BioLite

[Bruce S]

I posted a link to this item earlier this month.
Now after having received the combo set, I though it best to add a review of it and some suggestions I'm hopping they work into the next ones.
https://www.bioliteenergy.com/

Ours arrived a few days ago.
IF anyone has used or built a downdraft biogasifier , this is pretty much along those same lines.
The tech work they've done is pretty good, the heat side of the TEG is good and heavy that should take a decent amount of ware with minimal cleaning and care.
The TEG's setup is such that once the heat has built up enough , it automatically starts the fan and once it's cooled down enough it shuts it off.
It does not ramp the fan up automatically (okay with) the higher fan speeds also burning the fuel quicker. In the short videos they show a nice big fire going, I did not get ours up that high.
I'm not 100% sure it's battery is rated at the 2600mAh they say it is; I'm still testing it.
I have a little 2600mAh battery stick and it'll charge my old Kyocera phone much higher than this thing will.
The biggest difference is that with a nice fire, I can recharge this and boil my water.

[Bruce S]

Part II of the Biolite combo

The grill section is made of 3 parts, along with a stainless steel cap that closes over the chimney fire to push the fire towards the grates.
The main outside part is stainless steel , however , it is magnetic enough to hold onto even a ceramic magnet.
The inside is a flame defusser, or grate .
The top part is the standard cooking grate.
There is also two pop out legs.  We loaded up 5 Brats and a small pot of veggies and it help up pretty well.

The combo came with their kettle too, it holds 1 1/2 liters of liquid with air holes around the rim so it can sit directly over the flame chimney.

My biggest pet peeve is that you cannot stack them both on top of the fire at the same time. I'll be finding a solution to this

When using it for a long term fire; a little attention is needed to not plug the gas vents at the bottom.

All-in-all, not a bad setup. For an avid hiker/camper/kayaker , this isn't too pricey.

The fact that you can charge your cell phone, boil up liquids and have fire. It's okay
 I'd would like it better if I could to grill, boil, charge my batteries and have a small flame.

I'm still learning how to best use this, so if you have any questions, fire away.

Cheers
Bruce S

[JW]

I'm very interested in this Bruce keep us informed, I really like the renewable fuel (wood) angle of it. I sometimes go to these steam engine meets and everybody is using kerosene and propane, I'm the only one burning corn.

[Bruce S]

JW;
With a 3-day weekend coming up, I have a whole slew of tests for this gear.
I still haven't been able to test the battery level yet, but with some old UBS cables I'll rig something up.

I have some wood pellets I'm going to try, along with the Kettle "adapter" I've cobbled together from tin cans.

When you say corn, are you talking about the dried cobs?
The instructions say not to use charcoal , this I read as not using briquettes since there's really no wood gas available in it and once
burned as a bunch of ash that can clog up the gas vents.

I can easily get this thing to smoke from the burning wood, so I'm going to assemble a lid from some very thin stainless steel and try some apple wood smoking too.

Cheers

[Mary B]

Dried corn kernels, I burn them in my pellet stove to heat the house.

[JW]

Hi Bruce I'm burning shelled Kernel corn.




The problem is that it requires an air blower. I am running of a 12v car battery using a ducted fan which is quieter than the centrifugal blower used in the video. I have pretty much tried everything to use as a blower. The burner uses a air injection system coupled with a after burner stage, and can make a blue flame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2pv6-6a240     

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKDSX3lMasw

[Bruce S]

JW;
I'll have to grab some shelled corn like that and give it a try in the Biolite2.

I'm seeing a bunch of reviews on U-tube about the Biolite original then NG and 2.
I've not seen any of the problems others are having.