Bio Lite Stove

[Megan]

Thanks guys!
I've been a bit of a lurker for a while.

[Gareth]

the big question is; has Grant gotten you into carrying a multitool and, if so, which one?

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

[zoidberg]

Hi Megan. 

[derekmac]

Hi Megan, welcome to the nut house!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Megan]

the big question is; has Grant gotten you into carrying a multitool and, if so, which one?

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

I suppose I shouldn't hijack this thread any longer. 
I'll try to introduce myself later in the newbie forum.

[zoidberg]

the big question is; has Grant gotten you into carrying a multitool and, if so, which one?

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

I suppose I shouldn't hijack this thread any longer. 
I'll try to introduce myself later in the newbie forum.

We have a newbie forum? 

[ducttapetech]

the big question is; has Grant gotten you into carrying a multitool and, if so, which one?

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

I suppose I shouldn't hijack this thread any longer. 
I'll try to introduce myself later in the newbie forum.

Hijacking and derailing threads is what we do best here.

Nate

[derekmac]

the big question is; has Grant gotten you into carrying a multitool and, if so, which one?

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

I suppose I shouldn't hijack this thread any longer. 
I'll try to introduce myself later in the newbie forum.

Hijacking and derailing threads is what we do best here.

Nate

And drinking coffee!  Speaking of, I must go put a pot on now.

[ducttapetech]

Good idea! More cOfFeE!!!!

Nate

[Lichtbote]

Not for me - only Tuesday and Friday.

[ducttapetech]

Not for me - only Tuesday and Friday.

What? You only drink coffee 2 days a week? What's wrong with you?
LOL!

Nate

[Gareth]

Not for me - only Tuesday and Friday.

What? You only drink coffee 2 days a week? What's wrong with you?
LOL!

Nate

I'm getting withdrawl symptoms just thinking about it!

[Megan]

I am quite sure I drank the world's supply of coffee this morning.
So sorry about that.

[Lichtbote]

A long time my day was running on coffee - but i reduced it when i noticed that i drink way to much of it, due to wavering hands and a to fast pounding heart, already in the early afternoons.

And at that state of caffeination i also have the tendency to be even more cranky than usual. 

[zoidberg]

I am quite sure I drank the world's supply of coffee this morning.
So sorry about that.

It was YOU.   

[ducttapetech]

Its cool. I got a grain silo full of coffee beans for 'just in case'

Nate

[ducttapetech]

Not for me - only Tuesday and Friday.

What? You only drink coffee 2 days a week? What's wrong with you?
LOL!

Nate

I'm getting withdrawl symptoms just thinking about it!

I know eh!

Nate

[Gareth]

I am quite sure I drank the world's supply of coffee this morning.
So sorry about that.

It was YOU.   

And here I was blaming Kirky.

[zoidberg]

Its cool. I got a grain silo full of coffee beans for 'just in case'

Nate

We have the same numbers in our postcount but in a different order. 

[derekmac]

I am quite sure I drank the world's supply of coffee this morning.
So sorry about that.

 

[ducttapetech]

Its cool. I got a grain silo full of coffee beans for 'just in case'

Nate

We have the same numbers in our postcount but in a different order. 

Cool!

Nate

[ducttapetech]

I am quite sure I drank the world's supply of coffee this morning.
So sorry about that.

 

IT'S OK! It's ok Derekmac, you got a spare can in the back. Calm down, small sips now......

Nate

[derekmac]

I am quite sure I drank the world's supply of coffee this morning.
So sorry about that.

 

IT'S OK! It's ok Derekmac, you got a spare can in the back. Calm down, small sips now......

Nate

Deep breath in..................  Deep breath out................

I'm OK now.  'sips coffee'  Much better actually!

[zoidberg]

Turns out I still had coffee so no drama llama here. 

[ducttapetech]

Nate

[Grant Lamontagne]

At the risk of derailing this wonderful coffee thread....

The Bio Lite got another workout a couple of weeks ago as Megan and I ventured out into the woods to make lunch.  What set this attempt to make lunch different was that it was well below freezing and there were huge amounts of snow everywhere.   



Megan used the SOG Entrenching Tool (aka folding shovel) to find and then clear a surface to set up the stove.



After digging out a suitable rock to put the stove on we realized that the surface was very uneven so I evened it out slightly with chunks of frozen snow.  Surprisingly that isn't the best surface to mount a stove on. 



Then it was time to light the stove, which lead us to a slight unforeseen problem- no fuel.  Any dead, dry wood would be several feet below us, under the snow, and green wood would be far too wet to get the stove started.  In the past attempts,  wet wood wasn't an issue as the stove usually burns hot enough that wet wood dries and burns quite well, but that only works once the stove is already hot.  Getting it started is another matter entirely, and this stove is hungry- it burns through wood very quickly, so you really do need a goodly amount of dry wood just to get it started.



Eventually we got a bit of a burn going and we got into the next problem- the stove started to melt through the frozen snow base it was sitting on, so I folded the SOG E-Tool partially to create a metal base for the stove to sit on.



Which lead to the next problem.... we had brought along some Mountain House Lasagne to have for lunch, but the only water we had was frozen from being in the back of the Jeep.  Luckily Megan had her Freestyle handy and we quickly cut the plastic bottle away.



I ended up spilling a goodly amount of that water and ended up supplementing it with snow as I was too lazy to trudge through the snow back to the Jeep for another bottle.  I could have made it all with snow, but I wanted an excuse to use a multitool to keep things relevant. 



Meanwhile, Megan kept searching out dry wood and breaking it up with the Freestyle as well.



Eventually the stove boiled the water- it took longer than usual because even the dry wood had snow and ice crystals all over it and we ended up with lots of steam in addition to the fire, which never really progressed much past the ember stage.  There was some flame, but not as much as in past tests with this stove.



Eventually we managed to boil the water and make lunch.



It may not have been the most appetizing looking lunch, and we started into it while it was still a bit crunchy, but by this point we were pretty hungry. 

Out came the Eat'n Tools!  Megan used the Eat'n Tool XL.



Megan had quite a few spoonfuls (sporkfuls?) and was forced to admit that the lasagne tasted a lot better than it looked.  Then once Megan had her fill, it was time to feed dear old Uncle Def, who had been rolling in the snow bellowing "FEED ME!" over and over again.  I used the standard Eat'n Tool so I also got my hands covered in reconstituted tomato sauce.



We had brought along 1,000,000 post Eat'n Tools but had left them in the Jeep and ended up using standard ones because that is what I keep in the bag with the stove and camping pots/pans.



Overall the Bio Lite functioned well enough to cook lunch, but was severely hampered by the lack of fuel.  It functioned well enough to cook lunch but never really managed to build up enough heat to create enough surplus energy to charge a phone/GPS/flashlight etc.  Even so, it did cook lunch well enough that we didn't feel the need to pack it up and switch to the Svea Optima 123 that we had along as a backup.

Megan was somewhat more disappointed with the Bio Lite on this outing than I was- I still maintain that for a longer excursion this stove would be preferable to the Svea Optima 123 or others since you don't need to bring along fuel.  Megan argued that since fuel (dry wood) was harder to come by in the winter, the Bio Lite suffered greatly.  She did agree that for lengthy excursions it would probably be better to have the Bio Lite as wood would be easier to source than white gas in the wild, but for a few days or less she would have preferred the Svea Optima.  For a short excursion the Bio Lite wasn't really worth the effort that went into it- the snow we were trudging through to find wood was hip deep, and a lot of energy was expended just to try and boil water.  Had this been a survival situation I'm not certain we'd be able to reclaim the energy lost trying to light the Bio Lite and keep it burning, and it still wasn't enough to even charge a cell phone or other device.

I still like the Bio Lite, but I don't think the designers had a Canadian winter in mind.

Def

[Megan]

May this photo be added to the 'soon to be photoshopped and brought back in threads for many years' pile.

[zoidberg]

(Image removed from quote.)

May this photo be added to the 'soon to be photoshopped and brought back in threads for many years' pile.

The barn door is open. 

[zoidberg]

(Image removed from quote.)

I ended up spilling a goodly amount of that water and ended up supplementing it with snow as I was too lazy to trudge through the snow back to the Jeep for another bottle.  I could have made it all with snow, but I wanted an excuse to use a multitool to keep things relevant. 

That is lazy. The Jeep is all of ten steps behind the stove. 

[Megan]

It took you guys forever to notice his fly was down.

Our day started off so pleasant.


And somehow it ended up like this...
See we faced some adversity.