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NEW: LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System – sub-3 oz


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Home Forums Commerce Gear Deals NEW: LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System – sub-3 oz

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  • #1913057
    Charles P
    Spectator

    @mediauras

    Locale: Terra

    Hey, I'm excited to see the parts listed separately. The windscreen is tempting. But what are its dimensions (can't be the 16" height listed…).

    Thx.

    #1913061
    JW
    BPL Member

    @litetrail

    Just a typo on the W x H, updated to L x H so 16" long, 2.84" tall.

    #1913064
    Charles P
    Spectator

    @mediauras

    Locale: Terra

    Ah, I see, got it. Thanks for the quick reply.

    #1913126
    Greg F
    BPL Member

    @gregf

    Locale: Canadian Rockies

    Just noticed a typo on the pot description page. It says this 2 oz pot rather than this 2 cup pot.

    I really like the look of this set up. How durable is the pot compared to say a walmart grease pot or the zelph beer can pots. I made my own beer can pot and found even with renforcement would get crushed easily. The walmart grease pot is sturdy enough to survive in my pack.

    #1913224
     
    BPL Member

    @rememberthelorax

    BG: if I still bought your kit for my friend, I would get it, then pitch the incomplete Esbit burner out and substitute a complete one, then give it. I think the complete ones cost about $15, so I don't know what the incomplete ones go for.

    I would have to agree with Bob on this one.

    There have been a few UL/SUL hikers that have written articles this year about testing different esbit stoves and most of them have discovered that there can be some significant differences in the efficiency of esbit cubes based upon the pan that the esbit tablet sits in. The account by Brian Green being one of the more interesting trials of different designs. All of the reports I have read so far seem to indicate that there is some significant efficiency in using trays with esbits. My own testing has confirmed this when I have tried using different stoves, and at times not using any stoves at all and just putting the tablets onto a piece of Ti on the ground.

    The tried-and-true esbit wing stove still seems to be one of the top-dogs out there. Same one that bpl sold for awhile.

    Anyway…

    Jhaura stated: We will offer it both ways at no additional cost. I'll order some tray version ones asap and then update the site with that option, so you can choose which one is best for yourself.

    Very good to hear!

    As somebody who uses the 4gram esbits, it just seems like trying to get them to balance on the stove/stand without the try would be annoying after awhile.

    #1913260
    Michael Moore
    Member

    @lilricky

    The only concern I would have is where the Esbit sits. As you know, Esbit leaves some residue after burning, after repeated burnings I would be concerned that the pivot point where the Esbit sits would clog, being difficult or impossible to fold it up. How many Esbit tabs have you used on a single system, and was there any difficulty folding up the stove?

    #1913349
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    In the old, old, old days, these wing stoves were made out of steel. The pivot point pin would rust out and then the fuel tray would fall off and the whole thing fell apart. Obviously that had to do with steel, and titanium does not rust. Things could get clogged unless the tray is present.

    It would be fun to see somebody come up with a multiple purpose for a wing stove. I guess it could be a back-scratcher or a cook pot scraper.

    –B.G.–

    #1913363
    Jon Fong
    BPL Member

    @jonfong57

    Locale: www.flatcatgear.com

    Just looking at the design, it looks like it would also work upsidedown. If that were true, if the joints get crusty, you could potentialy flip it over on your next boil to burn off the gunk. Sounds like a simple test to me. My 2 cents – Jon

    BTW, –B.G.– it looks like it could also double as a Kindle, iPhone or small book stand.

    #1913368
    Bob Gross
    BPL Member

    @b-g-2-2

    Locale: Silicon Valley

    "it looks like it could also double as a Kindle, iPhone or small book stand."

    I've never taken any of those things on a backpacking trip. We are thinking, though.

    OBTW, if you get a wing stove and manage to drop the pivot pin, you can use a piece of paper clip as a substitute. A metal screw would be better.

    –B.G.–

    #1913370
    Mike Oxford
    BPL Member

    @moxford

    Locale: Silicon Valley, CA

    Why not put the ground-protection inside the stove, instead of on the ground?

    eg, invert the center pin, make it a little longer … the "height" of the ground protector. Punch a hole in the center of the ground protector, set on pin (which should end up flush) and then place your esbit container there?

    If you don't care about the extra weight, use the solid plate (or aluminum-foil) under your pot (some loss here, be warned, and Al > Ti for this.) Place dirty-side to dirty-side for storage/transport.

    -mox

    #1913378
    Nick G
    Member

    @hermesul

    I tested the stove as an iPod touch holder, with mixed results. Capable of holding an iPod steady at 45 degrees or at 90 degrees, neither of which are my optimal viewing angles. Call it an "emergency iPod stand" for when my cast iron stand fails me in the back country and I don't want to have to give up my nightly viewing of "How I Met Your Mother".

    The Esbit logo on the side of one of the legs serves as great reading material–next time I go backpacking, I'll leave my usual Dostoyevsky behind and read that instead. Since I always carry hardcovers, that's about a 72 oz savings right off the bat!

    Haven't tried it as a potty trowel or tent stake, but it looks like it would serve. Worries would be about durability and screwing up your super-nice ultralight stove.

    I'll leave it up to someone else to examine the stove's usability as a camp stool, eating utensil, toothpick, umbrella, sundial, and butter knife. Definitely has some potential as a true multi-use piece of equipment.

    Seriously though, it would be super cool to see somebody come out with an Esbit stove as a function on a multi-tool. Heck, if I weren't worried about residue, I'd rig up my spork with a hardware cloth potstand and not bring a stove at all.

    #1915074
    michael levi
    Member

    @m-l

    Locale: W-Never Eat Soggy (W)affles

    Im awaiting the update to see what the revised model willl look like. I agree that having a more stable, cleaner, heat reflective place is better.

    Edit: people are claiming doubled burn times by having a sealed tray which contains everything. Read in the comments area.

    http://www.briangreen.net/2011/09/i-really-want-to-like-esbit-tabs.html?m=1

    #1915156
    Nico .
    BPL Member

    @nickb

    Locale: Los Padres National Forest

    FWIW, I hiked with Jhaura this weekend. He used the Lite Trail esbit stove (without the little tray to hold the esbit tabs) for all of his cooking needs.

    I can't comment on measured differences in efficiency between his stove and other variations of esbit stoves, but it seemed to work fine without the tray in our generally mild conditions. He had boils in reasonable timeframes (not significantly differnt from my caldera sidewinder with gramcracker stove) and one tab was plenty to heat up enough water for a soup, a dinner and a hot tea/cocoa.

    I didn't witness any big mess from the esbit resulting from not having a tray, or issues balancing partial tabs on the stove itself.

    It was pretty neat to see how small, light and easy it all packed up.

    Anyway, I have no vested interest in this product, just thought I'd share my anecdotal observations from this weekend. I think with him offering both versions of the stove, folks have the choice to try either now.

    #1915774
    michael levi
    Member

    @m-l

    Locale: W-Never Eat Soggy (W)affles

    Curious is the pot included large enough to next a snow peak mini fuel canister?

    #1916440
    JW
    BPL Member

    @litetrail

    QUICK UPDATE

    The trayed version of the stove in being made right now, and has some neat design improvements over the typical trayed wing stove – including lower weight and custom fit for our 550 ml cookpot. It is still a traditional trayed wing stove though for those of you who prefer that. Just some minor tweaks for our kit.

    Expected arrival date Nov 1.

    If you have a stove already, or just want one part of the kit, you can order all the individual items separately on the shop homepage (Ultralight Backpacking Gear Store).

    Oh and by the way, on my Sierras trip last weekend, I boiled enough water (21-22 oz.) with 1 tablet on the stove with NO TRAY to rehydrate 2 large meals in Ziplock Freezer bags and make 1 good size mug of hot chocolate. This consumed one whole 14g tablet.

    The conditions were: Evening, light breeze, very cold freshly captured stream water, elevation 7600 feet.

    From left to right: 5-6oz of hot choco, Black beans and rice 8oz water, Mashed Potatoes with dehy potato cubes 8 oz water:

    boil

    No Tray Stove: About to boil the first 16oz, then refill with 5-6 oz and boil again all with 1 14g cube:

    stove

    #1916497
    Jolly Green Giant
    BPL Member

    @regultr

    Locale: www.jolly-green-giant.blogspot.com

    Hey Jhuara – Did you extinguish the esbit between each swap or did you just dump, refill and waste a little of the burn?

    Thanks.

    #1916498
    JW
    BPL Member

    @litetrail

    @regultr Good q. No extinguish. I just grab the top of the pot, pour half the water in one ziplock and half in the other. Make sure ziplocks don't spill. Put pot back on stove, pour in 5-6 oz more water from bottle, put lid back on.

    I prepared all my ziplocks by opening them and had them placed next to each other to speed the process up. Also of note, is that if your windscreen is snug without too much gap, the flame doesn't heat the top of the pot too much, so I can grab the top rim bare fingered. YMMV.

    #1916748
    Dustin Judd
    BPL Member

    @ddujnitsud

    I'm not really ready to jump on the Caldera Cone system due to size but this looks like a nice compromise to use esbit with. I would like to use it with my Back Country 700 ml pot though, any chance it will fit that as well?

    #1925897
    JW
    BPL Member

    @litetrail

    Hi all, the updated stoves are in and the Ti Cook System is available for purchase again. Thank you all for the input and feedback.

    Here is a picture of the new stove and details:

    The updated stove is a standard ti-wing stove, which has been modified to fit our 550 mL cookpot; to provide a stable snug fit when sitting the loaded cookpot on the stove. A small modification with a big upside, you will really like how stable it makes your cookpot. The modification is the 1/4” half-moon concave that you see on the upper tip of each wing, just inside of the point. In Image #2 above, you can see how it nests very snug on the wings. This will not affect the stoves usage with other cookpots which are narrower or wider, but simply adds a form-fitted adjustment for our 550 mL cookpot. If you already own a ti-wing stove, you can DYI this modification with a rotary tool, though it is quite arduous due to the hardness of the alloy.

    LiteTrail Titanium Solid Fuel Cook System - sub-3 oz

    #1929875
    James DeGraaf
    BPL Member

    @jdegraaf

    Locale: Bay Area

    Link to Video
    Thanks,
    James

    #1929889
    JW
    BPL Member

    @litetrail

    Hi James and Becky, thank you greatly for your awesome video! It's so great to see couples enjoying the outdoors together and using LiteTrail goodies.

    Regarding the fuel soot getting on the bag, we recommend that users put the ground protector in the stuff sack first, then the cook pot. This way the soot does not dirty the stuff sack, also the GP won't contaminate the inside of the cook pot if packed this way.

    Happy Holidays,

    Jhaura

    #1929900
     
    BPL Member

    @rememberthelorax

    Nice video!!

    I'm sure your wife meant to say that the ground protector protects the ground from the flames and heat scorching the ground and not to protect the ground from the esbit gunk. One of those fun impromptu mis-spoken things that makes making videos all the much more fun to make and watch!! Cannot begin to think how much time I have spent redoing sections of videos to correct those kind of things. Sometimes it is just better to let it go and move on, eh!!

    Love the huge oven gloves being used to pick up the pot heheeh. Totally got me laughing (not at you, but laughing because it was fun to see)… the more went from using larger pots to smaller pots and eventually down to a 26 gram cook setup (that was done in pure fun intents and never intended for the trail) the more I realized not having a pot handles suuuucks. The more I do long distance hiking the more I have come to found pleasure in cooking food inside of my pot. Having handles on the pot makes a huge difference when trying to stir food. Would be crazy hard for me to go back to a pot without handles.

    In regards to the tips above by Jhaura, one of the best tips of all times that I could offer for working with esbit is: before you put water in your pot and put it on the stove… turn the pot over and apply four or five drops of DR Bronner soap and rub it around the bottom of the pot. This will make it a bazillion times easier to rinse the pot off after you get done boiling your water. Just put a few drops of your hot water onto whatever towel you are carrying (or your scrubbrush or dirth or whatever) and than the soot and esbit gunk will come off waaaaay easier. I carry a little 3mL dropper bottom filled with Dr B's. It holds exactly 99 drops of the soap and the dropper itself is only 1.9 grams or so. I just throw it right into my cook pot. Makes it nice for cleaning the pot itself (if you cook it it) and for cleaning the bottom of the pot and for washing your hands if you so feel like it — all without having to get into your personal ditty bag to dig out your soap in there. One 3mL dropper of Dr B's lasts around 20 or so days, or ten days if you boil twice a day.

    Abela

    #1929909
    James DeGraaf
    BPL Member

    @jdegraaf

    Locale: Bay Area

    Jhaura and John,
    Both very insightful tips. Store the ground protector on the bottom of the pot inside the stuff sack to keep things cleaner, and the use of Dr. B's to aid clean up afterword. Thanks to you both for your input.

    John, I'm glad you found the huge oven mitts amusing. That was kind of the intention, they aren't exactly SUL right!?! And sometimes no matter how many times to try to say things properly it'll come out garbled or incorrect. It is the fun of making these videos (especially when that someone is your spouse!).
    Thanks,
    James

Viewing 23 posts - 26 through 48 (of 48 total)
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