When Hurricane Sandy hit New York and New Jersey, thousands of people found themselves without a way to cook or recharge their phones – both, pretty much necessities of modern life here in the United States. Luckily for those affected, Biolite was cranking out as many of their combination portable wood stove and portable power supply all-in-one units as possible to fill the need.
Taking the Biolite Camp Stove out of its travel sack, you merely slip the yellow plastic charging device into the side of the chrome fire chamber, and then unfold the three legs. It’s now ready to use.
In this super portable, camp-style stove, you can burn twigs, paper, fuel pellets or pine cones. Look around. What have you got? Each stove comes with a half-dozen fire starter sticks to get you going.
After your fire is going for about 30 seconds, you press the button on the power unit and a fan flames the fire into a super-heated wonder. You can boil water in under 5 minutes with the right kind of camp pans. There are two fan settings – Hi and Lo – to suit the size fire you’ve got going.
But, the best part is, while the fire is going, this thing is generating power back into the yellow battery pack for charging your USB device. If you keep that fire going – you keep charging your device until it’s completed. The yellow power cell will also hold excess power and act as a storage device for the next time your phone needs power.
Be prepared for two of life’s necessities with a device you can keep in the car, take on your next hiking trip or just have available in case of unexpected power outages. Check them out at BioliteStove.com.
Doug Bardwell, based in Cleveland, OH, writes about interesting new travel technology topics, across the country and around the world at DougBardwell.com. Feel free to drop him a line at travel.dougbardwell@gmail.com with suggestions for future products to be reviewed. If you've ever used one of the products he's reviewed, please leave your thoughts in the comment box below. To get his stories delivered to your inbox, click the RSS feed or the "Subscribe" button above or follow him on Facebook , Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. To read Doug’s disclosure notice, click here.
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