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The BioLite CampStove is a portable charger with a difference. As well as being a camping stove, it can generate power from burning biomass, so you can charge your phone from burning twigs. To get maximum heat from this source of fuel, fan-assistance is necessary. The BioLite’s fan is powered from an internal battery, which should be charged before you leave home; a built-in generator serves to keep it topped up, and generates more electricity than is required – the excess is available, via a USB port, for charging electronic equipment.
No-one is going to buy the CampStove just to charge their phone, so we were keen to see how good it is at cooking. We were able to boil 500ml of water in four minutes, which is comparable to similarly sized gas burners.
Even if the CampStove’s battery is fully charged before use, when you first light a fire the energy used by the fan will be greater than that generated. As such, excess energy isn’t available initially for charging external devices. We found it was ready to charge after three minutes. With a Samsung Galaxy Ace attached we measured a current of 300mA at 5V. It took three hours 20 minutes to charge the phone from flat.
