Biolite CampStove 2 Review

The Biolite CampStove 2 Written Review Review by The Good Ride

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This is the Evo exclusive model that comes in black but other than the color it is exactly the same as the standard model.

Biolite CampStove 2 – How it cooks and who its for

Days: About 20+

Conditions: Everything from cold and pretty windy to hot and no wind.

Biolite CampStove 2 2020 vs. Biolite CampStove 2+ 2021

There is not much of a difference between the two stoves. The only major difference is the battery is bigger at 3200 mAh vs. 2600 mAh. Everything else seems to be the same.

About The Light

The light attached to the iolite CampStove 2 is a pretty cool feature and it does help you cook at night for sure. It lights up a camp table at most state/national parks well enough. I like more light but it is always good to have something to shine on what you are cooking.

About The French Press

It works well enough but it is a bitch to clean if you have limited water. I usually do so I stopped using it.

How it Cooks

There is a fan with 4 speeds that really does a good job giving you more or less heat.

I wish the Biolite CampStove 2 grill had a wind shield like most gas stove grills. This would really help. I have to line it up with the wind if I want anything to cook evenly. Otherwise I have to be super vigilant and keep rotating the food out of the hot spot so it doesn’t burn. Especially with Hot Dogs/Sausages. You can easily burn one end and not the other. Even if you have no wind or line it up well with the wind the grill doesn’t evenly distribute the heat. It isn’t terrible though and you just have to flip a little more.

The positive of all this vs. a gas stove is the taste. Cooking with wood pellets tastes soo much better. Especially with the different types of pellet’s like mesquite, hickory, cherry, apple, maple, pecan, alder & many others out there for sale. This is why I put up with the uneven cooking vs. a gas stove. If I run out of pellets I can also just pick up wood around the camp site and still use it. I don’t have to go buy more gas.

Boiling Water

I didn’t break out a stop watch and time it but the Biolite CampStove 2’s kettle pot boils pretty quickly when full .I still had enough fire to cook breakfast after. Its easy to pour too and a very well thought out kettle.

Packablity

For car camping the Biolite CampStove 2 is excellent but for someone backpacking I’m not sure. If I were able to get out on a long backpacking run I would not bring the grill. Instead I would just bring the kettle and maybe a small pan. What is cool is everything packs inside the kettle so it is pretty compact. Not really needing pellets makes it pretty light. You could always gather up sticks and such to cook out of.

Adding More Pellets Mid-Cook

This is a bad idea. Every time I added more pellets mid-cook to the Biolite CampStove 2 the fire got really smoky or completely went out.

Charging Devices

I found that it charges a device well but I didn’t find it to be as useful as I thought. That being said, I have charged the stove battery once from an outlet and never needed to re-charge it since. Every time I light the fire it recharges the battery so it can power the stove fan. That to me is really cool. So you can use the Biolite CampStove 2 Complete Cook Kit for charging your devices but it is more as a back up option at breakfast before starting the day. If you have the time at night you could run it as long as you need to and get most devices completely charged. The Biolite Firepit is better for this.

Cleaning

Except for the French Press the Biolite CampStove 2 is really easy to clean. I really like how the pellets burn super clean and there is only a little bit of ash when you are done.

Cool Down

This cools down pretty fast. Depending on the weather it seemed to take about 10-20 minutes to cool down.

Conclusion

So the Biolite CampStove 2  is a very versatile camp stove that cooks with much better flavor than gas. If you can get past the uneven grill cooking then you have a pretty amazing little stove.