Biolite CampStove 2 Midnight Edition Bundle Unboxing and Review

Originally posted 2019-03-27 01:41:43.

Everyone enjoys the crackling warmth of a good camp fire. It’s familiar and primal in it’s connection to us – but open fires have their own long list of issues. Probably the most annoying (and toxic) among them is smoke, the exhaust emissions of carbon created when a material is burned. If you’ve ever been around an open campfire and got caught by an unfortunate breeze, you are well aware of what a bummer smoke is. Recently I was contacted by someone at the company BioLite to see if I had an interest in reviewing their newer and improved Biolite CampStove 2 Midnight Edition, and in doing so I got an opportunity to see how Biolite is helping to tackle issues with open fire cooking and access to electricity, worldwide. The results are some very exciting products I am going to share with you right now!

The first thing you should know about the Biolite CampStove 2 Midnight Edition is that it’s exclusively available through Biolite’s website. The Midnight edition of CampStove 2 features a darker onyx colored battery and accessories, while the standard CampStove2 features an orange battery pack and kettle handle. Now that I have that cliff note out of the way, let’s check it out!

Biolite CampStove 2 is a second generation product that builds and improves upon the initial design that was brought to us with the original BioLite campStove. The actual metal portion of the stove appears to remain largely unchanged, but the real magic of these stoves is in the TEG, or thermoelectric energy generator unit. This electronic devices affixes to the metal body of the stove and is the literal powerhouse of the whole set up. On the CampStove 2, this TEG has been greatly enhanced, with a more powerful fan and better electricity generating capability. Compared to the original Biolite CampStove, this new and improved unit produces 50% more power and the new LED dashboard is much more informative, with power bars for the battery level, fan speed (the Biolite CampStove 2 has four fan speeds, while the original only had two) and fire heat level. That’s a lot more data at the tip of your hands to control the optimum conditions for boiling water, cooking or juicing up your cell phone and other electronics. Overall, it’s just a beefier electric generator that is capable of injecting more air into your fire, largely eliminating smoke when utilized correctly and it will generate 3W of power to be used for charging electronics via the included USB cable.

Biolite CampStove 2 Midnight Edition Demonstration and Testing

So the big test came on this last Sunday. I set up the Biolite CampStove 2 midnight out in the front driveway to give it a whirl. We have a giant grove of scrub oak that grows on the property I live on, and there’s an abundance of small dead branches and twigs that serve well as tinder and small fuel. Along with these I had some seasoned logs that you can buy at a gas station – so all the fuel used during the demonstration was just basic wood and biomass easily accessible to me at the time. Since we had a recent couple of snowstorms, some of the oak twigs were a little bit damp but I thought this would be an interesting variable to test out the stove. I did utilize a small chunk of the included fire starter that comes with the CampStove 2 bundle in order to get the party started – and after wasting a few matches, it was pretty easy to get an initial fire going inside of the stove.

While there was some initial smoke when the kindling started to smolder and burn, a quick tap on the power button of the CampStove 2 initiates the unit’s built in fan – which injects fresh air into the fire container via many holes inside of the metal. This ingenious little design gives the fire ample oxygen to burn as clean as possible, and it’s really quite amazing how little smoke the unit produces if you have the settings tuned in just right.

Getting water boiling on the Biolite CampStove 2 midnight is a breeze, the included kettle will hold 1.5 liters of water total and I was able to bring two cups to a boil within 5 minutes, given proper fuel for the fire. The kettle is designed for this stove because it has open areas at the bottom that allow the fire container to continue to get fresh air as it burns. The kettle is solid and features folding rubber handles so you don’t burn yourself while picking it up. Do note that the instructions for the kettle (and for any cooking device with a handle) specifies that you should keep the handle of the cooking device in line with the battery unit to prevent the handle from getting too hot.

Boiling up some water while simultaneously charging my Samsung tablet!

The Biolite Campstove 2 bundle also includes a small detachable grill which features two folding legs, giving you a superb small grilling surface. The grill is merely set up on top of the head of the stove, and balances by the two folding legs. Be sure to place this on an even flat surface as the grill doesn’t “clip” into the camp stove anywhere, it just essentially rests on top of the stove – so being on an even and flat surface is pretty important to make sure you don’t topple it over accidentally.

I found that using the grill was best suited with a lower fan speed, which allows the flames to reach further into the grill portion and distribute more evenly. My test was performed with two sacrificial bratwursts I’ve been saving – also, quick shout out to Frank Silva and All Natural Homestead beef for providing me with the delicious and humanely raised meat for the test! Once I got the proper amount of heat going within the stove, using some of the larger sticks I had collected, there was plenty of heat going on the grill to cook up these two brats. I did some intermittent re-fueling of the stove whilst cooking, but the flip top makes access to the fire chamber very simple to open (with either tongs or a glove, don’t touch with your bare hands guys!)

Included in the Campstove 2 bundle is an LED light that plugs into the USB port – this is super handy for night time usage – It’s comprised of a stiff metal cord that allows the light to be bent to the appropriate angle for whatever you need the light on – and you merely tap the light to turn it on and off. It’s a small but very convenient and thoughtful addition to the package.

Once I was done experimenting, I merely turned the fan on high and allowed the fire to burn down – the efficiency of the Biolite campstove 2 midnight is that it will burn itself out rather quickly (within 10 minutes or so once new fuel is no longer being introduced). Once everything is cooled down, I tossed the ash into a available home depot bucket with some water to make sure everything was extinguished properly – and that concluded a very successful first fire with the CampStove 2!

From a survival gear perspective, the CampStove 2 is a great asset to have on hand in case of a power outage. Unlike the traditional fuel canister stoves, you have the ability to operate the Biolite stove with any sort of natural fuel that’s lying around such as pine cones, leaves, twigs and any other sort of dry biomass. The ability to generate your own electricity is astounding and has the potential to really be a life saver if you’re off grid and far from a wall outlet with a dead cell phone. My testing with my tablet showed about a 15% charge after 20 minutes from a completely dead device, about on par with the rate of charging it would have by plugging it into a traditional wall outlet. Combined with the very low smoke output, this stove really should be on every prepper’s wish list – a simple way to cook and generate electricity is right up my alley and I couldn’t be happier being an owner of CampStove 2 !!

In case you aren’t able to find the Biolite Campstove 2 midnight edition – it’s a limited edition release and you can ONLY find it on Biolite’s site, it’s not available on Amazon as far as I am aware. You can either click on this link or click on the picture in this paragraph in order to get to this product. Personally, I love the darker color scheme – it’s sexy and it knows it! The default campstove 2 bundle will feature an orange battery pack and orange / blue kettle, but aside from the color scheme I believe they are functionally identical. At any rate – check it out!

Biolite Basecamp - used in homes all over Africa and India — Biolite Basecamp – used in homes all over Africa and India

Biolite is a company with an excellent mission – they aren’t just making these products for fortunate suburbanite campers in the US – but rather the focus is to provide people in developing nations with access to safer methods of home cooking and electricity generation. Their website states that open fire cooking can be attributed to over 4 million deaths per year, due to chronic inhalation of carbon and soot caused by the smoke of an open fire. While we here in the US may not even think about it, there are millions of people across the world that cook all of their meals and sanitize their water over open fire, each and every day. Biolite uses portions of every sale to help provide their products to the people that need them the most. It’s an honorable and ethical mission that has created some very brilliant real world solutions for pressing real world problems. To learn more about Biolite’s mission, you can read about it here.