Biolite 'CampStove'

Discussion in 'Other Brands' started by presscall, Mar 24, 2018.

  1. Rickybob United Kingdom Banned

    Offline
    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2015
    Messages:
    860
    I have answered my question - 'what will a burner do in the forced draft swirl pot?'

    it starts to melt is what!
    the brazed joints get too hot - I was seeing a small flame from under the burner for a while but it seems to have sealed itself again

    melts.jpg
    time for a rethink, I still think a butane adapter is possible

    perhaps some stove dude out there will consider my ham fisted efforts and devise a better method but I am not finished with it by a long way
     
  2. presscall

    presscall United Kingdom SotM Winner SotY Winner Subscriber

    Offline
    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2009
    Messages:
    13,058
    Location:
    Lancashire, United Kingdom
    Meanwhile ... cheap and plentiful kiln-dried hardwood offcuts from my local woodyard is fuelling the Biolite without a whiff of smoke or soot.

    I’m more hopeful now the weather’s heading into summer of finding some dry windfall twigs and burnable stuff, but in my part of the UK it’s mostly been damp material available that the Biolite fan drives loads of smoke out of.
     
  3. Simes

    Simes R.I.P.

    Offline
    Joined:
    Jul 26, 2004
    Messages:
    4,539
    Location:
    I'm on the way....
    Don't they just smoke......so much from a small fire.

    @Rickybob

    As a forced draught solid fuel stove it is optimised for combustion of wood gas in the upper part of the container. You will have to mimic that effect with whatever fuel you choose to use.

    My impression is iginiting in the base won't work as you've found. The fire is to low in the chamber.

    How about looking into a ore contollled open flow, ie no nipple and control flow rate with the valve to attempt the burn in the upper part of the chamber.

    Not sure what the aditional swirl will achieve with already fully combusted hydrocarbons. Blue flames at the base.
     
  4. geeves

    geeves New Zealand Subscriber

    Offline
    Joined:
    Sep 29, 2009
    Messages:
    6,616
    Location:
    Christchurch NZ
    I looked at these stoves for sale recently and thought "How much?" I can understand the desire to play to see if you can make it do something it wasnt designed to do but over here that is a $150 stove and I can buy a perfectly good gas stove for $28. Unless you seriously improve the efficiency of the doner stove its not worth the effort.
    What happens if you drop a triangia burner in there?
     
  5. Rickybob United Kingdom Banned

    Offline
    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2015
    Messages:
    860
    geeves said ' What happens if you drop a triangia burner in there? '

    hopefully it would disappear without a trace
    but I will go and find out - back in a quick
     
  6. Rickybob United Kingdom Banned

    Offline
    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2015
    Messages:
    860
    my dear fellow - you may be on to something!

    smudgepotII.jpg

    starts off ok - got a good swirl

    smudgepotI.jpg

    biased as I am regarding the Swedish ' smudge pot ' I never dreamed of trying it

    when it heats up the meths boils and it runs with a sooty flame

    smudgepotIII.jpg

    but that's what they do

    certainly promising but the burner needs a mod to cover the centre and keep the flames around the edge
     
  7. Rickybob United Kingdom Banned

    Offline
    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2015
    Messages:
    860
    i'm on it
     
  8. Simes

    Simes R.I.P.

    Offline
    Joined:
    Jul 26, 2004
    Messages:
    4,539
    Location:
    I'm on the way....
    @Rickybob

    Apologies but my previous post was a little late at night and probably didn't make enough sense.

    As a pyrolyser the Biolite is optimised for the available gas flow rate from solid fuel, which isn't particularly great, but enough for decent tar/smoke free fire.

    Utilising pure gas will eliminate this stage of the process and you are introducing pure hydrocarbons into the chamber. The flame front will therefore be on the flame plate.of the stove you have fitted.

    Removing the flame plate will just guve a single jet of burning gas, the flame front close to the nipple, controlled by the gas flow rate at that point.

    Thr conclusion woukd be to raise the flame front into the upper part of the chamber. This could be achieved by increasing flow rate to push the flame front further up. Higher pressure required here. Hopefully the Biolite swirl effect will then spread the gas within the chamber.

    Gas rates will obviously be increased considerably and you might be able to construct a neat lead smelter, although I'm unsure the stove itself would last long enough.
     
  9. Rickybob United Kingdom Banned

    Offline
    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2015
    Messages:
    860
    might give that a go, but without a flame spreader the flame is unlikely to be stable

    anyhow chuck out the burner just pour meths straight in the bio wotsit and light 'er up!

    methsI.jpg

    no soot - no yellow flame just loads of heat

    methsII.jpg

    switch the fan on manually to save fuel and off it goes

    methsIII.jpg

    a pint of cold water to boiling in 4 minutes in in uncovered ti pot - then the fuel ran out

    methsIV.jpg

    I put meths in up to the level of the first row of holes

    so there you have- a fan assisted spiritburner - his excellency will be orgasmic! or not
     
  10. Rickybob United Kingdom Banned

    Offline
    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2015
    Messages:
    860
    what is needed is a way to safely replenish the fuel while the stove is burning to extend the run time above 4 minutes

    spiritI.jpg

    spiritII.jpg

    spiritIII.jpg

    spiritIV.jpg

    NO SOOT!!!!
     
  11. Rickybob United Kingdom Banned

    Offline
    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2015
    Messages:
    860
    chuffed to bits with this so I cooked my lunch on it

    lunch0.jpg

    beer, coffee and

    lunch1.jpg

    pasta with sun dried tomato and feta cheese

    lunch2.jpg

    when I get that down my neck I am back on the butane adapter... oh yes
     
  12. Rickybob United Kingdom Banned

    Offline
    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2015
    Messages:
    860
    coffee time! coffee time for bobby

    shall I plug in the electric kettle?

    no - coffee on the bio wotsit today

    coffeetime1.jpg

    the instant when the fuel runs out

    coffeetime2.jpg

    you can watch the meths ' puddle ' shrink down until all that's left is a blob of purple water which slowly evaporates

    and this is why square kettles are naff

    coffeetime3.jpg

    the lid falls in!
     
  13. geeves

    geeves New Zealand Subscriber

    Offline
    Joined:
    Sep 29, 2009
    Messages:
    6,616
    Location:
    Christchurch NZ
    If meths does that well the next things to try are hexamine tabs and wax based firestarters. A stack of hexamine should last more than a few minutes
     
  14. lanevitt

    lanevitt Subscriber

    Offline
    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2009
    Messages:
    1,616
    I was having trouble with my Biolite stove.. The battery wasn't accepting a charge, so I went looking for a replacement, just in case I couldn't revive the battery. I found one up on E Bay and plonked an opening bid on it. No other bidders for this stove so I won on the maiden bid. It looked different, a black plastic casing rather than the orange. I guessed this could have put off some of the potential competition thinking it had been painted with heat proof paint or something like that. Turns out its a "Carbon edition" a limited build of 1000 stoves each numbered
    This one is numbered 0266 and is unfired. Knowing this, it will stay unfired. Before seeing this one I never knew these had been rolled out.

    Here's a picture of it... needless to say I am rather chuffed.

    IMAG2072.jpg
     
  15. Rickybob United Kingdom Banned

    Offline
    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2015
    Messages:
    860
    Cor!
    they should do a black Trangia and call it the SOOT EDITION
     
  16. presscall

    presscall United Kingdom SotM Winner SotY Winner Subscriber

    Offline
    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2009
    Messages:
    13,058
    Location:
    Lancashire, United Kingdom
    @lanevitt
    Nice one Andrew. Even the aluminium legs are anodised black. It begs the question, since your Biolite’s battery was on the blink and because you’ll not be firing the black version, what you intend to do about a replacement?

    I photographed the battery in mine and it should be possible to google that specification and locate an equivalent. Get one with connectors already fixed to the battery terminals and solder to the connectors rather than to the battery terminals of course.

    BFFDF0EC-75BE-4A8E-9E5F-4B1619B4A1CC.jpeg

    Worst case it might be the charging circuit that’s croaked, or is about to. One of those videos made by a Canadian fettler and posted above shows the effectiveness of disconnecting the battery at the circuit board connectors, putting the stove aside for an hour or two (capacitors discharge) then reconnecting the battery. It results in a re-boot of the computer chip and (possible) business as usual.

    John
     
  17. lanevitt

    lanevitt Subscriber

    Offline
    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2009
    Messages:
    1,616
    Hi John
    I stripped out the battery and removed the heat shrink then the two cardboard discs covering both terminals. I then coaxed the battery into my Nitecore SC4 ' smart charger' ' it would not take a charge at first but a few goes at removing and refitting the battery into the charger worked.. after a while It was up and running. By that time I had forgotten which terminal to plug back into the PCB... needless to say I had the fan and the battery in the incorrect ports. It did run correctly but couldn't shut the fan off. After correctly re connecting the terminals all was good. I'm guessing when charging or trying to charge the battery via the stoves PCB it must read the battery voltage and if totally flat maybe it doesn't allow the battery to be charged.. I'm guessing this as it is a feature of the Powered wheel chairs I service. If the battery is allowed to drop below a certain voltage the supplied battery charger doesnt do its primary role of charging a depleted battery.... And they call them smart battery chargers !!!
     
  18. snwcmpr

    snwcmpr SotM Winner Subscriber

    Offline
    Joined:
    Nov 16, 2011
    Messages:
    20,086
    Location:
    North Carolina
    Nice "Bid for the WIN'.
     
  19. Simes

    Simes R.I.P.

    Offline
    Joined:
    Jul 26, 2004
    Messages:
    4,539
    Location:
    I'm on the way....
    Ian, probably teaching to suck eggs here, Li ion don't like low discharge and tends to not be interested in recharging at that point. And possible terminal damage.

    Can you find an old laptop you can salvage the battery from. They should be stacked 18650's with some life left in them. Vapers always found them as a cheap source of ecig power.

    Have a couple of 18350's that may still take a charge if you're interested..
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2018
  20. lanevitt

    lanevitt Subscriber

    Offline
    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2009
    Messages:
    1,616
    Hi Simes
    I wish I could change my log in name .. It is LA Nevitt ... I know it looks like Ian. It was my and my then wife's initials ... but hey i'm stuck with it.
    The battery is a small battery RCR 123 size and capacity.. Thanks for the offer but I have managed to get it working. As to if it was dead flat or just acting possum i'm not 100% sure. The good thing is it's going. If truth be told I must have used it and bagged it up with the fan running on my last outing with it.

    Andrew.