Meet BioLite BaseCamp

Cooking with wood has never been smarter - get all the flavor and fun of a wood fire, without the smoke.

Grill or boil at the flip of a switch - meet all your cooking needs seamlessly.

Bring portable power to your backyard or campsite - we turn wood into electricity. You read that right.

The BioLite BaseCamp is a complete off-grid cooking and energy solution for groups, powered by wood. Using only fallen branches or small pieces of firewood, you can make wood-fired meals and charge your devices all at the same time. It's a smart alternative to fossil-fueled stoves, creating an elevated cooking fire that burns smarter than any campfire you're used to.

Over the past year, our team has been developing this product using feedback from our early BioLite customers, owners of the original BioLite CampStove. We're here today to ask you to help us fund our first production run. We turn wood into electricity - we need your help to turn our newest product into reality.

Behind the Design

How it Works

The BaseCamp converts heat from the fire into usable electricity via a thermoelectric generator housed within the orange power pack. 

This powers a fan that blows air back into the burn chamber for improved combustion. The surplus electricity is then sent to a USB port, allowing you to charge your devices.

Charging Capabilities

The BioLite Basecamp puts out 5W of usable electricity via a standard 5V USB port meaning you can charge everyday useful devices like smartphones, GPS, headlamps, your GoPro, or even tablets. We designed the powerpack to house a battery, meaning you now have the option to charge while you are cooking OR whenever is most convenient for you, without the need for a live fire

Thanks to our LED indicator dashboard, you can see how hot the fire is and optimize your charging experience

Features

Fuel

There's nothing better than a meal with friends over a campfire - but we could all do without the smoke. Propane and charcoal are an option, but carrying canisters and fuel creates a disconnect between your meals and your outdoor experience. The BaseCamp provides the rustic experience of cooking with wood with the innovative technology of electrical cogeneration to fulfill a full range of outdoor energy needs.

Whether you're looking for a new backyard fire pit, a new piece of gear for car camping, or the ultimate tailgating accessory, BaseCamp is for you.

The Origins of BaseCamp

The BioLite BaseCamp is a product years in the making. When BioLite took its flagship product, the BioLite CampStove, to a wood combustion conference in 2009, we quickly realized that the application for our technology went far beyond outdoor recreation. 

Half the planet still cooks on smoky open fires, killing more people annually than AIDS and Malaria combined. This motivated our team to develop the BioLite HomeStove, a low-cost biomass cookstove that dramatically reduces emissions while co-generating usable electricity. Since 2009, BioLite has developed 4 generations of prototypes and is currently selling thousands of HomeStoves through our pilot retailers in India, Ghana, and Uganda.

Our users in the outdoor recreation and emergency preparedness markets have been incredibly supportive of our HomeStove work, but many have also let us know that they too are interested in the larger stove. So we got to work...

The Product Development Behind BaseCamp

"So why not just produce more HomeStoves to sell them here?"

This is a question we heard a lot as people learned of our HomeStove program. At BioLite, we design products that focus on the needs of our customers. While there are many common needs between the emerging markets and off-grid outdoor recreation community, there are also several nuances to these respective experiences that make for very different final products.

As we worked on the design development of BaseCamp, we kept three core things in mind:

1. Group Access - How do we take the benefits of the BioLite CampStove and extend it to larger groups of people who want to be cooking in the outdoors together?

2. Improved Power - As electricity needs increase and more outdoor gear becomes USB-rechargable, how can we provide more on-demand power when our users need it?

3. Usability and Portability - What design improvements can we incorporate to facilitate a fun cooking experience and an easy way to move the BaseCamp from point A to point B?