I’ve mentioned PowerPot a couple of times in the past and at this past OR Winter Market they showed their new PowerPot X which offers twice the power of its predecessor the PowerPot V. This means you can charge two smartphones or one tablet (10w and up to 2a) via 2 USB ports, in a package that weighs in beginning at 20oz depending on whether you use the regular 2.4l or XL 3.8l model.
The concept is simple. You use the PowerPot to cook and the device converts heat into power which can be used directly or stored in a battery.
www.thepowerpot.com/power-pot-x
Tags: Outdoor Retailer, PowerPot
Have you been able to put one of the previous ones side by side with a BioLite?
Unfortunately no. They do the same thing but one is a stove and the other the pot.
Use both for all the power
We have one of the earlier models that is smaller and while it does create electricity as easily as the manufacturer claims, cooking it in is not recommended by the manufacturer. I don’t know if that has changed with this model and if it has my wife would be thrilled as she is into these type of gadgets. I couldn’t find any information on the manufacturers site about the cooking claim but if that is your plan I’d definitely investigate it further before kicking down for one in the hopes of it being a multi-purpose piece of kit. As to quality, if the new larger one is anything like the previous smaller model then it’s very solid and should offer a long service life for you.
She also has a BioLite stove as mentioned by Invictus. It’s pretty cool but I wouldn’t carry it with me in a rucksack if I had a choice as it isn’t as lightweight as lots of other options. It does perform as described but they omit that the fan assisted fire requires quite a bit of maintenance to keep it stoked and operating optimally. If you are hiking in then you can gather lots of fuel – and I do mean lots – to stock up as you will need it to get the internal battery charged back up. If you are planning to be above the treeline or in an environment that is free of vegetation then I’d advise against it completely.
Thermoelectric generators are really cool and the innovation that we are seeing with them for our use in the field leads to interesting paths which I hope these bright people do not give up on. In the end I understand that “half of nothing is nothing,” to quote my father but not all of us work with an unlimited budget or are as young as we believe ourselves to be and other items take precedent on our “little walks in the woods.” With that said and knowing the limitations they are cool to have along.
I am really wanting to love these things, as being able to generate electricity while cooking as a byproduct of the wasted energy would be useful. The problem I have with them is it only generates electricity while you are heating it. So, a typical person is going to boil water for a meal for about 10 minutes, maybe less. That’s not a lot of charge time. If you want to generate more electricity, then you need to burn up more fuel. Using an alcohol stove or isobutane canister as your heat source, that is a lot of fuel wasted. If you go the route of putting the pot over a wood or propane source, then you are going to boil away a lot of water, which might be in shorter supply than your fuel source.
I’d like to see these thermoelectric stoves be able to supercharge a battery that could then be used to charge other devices over time. Something like a 10 minute boil time would generate an hour or two of charge time.
I really can’t fault the PowerPot or the Biolite stove as they do generate electricity, but what we need is a rapid charge storage battery.
The BioLite does have a battery. However, as mentioned above, it does seem to be a challenge to keep a legit charge in it and get the power out of it so your point does still stand to some extent.