141,000 attendees. 4,500 exhibitors. One heck of a show.
The Consumer Electronics Show (also known as CES) is an annual expo to preview the latest innovations in the consumer electronics space. From robots that fold laundry to virtual roller coasters, items ranged from inspiring, perplexing, and refreshingly practical.
BioLite was there with Backup, our automatic home backup solution, and we had a very good week. TL;DR, we wrapped the show with several Best Of Awards, dozens of press mentions, and overwhelmingly positive feedback from all kinds of attendees. Retailers, editors, and everyday people came by the booth – they appreciated Backup for its ease of use, ability to live in forgotten spaces, and the peace of mind it could bring to families trying to make it through an outage.
Read on to see what journalists had to say about backup (or skip right to it and reserve your own Backup today).
Best of CES: Backup by BioLite In The Press
- CES Innovation Award: For outstanding design, engineering, and impact
- USA TODAY Top Picks for CES: “We wanted to find extraordinary products across several categories… something we could see ourselves using the future”
- Engadget: The Best Tech We Saw in Vegas: “We’re always looking for brand new, never-seen-before stuff at CES, but sometimes it’s the clever reinterpretation of existing tech that catches our attention. That’s the case with Backup by Biolite. It’s essentially a cross between a universal power supply (UPS) and a whole-home backup battery, but improves on both.”
- Popular Science: Best of CES: “Professional installation can add huge costs to a home generator, but BioLite’s plug-and-play solution takes that out of the equation.”
- CNN Underscored: Best of CES: “It seems like every day there’s a new natural disaster in the news, so a backup home power system sounds to me like a better idea than ever. Backup by BioLite is going indoors with its surprisingly compact system that you can install yourself.”
- CNET: Best Home Tech Gadgets at CES: “The worst part of a long power outage is the perishables in your fridge getting spoiled. While whole home batteries can help offer backup power, the installation for them is complicated and often costly. The idea behind BioLite is that it works just as well as a home battery backup, but it's limited to just one or two key appliances.”
Backup also took home Runner-Up/Honorable mention status in ZDNet, Mashable, PCMag, and Lifehacker.
In addition to the best of awards, BioLite earned top placement in both Wirecutter and WIRED, with editors citing how useful and easy Backup can be for the modern home… did we shout in the booth when we saw these hits? Yes, yes we did.
Seeing it in person: what do people like about Backup by BioLite?
We get it - seeing something online vs seeing something in person can make a big difference. For the thousands of people who visited our booth, here are some of their top reactions when experiencing Backup and what it has to offer IRL:
It really is thin. 2.8” (including the mount) is remarkably different from any other power storage system people have seen, at CES 2025 or otherwise. Shoutout to our engineers for designing a game-changing inverter that gets us to this size.
The power strip is clutch. Visitors agree that the fridge is a primary concern and takes up one of the ports, but what if I want to make my morning coffee and charge my phone and charge my kid’s phone and maybe a light? The magnetic power strip is included with every Backup and is a great way to keep Backup stashed away while giving you flexibility to plug in multiple devices.
The automatic activation and in-room invisibility is a big difference from power stations. CNET said it best, “There are a lot of portable power stations on the show floors of CES 2025, but this one is designed to disappear seamlessly behind your refrigerator onto a wall.” Many visitors mentioned having portable power in their homes but not using it as often as they should during an outage either because the setup was too much of a hassle or the station hadn’t been recharged – Backup removes the pressure to react by being installed, instant, and out of the way… all without a contractor.
Renters rejoice! So many people are left out of the home energy storage conversation because, well, they don’t own their homes. Some of our favorite moments in the booth were folks who rent their spaces realizing Backup could be a part of their lives without any hassle. And for homeowners, we heard stories of permitting, contractor quotes, and installation sagas that drive up the cost of other home energy solutions out there. With Backup, the sticker price is the price (and for some, might be up to 30% lower if you qualify for the Federal Tax Credit!)
Solar: some people yes, some people no. Some people initially thought this only worked with solar - not the case! When people learned that Backup automatically fills itself backup when the grid comes back on thanks to being plugged into the wall, they loved that they could bypass solar entirely. For others who wanted the ability to generate longer runtimes during an outage, they were happy to see that a simple freestanding solar solution was available (BioLite will retail 400W panels that are compatible with Backup and can be hooked into the DC input at the bottom of the unit, we recommend a minimum of 800W solar array for Complete Kits).
It can deliver value beyond emergencies (hello, energy bill).
Check out the quick video below where Ryan explains how Backup can actually help you save money, even when the grid is up and running:
Easy Home Energy: Meet Our CES Booth Friends
We couldn’t be more excited to have shared our booth with two other amazing brands in the energy space: Copper and Gradient.
Copper makes an induction stove with an integrated battery that enables it to be plugged right into a 120V outlet and operate during an outage. It’s beautiful, easy to use, and a fantastic option for folks looking to ditch gas ranges in their home.
Gradient makes an all-weather window unit heat pump, meaning it can provide both heating and cooling while reducing energy consumption. Also plugging into a standard 120V outlet, it’s a game-changing solution to bring heat pump technology into homes that cannot do big HVAC renovations (mutli-family and apartment dwellers, this is for you!)
Why did we band together? Because all three orgs offer easy-to-install solutions that can enable everyday people to upgrade the energy in their home in under 30 minutes. If we’re going to change what the future of home energy looks like, we’ve got to be in this together.
Backup is Taking Off - Reserve Yours Today
After a great week at CES, people are catching on: Backup is something to bring home in 2025.
Reserve yours today for $100 and secure your spot in our first shipment going out this summer.
Have more questions about Backup? Give us a shout at support@bioliteenergy.com and we’ll be happy to help.
Thank you to everyone who helped CES such an incredible success - we’ll see you next year!
