This is one of the coolest things that I have purchased for camping. It's very small and lightweight so it is easy to take backpacking. You don't have to worry about propane tanks you can just use twigs in cuttings from your surrounding area. Definitely last longer if you're able to cut up some larger logs into wedges to feed It. But this thing is awesome! The USB is a cool feature but takes a little while to charge your phone. Definitely worth the money

Awesome stove! Boils water in matter of minutes! Does it charge a cell phone and other electronics? Why yes it does..... Having said that I found that you will have to burn a small forest to get it done! See the green light on the stove? Means that it is charging! The secret to it is to keep the heat up to charge. No light no charge!
Cooks a mean steak.

I was initially hesitant to purchase this item due to the price tag, but I felt like it would make a good gift for my outdoorsy brother so I bit the bullet and picked one up before buying him one as well. After it arrived I convinced my wife to let me take her camping so I could test it out in conditions that would necessitate its use.
Wow - seriously. This thing is nuts. It gets so hot that the coals constantly glow red hot inside. On high speed (the fan settings on the outside) I had 4 eggs and bacon strips cooked up and ready to eat in about 8 minutes. Boiling water took a bit longer, but still faster than I feel I could have done it on my stovetop.
After that trip it kind of just sat on a shelf in the event that I ever got around to camping again. I did purchase another unit for my brother that he literally keeps it in his trunk whenever he heads out on a lengthy road trip. My brother has freely advertised his unit to all his friends and has probably helped BioLite sell another 30 units all on his own.
Fast forward a few months to Hurricane Matthew that tore along the east US coast. I was in one of the cities affected by the storm and was without power for about 2 weeks. This was especially difficult due to having 2 adult and two children family members visiting during that time from Europe (not the greatest of impressions for their first experience in America) and cold showers are never enjoyable.
So, I break this stove out after about the 3rd day to start cooking meat that would otherwise go bad due to lack of refrigeration. Every breakfast, lunch and dinner for about 10 days this stove kept 8 people fed, EASILY. I did get the Thermos add-on for the stove which ended up being invaluable for making coffee in the mornings. The entire stove breaks down and fits inside the Thermos, which is pretty nifty and saves space when packing a backpack or storing it on a shelf. As a parting gift I ordered another stove and gifted it to my European in-laws on their way out of town. It was WELL received and appreciated.

Alright, so you know the life story of my BioLite stove, so let me point out a few things for those potential buyers so you know what to expect:
1) This stove is voracious - utterly insatiable. You have to keep feeding it to maintain the heat necessary for cooking things. I will caveat this though. Fire consumes, right? So, it is to be expected that if you introduce a source of fuel to fire, that source will be reduced as it is consumed. The harder the fuel source, the longer it takes to be consumed. That should be common sense, but I didn't come around to the obvious without some trial and error. On my camping trip, I was using pine-cones and dry fuels of that nature (Wet fuel is a no-no and will irreparably break your stove - I'll explain in the next point). But... Lump Hardwood Charcoal (which is healthier to cook with than briquettes anyway) is a very hard fuel source. I have learned that the fastest way to get up and running is to fill the stove cavity with hardwood charcoal, dribble a very small amount of lighter fluid over it, wait a second or two for it to soak in, then light it. Breakfast in half an hour or less - I guarantee it.
2) I do not recommend getting the grill add-on for this stove... It is made of really cheap metal and I've found that putting a skillet directly on top the stove works just fine, and long as you can balance your cooking apparatus. A round pot without a long horizontal handle works even better.
3) When the stove heats up, it trips a sensor in the attached thermal-charging battery/fan that you attach to the side during set-up. At the base of the inside of the stove canister, there is a small port that sits right in front of the little fan in the piggyback unit. Note: The fan blades are PLASTIC. This is why you cannot use wet fuel with this unit and also why after you're done using it and try to turn off the fan it will not turn off. Your stove is not broken, it simply has to spin the fan while there is still a heat source near the fan blades to avoid melting them and making the stove worthless. The fan has two speeds: Keep it Hot Speed, and Burn Your Eggs Speed. I use Burn Your Eggs Speed to boil water - works very well.
4) Once you get the heat going and the fan is on, etc, you can't just plug in a USB and go to town. You must wait for the little green light to come on, indicating that there is enough of a charge being created. Only then will the stove charge an attached electronic device. (We kept two smart-phones charged enough to conduct our daily lives just by charging them during meals. Note: smart phones charge faster if you turn them off before plugging them in.)

The charge generated is a trickle, but is enough to make the difference between an emergency situation and a situation that is merely uncomfortable.

Thanks BioLite for an amazing product - I've freely advertised for you guys ever since Hurricane Matthew!
I paid full price for this stove and have purchased 3 other stoves as gifts for friends and family also at full-price. One emergency and it's worth the money, you'll see.

Received stove and Flexlite. Charged stove battery according to instruction. USB charging port does not appear to work. I sent three emails over a week to customer service at the Biolite website. I have had zero response. Big dissapointment!!! What good is it to make and sell a product if you can't provide basic customer service.

I was very excited to get this stove a few months ago. I figured the concept was very cool and sound.
The three pictures are of me attempting to keep the fire going hot long enough to charge a 3200mah power bank. The video is a bit boring, but is my attempt at using charcoal in the burn chamber. I will go into more detail later in the review.

You can look at this product one of two ways:
1. A power generator for recharging usb devices with the the added benefit of being able to cook.
2. A camping stove that generates a high stable heat with the ability to charge devices.

I will review this product on each of its merits.
1. A camp stove for cooking:
This stove is awesome at making a hot fire. You can put some paper, small dry tinder, and light. Within seconds the material burns, you kick on the fan, and you have instant hot fire. The air injection into the burn chamber makes the fire hot, clean, and stable. I love this aspect of it. Because the burn chamber is contained, the fire can start before the air is injected into the burn chamber. You get the fire going stable, load it up with larger dry materials and you're ready to cook.

2. A power generator for charging usb devices:
This functionality is a bit of a gimmick in my opinion. While the thermoelectric functionality of the unit is essential to keep the fan charged and running, I feel the ability to charge additional devices is severely lacking. I have attempted to use a multitude of materials to keep the fire hot enough, long enough to charge something. I used small dry pieces of lumber split up to keep the fire going for as long as needed to charge a 3200mah power bank. This was an experiment that yielded less than desireable results. The USB charging circuit would drop in and out even when the fan was left on low and the fire was raging coals. I fed it for close to an hour with less than 15 minutes total of available charging time.

The power bank was tested and outputted 1853mah worth of power after a full charge. (used a USB volt/mah meter to get these results) After my attempt to charge the unit off the biolite camp stove, it charged up ~250mah worth of power.

The electrical tests I performed are as follows:
5.33V without charging something
3.81v @.67A when a 1A load tester was on it.
?V @?A when a 2A load tester was on it. Unit did not produce above 3.1v to keep tester online.
4.46V @.16-.31A when a Samsung Note 4 was charging.

I have used wood, biomass (pine cones, etc..), and Charcoal and have received similar results across the board. I have found that stocking 5-6 briquettes into the fire chamber and lighting them produces significant cooking heat and some charging for over an hour. When using sticks, twigs, and other assorted biomass, the materials need to be very dry to produce the heat enough to generate power. When charging a device, it is best to have it turned off during charging. While this will charge your devices while they are on, best results are when your device is off. I would recommend charging a small power bank, but because the batteries in most are 3.7v, you lose a lot of power in the 5v to 3.7v back to 5v again conversions.

Summary: This stove really is an awesome invention if you hold it to the expectations of a camp stove and not a usb power generator. While some have mentioned it is a bit heavy for backpacking, this stove is a perfect solution for camping, prepping, bugging out, and other moderate SHTF scenarios.

Hoped you enjoyed the review as much as I enjoyed making it. This stove was NOT provided to me for a fair and honest review and all products I have reviewed are paid for out of my own pocket.