Lightest Esbit Stove Stand?

The Trail Designs Gram Cracker is from 1.5-3 grams…too light to measure in ounces!

Bottom of Red Bull Can-Upside down .1oz
Use rocks as pot stand.

inverted Sobe beverage lid
pop the plastic disc out of it first
.09 oz

FREE

Gram Cracker without 'wings': 0.05 oz

Hey Allison , have you thought of drilling some holes in your stand ?
( I have one but I don't mind the weight as it is …)
Franco

LOL Franco. Not only do I not mind the weight, I also don't mind carrying the extra wings, as they increase fuel efficiency quite noticeably……I quickly make up for the extra 1.4 grams of the wings in fuel savings!

Seriously Allison, the Gram Cracker/Calder Cone combo has been the first Esbit stove that I have been able to get 500 ml to a roaring boil with one tablet.
Franco
Sometime ago I drilled about 27 holes ( maybe 15…) into a disposal store pot lifter. From memory it took the weight down from 30g to 25g. ( my scales only measure to the nearest 5g, so it could have been from 28 to 26 but I celebrated for days. Of course I gained about 3 kg around the waistline during the celebration period)

Thanks for the messages.

The Gram Cracker, red bull can and sobe lid, etc. are great ideas. But they don't support the cookpot do they? Or am I missing something? I'm using a ti foil windscreen — just need a pot support of some kind….

Anyone out there using SS hardware cloth for pot support? If so, what is the weight?

Maybe I should just be happy with my BPL ti wing support. It's simple and seems plenty strong to hold up 16 ounces of water and cookpot.

I welcome your suggestions. Thanks.

Mini Bull designs makes a wire mesh pot stand for beer cans at 0.7 oz. works great –check out there web site.

>Maybe I should just be happy with my BPL ti wing support. It's simple and seems plenty strong to hold up 16 ounces of water and cookpot.

Yup. At 11 grams you will be hard pressed to find something significantly lighter or simpler that will hold your pot and fuel.

Try the HPS Esbit stove here. It also fits a beer can pot perfectly.

http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/stovescookinggear.htm

The HPS stove is made by Mugs – who posts here as well :-) I was proud to add his stove to our site this year!

I know I will probably getted banned for sacrilege, but to buy a new Esbit stand so you can shave 2-3 grams off your current setup is a *little bit* excessive IMHO.

Also consider that, for longer trips, the fuel efficiency of the stove will far outweigh the weight savings on the initial stove. Sarah clocked the HSB at ~12 minutes to boil 2 cups. I'm not sure what the total weight for this setup (including windscreen) was, but it was essentially a whole 14g or 0.5oz tablet. With a Gram Cracker and Caldera Cone, the same two 2 cups without wings boiled in 5'50" and there was 3.3 grams of fuel left. With wings it took 7'25" and there was 4.9 grams fuel left, so definitely more economical with wings. You could say the extra weight of the wings payed for themselves with the first 2 cups boiled. And even without wings, the fuel savings from a single boil are significant. I did these tests using a Caldera Keg.

HSB stand : 7g (0.25oz)
Windscreen : ??? (let's say 20g or 0.7oz to be generous)
Total : 27g (0.95oz)
Fuel burned per 2 cups : 14g (0.5oz)
Total weight to boil 2 cups 41g (1.45oz)

Keg Windscreen/pot support : 29g (1.02oz)
Gram Cracker : 1.5g (0.05oz)
Wings : 1g (0,04oz)
Total : 32.5g (1.1oz)
Fuel burned per 2 cups : 9g (0.31oz)
Total weight to boil 2 cups : 41.5g (1.46oz)

So you break even with the first boil, and are saving weight in fuel on all subsequent boils. Add to this the extraordinary stability and wind protection offered by a cone design, and you have a system that is hard to beat IMHO (and no, I don't work for Trail deigns!!).

Yeah, any savings would be for those who don't have a setup yet ;-)

Check out Zpacks.com in the accessories section. He has a whole bunch of DIY ideas.

I made one of his ESBIT stoves today …. simple and effective. With a 12 ounce beer can pot I'll come in at around an ounce for the entire kitchen. That's hard to beat.

>Yeah, any savings would be for those who don't have a setup yet ;-)

Yup, anddon't forget the financial savings. Something like and HSB or DIY equivalent plus homemade windscreen will usually cost less to set up. I don't know how many boils it would take for the financial savings from reduced fuel use to balance out the initial investment cost in a Trail Designs system. Probably quite a lot!!!

Allison,
Your point about the importance of stove efficiency is well taken. There is no purpose in shaving ounces if gear doesn't work as well in terms of functionality or efficiency.

With that said, I almost always estimate one esbit tab per boil even though I know I'll have some leftover from each one. In other words, I don't think I would shave off a chunk of fuel based on calculated boil rates. I guess I like knowing that there's no chance of running out of fuel — sort of a wanna be safety measure too.

Why am I trying to shave ounces from my stove stand weight only to casually toss in extra fuel? It's that ultralight sickness that effects me and so many others.

Thank you Allison and others for the excellent comments.

>It's that ultralight sickness that effects me and so many others.

Haha, so true. This is what makes me use a whole tablet and blow it out when I'm done cooking. I then save the remnant tablet and add it to my next boil. I never "shave off a chunk of fuel based on calculated boil rates". A lot of folks can't be bothered doing this, but I'm just cheap by nature and don't like to waste fuel….!

I too have Ultralight Sickness.HEEEE,HEEEEE
Every day in every way I get a little Lighter HEEEEEEEEHEEEE!!!!!! I need help

HEEE,HEEE!!!!!!