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The Mrs got really excited this year with my special mystery xmas present. It was a biolite campstove2, seems to be beloved of the instagram brigade for pics of toasting marshmallows who all rave about its ability to charge phones etc.
Well I gave it a fair trial and its terrible, if you pre charge it then it can just about keep itself charged as long as you dont put the fan on too high, but try to charge anything else and you are relying on the internal battery which doesn't last long, Its big, heavy, won't work with my standard titanium mug. It needs constant tending, you cant ignore it for 20 mins without it either overheating or burning out and both of those can cause it to smoke worse than any stove i've ever seen, and thats with kiln dried kindling.
Clearly I've lit it or I wouldn't know how bad it is, but in my view it doesn't keep the promises made in the adverts.
I dont want to upset the Mrs, she tried to do something nice but its a waste. If I can return it I will, but if I'm not sure then I'll just pretend I love it until it gets sadly lost on the river.
So what do we think, Is it buyer beware or what. They do state how much power it generates (3w max) but the ads imply its going to be useful which I dispute.
I’d never heard of one
Reading this
I can’t see anything that’s not true. I mean contradicts what you wrote
Is there something that implies more
I’d take view that my wife is more important than the stove.
Take the gift in the manner intended, and at some point gently substitute (the stove) not the wife.
If you are used to this stuff then all the clues are there, lost of 5 star reviews and then some 1 and 2 star reviews and those are the ones to read. They basically said what you just said. But if you aren't cynical then it looks like it should be great and is 'award winning' (another clue). I'm not sure there is much you can do other than adding another 1 star review which might prompt them to offer to take it back
I've seen these for years.
I always wondered about the sanity of strapping a big lithium ion battery to a fire
You could always ask them if the poor battery performance means it's faulty.
My wife suffers with Raynaud syndrome so one year I bought her a Zippo hand warmer. Never gets used. Another year, I bought her some Piggies colour matched to her bike. She told me in no uncertain terms that they were never going on her bike.
Gift giving can be fraught with danger.
Contact the manufacturer direct, they are more often than not happy to refund the price.
They would I think naturally offer to replace, but if you're not happy you're not happy and thats that. Besides, there's bound to be some sort of 'not up to expectations' point in any consumer law.
It's a shame because its such a good idea, but perhaps the tech isnt up to it yet for small "off the wall" generation systems.
I suspect a £20 gas stove and seperate powerbank would be a fraction of the price and do everything better.
Shame the OP's wife was conned by the advertising as going by the numerous 1 star reviews it is hopeless at either charging the battery or boiling water.
My family are mostly trained to just give me malt whisky. Nice haul this year. You can't go wrong.
PS Someone has done a proper reviewe and agrees you are better with a gas stove and powerbank.
"We decided to run a comparison of the following considering weight, cooking efficiency and phone charging capacity;
-
<li class="p1"> the Biolite Campstove 2
<li class="p1">an average gas stove (a Whisperlite) or an average pot style stove (a stove that uses wood sticks without fan technology) along with a battery bank (Anker Powercore)
When comparing the two, the ‘other’ stove plus battery bank always won."
https://outdoorsandonthego.com/gear-review-biolite-campstove-2/
3watts at peak. That's a bit useless if you need the fan on to get peak generation.
Better with a Dyno hub at that point. Don't need a fire then 🙂
Yes, all the complaints on their website are answered along the lines of 'sorry you feel that way, would you like some tips on how to light a fire'.
This isn't my first biomass camp stove
To be fair, theres nothing wrong with it, they tell you the specs if you really look, but its a lot harder to find than all the fancy marketing pics of people sitting round with marshmallows and charging phones with abandon.
I think I'm just going to suck this one up, she was trying and was so pleased.Its going to have to 'get lost' tho, theres no way i'm using it