Product Name: BioLite KettlePot Price: $49.95 Who would like this?: Eco-friendly camping enthusiasts who love their gadgets
When you're camping, efficiency is key. Nothing takes you out of the serenity of nature quite like lugging a bulging backpack filled with clanking pots and pans on an uphill hike. Luckily, the lightweight and eco-friendly BioLite KettlePot addresses this problem, while also offering a novel way to charge your gadgets au naturel.
Image: BioLite
As its name would suggest, this handy gadget serves a dual purpose as both kettle and pot for campers who like to travel light with their cookware. The pot is made from food-safe, ultra-thin stainless steel, which BioLite boasts is "more durable than anodized aluminum and easier to clean." Silicone handles allow for easy pouring and fold up for portability, while a silicone seal keeps the top securely fastened as you cook. The KettlePot can brew coffee or make a hearty soup for up to four campers at a time.
Image: BioLite
The KettlePot should be used alongside BioLite's CampStove ($130), a portable camping stove that burns sticks, twigs, pine cones and other biomass instead of petroleum gas for a more eco-friendly method of cooking in the great outdoors. The stove is designed with efficiency in mind: A fan blows air into the fire while a heat shield protects it from the elements, creating a stronger-burning flame. The stove, which is about the size of a liter of bottled water, collapses to fit neatly inside the KettlePot for simple storage.
Best of all, a USB port on the side of the stove draws power from the heat of the fire, enabling you to charge your laptop or smartphone, even in the middle of nowhere.
Image: BioLite As a company, BioLite's goal has been to develop and manufacture energy products that “make cooking as clean, safe and easy as modern fuels while also providing electricity to charge cellphones and LED lights-off grid." Their sustainable design aesthetic has also led to the development of the HomeStove, a device geared at helping families in developing nations cook more safely and efficiently.
According to the developers, the HomeStove is designed to eliminate "waste heat" generated by smoky open fires, which contribute to climate change and cause more more than 2 million premature deaths each year. Its efficient design uses 50% less fuel than an open stove and generates electricity that can be used to charge phones and LED lights, while also reducing smoke emissions by up to 95% and producing 91% less carbon monoxide.
Would you use a BioLite KettlePot? Tell us in the comments.
Image: Flickr, Martin Lopatka