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Most serious backpackers use alcohol stoves, which burn a renewable fuel that's more efficient than wood.

sitkack 12y ago
Most serious backpackers aren't concerned with nursing portable electronics with a low efficiency TEC. People who actually need to use electronics in remote locations bring a LiPo battery and a solar charger.
- personZ 12y ago
  You seem really passionately against this. This is a camp stove. You cook things on it. It has a fan to provide a very efficient, very clean burn. It happens to have a charger on it as a side effect of being a fan driven burner. I guarantee that "getting power for free while cooking breakfast" is dramatically more efficient than a solar panel. Add that hiking I'm going to cook multiple times. Number of times I'm in open sunlight, at a fixed location for a period of time -- approximately zero. Not sure what you have against this, but it seems to be founded in the notion that you think this is a wood-powered USB charger, when it's a camp stove that also provides USB charging.
Turing_Machine 12y ago
Wood is free and available on the trail. You have to buy (and carry!) alcohol.
- dublinben 12y ago
  You could buy a lifetime supply of alcohol for the price of this stove, and carry a month's worth of it for the weight of this stove. This is a gimmick for people who can't go camping without their electronic gadgets. It's a bad stove and a bad charger put together.
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    This stove weighs 33 ounces. The Trangia backpacking alcohol stove sold by REI weighs 5.75 ounces. 1 quart of denatured ethanol weighs about 28 ounces (varies slightly depending on denaturant, but not by much). 28 + 5.75 = 33.75 > 33. Next.
    - Turing_Machine 12y ago
      Actually doing the arithmetic and demonstrating that an alcohol stove plus a standard-sized container of fuel weighs more and doesn't give you the USB charging capability gets me a -1? Nice. We won't even go into the fact that some people go backpacking in places where fuel has to be flown in (which, coincidentally, also tend to be the places where having a GPS or satellite phone can save your life).
micro_cam 12y ago
Alcohol stoves are nice and light but (along with any stove without an off valve) are technically illegal in most national forests and have started forest fires. If you spill one it is almost a guaranteed forest fire as you have invisible flame everywhere. Personally I'm a fan of isobutane models after years of fighting with white gas models.

Most serious backpackers aren't concerned with nursing portable electronics with a low efficiency TEC. People who actually need to use electronics in remote locations bring a LiPo battery and a solar charger.

personZ 12y ago
You seem really passionately against this. This is a camp stove. You cook things on it. It has a fan to provide a very efficient, very clean burn. It happens to have a charger on it as a side effect of being a fan driven burner. I guarantee that "getting power for free while cooking breakfast" is dramatically more efficient than a solar panel. Add that hiking I'm going to cook multiple times. Number of times I'm in open sunlight, at a fixed location for a period of time -- approximately zero. Not sure what you have against this, but it seems to be founded in the notion that you think this is a wood-powered USB charger, when it's a camp stove that also provides USB charging.

Turing_Machine 12y ago

Wood is free and available on the trail. You have to buy (and carry!) alcohol.

dublinben 12y ago
You could buy a lifetime supply of alcohol for the price of this stove, and carry a month's worth of it for the weight of this stove. This is a gimmick for people who can't go camping without their electronic gadgets. It's a bad stove and a bad charger put together.
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  This stove weighs 33 ounces. The Trangia backpacking alcohol stove sold by REI weighs 5.75 ounces. 1 quart of denatured ethanol weighs about 28 ounces (varies slightly depending on denaturant, but not by much). 28 + 5.75 = 33.75 > 33. Next.
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    Actually doing the arithmetic and demonstrating that an alcohol stove plus a standard-sized container of fuel weighs more and doesn't give you the USB charging capability gets me a -1? Nice. We won't even go into the fact that some people go backpacking in places where fuel has to be flown in (which, coincidentally, also tend to be the places where having a GPS or satellite phone can save your life).

micro_cam 12y ago

Alcohol stoves are nice and light but (along with any stove without an off valve) are technically illegal in most national forests and have started forest fires. If you spill one it is almost a guaranteed forest fire as you have invisible flame everywhere. Personally I'm a fan of isobutane models after years of fighting with white gas models.