Quick Start
Backcountry cooking has never been easier! Simply plug EcoSimmer into a compatible 140W or 100W USB-C battery and get cooking in minutes!
EcoSimmer requires:
Keep the following in mind
SELECTING A BATTERY OR POWER SOURCE
1. Compatibility
EcoSimmer requires 140W or 100W of continuous power delivery (PD) from USB-C. Look for batteries with explicit 140W or 100W capable USB-C ports and watch out for batteries that may step down PD as energy is consumed.
2. Capacity
Cooking requires a lot of energy, and so larger batteries tend to be best. Select a battery (or two) based on how much you plan on cooking with EcoSimmer (see below for detail on calculations).
80-100Wh batteries are common.
3. Capability
Batteries aren’t all made the same. You get what you pay for. Consider alternate uses for your battery in the backcountry: charging your phone, kindle, camera, etc., as well as how accurately do you want to know the amount of energy remaining?
OUR FAVORITE BATTERIES
For 140W or 100W single-port operation:
Anker 737 Power Bank
Weight (oz): 22.2
Spec Size (in): 6.1x 2.2 x 1.9
Energy Capacity (Wh): 86.4
Display Type: Display Screen
For 100W single-port operation:
AOHI 30000 mAh PD
Calc Weight (oz): 18.7
Spec Size (in): 6.0 x 3.5 x 1.0
Energy Capacity (Wh): 100.0
Display Type: 4 LEDs
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
See Our Battery Blog
Check out our guide on recommended batteries for EcoSimmer. We keep this up-to-date with the batteries we test and find to be compatible with EcoSimmer!
COOKING OFF-GRID HAS NEVER BEEN GREENER
Eliminate fire, flame, and fossil fuel from the backcountry.
BATTERY FAQ
Usage Efficiency
A fully charged 100 Wh battery can bring roughly 32 fl. oz. of water to a boil, or 64 fl. oz. of water to coffee temperature with EcoSimmer.
This is true for both 100W and 140W batteries. The 140W batteries use the same amount of battery power as the 100W batteries, but with their higher wattage, are able to heat the water faster.
Efficiently using your battery can lead to extra charge for your electronics or for an extra cup of hot coffee. Our best tips and tricks to do this are to:
1) Try coffee temp if your water is already purified and don’t require a boil, try heating to a lower temperature.
2) Keep the lid on to reduce heat waste and to ensure all heat goes towards warming up your food or drinks.
3) Use only as much water needed, no more water will heat linearly, so removing half the water will halve the heating time and energy drain on your battery.
4) Start with warmer water try starting with warmer water to reduce the temperature differential to coffee temp or to boiling temp.
Temperature References:
212ᵒF (100ᵒC) Boiling Temp
176ᵒF (80ᵒC) Boiling Temp
68ᵒF (20ᵒC) Room Temp
32ᵒF (0ᵒC) Freezing
1) EcoSimmer utilizes either 140W or 100 W of power to cook. The 140W power cooks about 40% faster than the 100W power.
2) EcoSimmer cooks with constant power, so because of this cook times scale roughly linearly, where cooking 2 cups generally takes about twice as long as 1 cup. To reduce cooking times use less water, example, only use the amount or water you need.
3) Most freeze dried meals, oatmeal, coffee, hot chocolate, etc. are perfect when used with 80C (i.e. Simmer Temperature) water as well as with boiling water (90C-100C depending on altitude). Using “Simmer Temperature” water reduces the amount of time needed to heat the water. This works really well with bottled or filtered or purified water so you do not need to boil the water for 2 minutes to remove impurities.
Power Sources
Yes! If you have access to a power outlet, you can use this to power EcoSimmer. Simply use a converter or power brick which can output either 140W or 100W of USB-C power to EcoSimmer.
Yes! Large power generators and solar generators with 100s and 1000s of Watt Hour (WH) of capacity that have either native 100W or native 140W USBC power, or have AC or DC ports that support 100W or 140W of power, are great sources of power to use with EcoSimmer. The AC or DC ports will require the proper USBC AC or USBC DC adapters to generate the 140W or the 100W needed by EcoSimmer.
Yes! However, EcoSimmer requires a continuous supply of 140 W or 100 W to work and solar is often too intermittent to support this. Solar however can be used to recharge batteries for a 100% fully renewable backcountry cooking solution!
Your EcoSimmer will operate at 100W.
You will operate at 100W. You only can operate at 140W with a 140W USBC power source and a 140W or 240W USBC cable.