It's on the camp side remember, so you can only fit so much, and the more you fit on it, the less room to move things around. Feeding: The grill uses a piece of steel that caps the top to spread the flame, by cutting off the air it forces it out towards the grill (as the fan forces the flame to keep going from the electronic device) The grill gets too hot at the 3rd and 4th fan levels, so it's best to keep it on fan level 1 or 2 as the instructions also say. It gets the job done. It's a good amount of soot to clean up. Honestly I don't see anyone backpacking long distances with it. It's going to be best for car camping and probably not in bear country. Being that the grill sits up above the stove, you get about 3" or so more room to feed the fire with twigs. Just keep in mind you have to close that cap to spread the flame, so the twigs yet again have to be small enough. Emberlit has a small grill you can get too, but good luck fitting much on it. Much more packable however. Biolite wins on the grill for ease of use. As I can't think of how it could be improved as it is what it is, i'd give it 5 star for design. USB Light: Uses touch sensitivity to turn on or off, and touch and hold to change brightness, let go when it's at desired brightness level. It's a usb light, works for what it is, 5 star I suppose. My overall thoughts: I'd give this a 4 star and emberlit a 5 star, here's why: -Biolite is well built, steel, though it has an electronic device, which could fail, requiring a new stove at that point. (Definitely a what if scenario) -Biolite has a small burn chamber fed only from the top, can't really help it, adding a feed hole would change the entire design of it. -Biolite due to small burn chamber can turn into smoke very easily unless you have very good quality dry wood, I use what is around, and if it rained recently, there's some moisture in the wood to be burned off. It's life. It's how it goes. I enjoy twig stoves to see a nice flame and cook my food. The emberlit shows flame very well, like a mini camp fire, enough to warm up to. I can pile sticks on top of the emberlit to make a taller flame. The biolite does not. The biolite has 1 purpose: To burn ultra efficiently and heat up that kettlepot for a hot cup of coffee fast with little creosote to clean up. I love it for this purpose. It's wonderful to be able to set the thing in the house and not smell too much creosote smell, as I do with the emberlit. I take a star off mostly because of the cost. At $150 on sale it's up there. At $200 normally, it's way up there. As you consider buying this think about this, one thing you buy is another thing you don't. If you want a good bundle to occasionally grill on, and to make coffee fast, and don't care about seeing a nice tall flame, get this. If you don't mind getting a little dirty, or dealing with soot, get the emberlit or a cheap off brand like it. On an emberlit you don't have to worry about burning an electronic item when piling sticks higher than the stove goes. You just get more soot to clean. For $150 I'm going to keep it for what it's worth and use it a lot, but still love the emberlit for backpacking and making a decent size flame without a full out campfire. The biolite 2 is a great stove, just consider if it's worth the cost to you as you'll mostly use it for the tea pot to make coffee. How much is a coffee maker worth? update after 2 years: I've just ordered a 2nd one of these biolite camp stoves, and upped my rating to 5. Just got a note that I had 100 helpful reviews on this item. Please note this tip after my 2 years experience - if you are in a dry climate you may not have my above problems. In Minnesota it rains a lot and is cold (very very cold) for 6 months solid (below 60 easily). We often have only wet wood to burn. I found a solution that works even here though. I used it on a car camping trip where I went out to the west coast and back living in my car/tent for 3 and a half weeks and survived quite comfortably. (did not stay at camp sites except 1 day of the 3 and a half weeks). At a big box store near you (call and ask prices) you can get a 40lb bag of hardwood pellets, just ask for the ones you burn in a pellet stove to heat your home and the employees will show you where they are. I found fleet farm has a 40lb bag of pellets for 4.69, other big box stores were 5 and some change. These burn amazingly well and clean in the biolite 2 camp stove. On setting 1 for the fan speed you can burn it from 3/4 full (just below the upper line of holes on the burn chamber) for about 45 minutes. This helps when you want to use the device to charge your phone via wood power as you don't have to add twigs the whole 45 min burn. This is a great prepper item and I would highly recommend it for anyone in an area where you may have blackouts/brownouts with the standard electric grid. A 40lb bag fills up 2 5-gallon pales pretty well and I can cook a whole summer on just 1 bag of pellets. One last tip is the dollar store is your friend. 1 dollar lighter, 1 dollar cotton ball, 1 dollar petrolleum jelly. Dip 2-3 cotton balls in some jelly and light it from a distance on the top of the pellets and you don't have to watch the stove for ~45 min. Enjoy.