Top-5 fuel-free gadgets

Gas, diesel (or petrol), mains electricity, battery power… these are all essential requirements of any successful camping or caravanning trip – or are they?

Until electric tow vehicles with rooftop solar panels become mainstream, most camping trips will still require a good supply of fossil fuel along with plug-in power, but there's an increasing number of products available that require little or no power to run… at least that from a bottle or socket.

Here are five of our favourites…

WaterLily turbine

A bit like a miniature wind or water turbine that you can slot in your backpack, the crowd-funded WaterLily has just gone into production and is set to revolutionise the portable ‘fuel free’ industry.

The unique design is placed in moving water or exposed to wind gusts to generate energy and re-charge your devices, via a supplied USB cable.

It can be used day or night, and even towed by a boat or canoe. Or if there’s not enough wind or flowing water nearby, cranked by hand to generate the power.

Depending on water and wind speeds, the Canadian makers say it can charge up a smart phone as quickly as 2.5 hours, or as fast as one hour for a GoPro camera.

You can be one of the first to own one, for $159, by visiting the WaterLily website.

GoSun cooker

Harnessing the sun’s energy to power things is nothing new, but the makers of the GoSun have taken it a step further by creating an outdoor grille/oven heated entirely by the sun.

Borrowing vacuum tube technology from solar water heaters, the GoSun was initially designed as a cooking solution for third-world nations but the solar oven also makes a great camp cooker.

Essentially, the raw food goes into the tubes and after exposure to the sun (and even on cloudy days!), it will steam, bake or roast all types of meat and vegetable dishes.

There are a range of sizes, from the compact, go-anywhere Go ($182) aimed at hikers, to the GoSun Grille ($1044) that will cook enough food for eight people.

Available from the gosunstove.com website.

RinseKit shower

The RinseKit is a portable shower system that doesn’t require an electric-powered pump to operate.

Instead, it works by storing the water pressure from a regular household tap in its patented ‘eon pressure’ chamber, to deliver pressurized spray for up to four minutes.

It takes around 20 seconds to fill the eight litre chamber via a quick connect coupler to the mains pressure tap, and the unit can hold pressure for up to one month.

The spray nozzle has seven different settings, from jet stream to soaking shower. Just recently a water heater version was introduced, that plugs into the 12V socket in your car.

The basic kit costs $149 online.

Silver Fire cookers

This is another ‘green’ cooker that makes sense for those that prefer not to cart too much fuel into the bush. It’s not exactly fuel free, although the efficient design means you don’t require too many sticks or flammable biomass materials collected around your campsite, to generate enough heat to boil a kettle or cook a meal.

It works by efficiently mixing hot flu gases with primary and secondary preheated air, resulting in very little smoke or ash.

The Silver Fire burners can be sued with a Thermopot, camp oven, skillet, or BBQ plate, with the Rocket Wood version retailing for $192 online.

Wacaco Minipresso coffee maker

If you enjoy a decent espresso coffee but also like camping off-the-grid, the tiny Minipresso machine could be the answer to your prayers.

This handheld espresso maker is entirely hand powered by a semi-automatic piston that you press several times over a period of 30 seconds to produce a shot of espresso at an average pressure of 8 bars.

For the best result, grind your beans on the spot using a manual grinder, then also add the boiling water to produce a tasty 50ml shot.

The Minipresso is available for $69 online.