Anker Electronics, the worldwide leader of reusable and portable power packs, announced today a fully electronic induction-based camping stove system that eliminates the need for backpackers to carry isobutane gas canisters to boil water or cook food on the trail. Powered by USB-C-compatible rechargeable batteries, this new, ultralight “Hermes” stove system uses an electrified induction burner that boils water faster and more cleanly than existing stoves while reducing waste and pollution on the trail. Completely flameless, the Hermes wilderness induction cooking stove will also reduce the threat of backcountry forest fires.

Today, backpackers and campers carry stoves powered by isobutane or propane canister gas, which are only sold in highly pressurized metal containers that are often discarded in wilderness areas or end up in landfills. In contrast, the Hermes induction cook system is fully electric, powered by a rechargeable battery and requiring no flame. It creates a magnetic field that generates electric currents inside the metal of your cooking pot, so much less energy is lost to the surrounding air, and it uses energy much more efficiently than gas. If this sounds like rocket science, it is. But it completely eliminates the need for cooking gas, fossil fuels, or open flames for wilderness cooking.

Powering cooking stoves with electricity isn’t new. Our homes are full of them. “The real technological breakthroughs,” says Zhou Jianbincha, a next-generation battery expert and head of Anker’s Advanced Technology Lab,” were inventing a miniaturized induction coil that runs on a rechargeable battery and making the battery significantly lighter than the gas canisters backpackers currently use, for the same cook-time capacity. That weight reduction will drive rapid consumer adoption.”

The first Hermes wilderness cook system includes a fully integrated 1L cookpot, induction stove, and rechargeable battery pack in one 6″ x 8″ cylinder, weighing 15.8 oz and similar in size to a Jetboil 1L Flash.  It has an on-off switch, a dial to adjust the induction stove’s output, an ultralight cook pot, and a high-capacity lithium-ion battery with USB-C input and output ports, so you can even use it to recharge other electronic devices if you choose. It will initially be available at REI and Anker’s massive Amazon store.

“Besides its obvious environmental benefits, what makes this new stove system so exciting is its level of disruptive innovation”, says Nobel Laureate Simon Johnson, the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. “The Hermes Wilderness Power System Architecture is poised to displace all fossil-fueled wilderness power systems, starting with backpacker stoves, but rapidly expanding into other areas. It’s the equivalent of powering submarines with a nuclear reactor instead of diesel.”

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