BioLite Basecamp Pizza Dome Review

If you’re looking for the perfect campfire cooking experience without all of the hassles of an actual campfire or looking for a great grilling experience without the need to lug or rely on propane tanks, the BioLite Basecamp and Pizza Dome can give you what you’re looking for by combining the two. BioLite started out as a Kickstarter project in 2015 and today it boasts the most effective environmental friendly oven on the market.

Pros & Cons

The Pros

The Cons

High-quality stainless steel and cast iron construction Convenient folding legs that allow you to place the stove directly on the ground or on an elevated surface Lithium-ion battery functions as both battery for fan pumping heat into the chamber and a charging bank for smartphones and other devices when the stove isn’t in use Lack of a need for propane helps save money on refueling Lightweight and portable BioLite works toward a good cause

Finding the right size of wood pieces can be a challenge Smoke flavor is inevitable Maintaining temperature is a little difficult

Design

The design of this outdoor stove is what makes it one of the best available if you want a natural wood-fire pizza oven.

BioLite’s Performance with the Pizza Dome

With the Basecamp stove, we used the Pizza Dome that BioLite also offers as an attachment, which allows for much better cooking of pizzas and effectively converts the stove into an oven. We got the oven cooking to around 45o degrees Fahrenheit within around 20 minutes and we were ready to insert the pizza. You may have to toy around with the settings to get the best results when cooking your pizza, but we were able to enjoy some great-tasting pizza within around five minutes of cooking time.

You can even use this stove and Pizza Dome with frozen pizza, which will effectively help reduce some of the toxicity that you would normally get with this type of pizza. And the smoky flavor that you get may not be a bad thing if you like that signature wood-fire stove taste.

Issues with BioLite Basecamp

While there’s plenty to love about the BioLite, there are some issues worth addressing.

For one, locating wood of the right size for the Basecamp can be a challenge. You can use some smaller pieces such as twigs, but these will burn up quickly to the point where you’ll spend more time looking for wood to keep the fire burning than you will actually cooking, even with the extending tray. The key to avoiding this is to prepare beforehand and find the right wood pieces prior to using the stove.

We also struggled to maintain a consistent temperature as the pizza cooked, which could be due to the lack of preparedness when it came to the wood. With ample-sized wood pieces, you can more effectively manage temperature settings.

Also, keep in mind that with a wood-fire stove like this, a smoke flavor on your food will be mostly unavoidable. While this might not matter too much with foods you would normally cook in a campfire, it might make your pizzas and other food items taste a bit different from what you’re used to cooking. However, the Pizza Dome helps mitigate this if you’d prefer to use the Basecamp specifically for pizza.

Why Buy the BioLite?

Apart from enjoying this stove along with the Pizza Dome, we admire BioLite as a company because of the company’s mission, which makes every purchase worthwhile. Every time you buy one of their products, some of the proceeds will go toward providing the resources needed for clean cooking, electricity, and heating in third-world nations. You’ll not only get great products with BioLite, but you’ll also be comfortable in knowing that some of your money is going toward a good cause.