What is your favorite lightweight stove?

[Sasha Rice]

I am currently using a esbit stove which has been modified to be much lighter while acting as a windshield which weighs around 2.5 ounces. I am looking for a stove that can take its place. I only use the stove to boil water in a Snowpeak Trek Titanium Bowl (Around 1.7 oz). Does anyone have any suggestions as to what new stoves I should look at.

[John Chan]

I’m using a Red Bull can open jet stove with a foil heat reflector base and a windscreen/pot holder I fashioned from 6″ wide aluminum flashing.

Stove – 8 g
Windscreen/ pot holder – 20 g
Foil – 2 g
2 titanium pegs (slot through the windscreen) – 15 g

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Total kit (minus pot) – 45 g or roughly 1.5 oz

[Ryan Faulkner]

I use a homemade stove just like the mini bull designs elite

works great, and dont need a pot stand.

also see the presurized SST and stealth stoves.

MBD store

[Mark]

There are quite a few good alcohol stove choices. I like the SuperCat alcohol stove, and I think your pot will be wide enough to use it well. It’s .2oz for the stove, and I add another .3oz for foil windscreen and ground reflector. No stand or thinking required, which is nice.
-Mark

[David Lewis]

I LOVE my homemade esbit setup. LOVE it. Total system weight (weighed as a whole) including the pot, lid, grabber, everything… is 62 grams, 2.18 oz… not counting the tent stakes I use as a pot support. Here are the specs when I weigh each peice:

Pot (Heineken Jumbo Can): 27 grams
Pot Grabber (Made from wire coat hanger): 13 grams
Windscreen / Stand (Made from 0.004″ aluminum cookie sheet): 10 grams
Esbit burner cup (bottom of V8 can): 2 grams
Lid w/ handle (Top from the beer can with paper clip handle): 6 grams
Elastic Band + plastic bag (for packing): 2 grams

A nice addition to this setup for not too much more weight would be a refectix cozy for those who like hot drinks.

I tried the FireFly and other alcohol stoves before switching to Esbit. I find alcohol is a pain and often ineffective. I hike on the east coast and it’s often cool and brezzy and alcohol just doesn’t cut it… won’t boil the water… flames out before boil… blows out really easy… doesn’t burn very hot… plus all the fuss of carrying the stuff… dosing… priming… etc. Pain in the butt compared to Esbit. Esbit burns hot and long… it has almost twice the BTU’s for half the weight… tons of wiggle room for cool windy conditions… etc… you can even keep a hard boil going for 5 mins or so if you want to cook something in the pot. As for the soot… I just have a cut down plastic bag that covers the bottom of my pot when it’s all packed up. As for smell… I’ve never noticed it.

[Ryan Faulkner]

David,
I have a pot made from a 24oz energy drink can, but anyway you dont need the pot grabber. I use a pair of fleece gloves when removing the pot from the stove (elite) and dont burn myself

[David Lewis]

Thanks Ryan, I actually don’t usually carry gloves though… unless it’s very late in the fall.

[Ryan Faulkner]

Here is a forum I posted on my cook kit a wile back

Ultralight Cook Kit

[David White]

David:

I kinda remember your earlier thread about the wire pot grabber. As my admitedly shaky memory goes, you were going to post photos and instructions after you got the bugs worked out. Did I miss it? (if so, I’ll try a forum search).

Do you think your pot grabber would work with Fosters cans? I prefer the Heineken, but I’m currently using the Ultralight Outfitters Beercan stove which really only works well with the Fosters can.

[Vick Hines]

1.73 ounces: Sterno can pot (8+ounc volume) with foil lid and 22 gauge wire bail; alcohol burner/pot support; foil wind screen; foil burner base; book of waterproof matches in z-loc; fuel measure. I also carry a Ziploc storage cup (0.3 oz), a plastic spoon (0.08), Platypus Little Nipper with pop valve (0.6) for fuel. Fuel required: 0.25 oz per cup to full boil @70F; up to 0.4 @lower temps. Works for me.

[David Lewis]

David:

Yah… I was going to do that… just never got around to it :) Sorry. Maybe I will now. The can grabber thing would work with any can. I have used the stove in the field BTW and everything worked great. Not sure that I would change anything. It’s pretty sweet I think for 62 grams… including pot, lid, grabber, windscreen / stand and “stove”… the stove being nothing more than an esbit tab on a tiny aluminum can bottom.

[Yukio Yamakawa]

It can boil to 300 cc (for sierra cup). It was processed from the iron can (50mm diameter). It is the 70mm of the maximum outsides. Cyclone combustion is carried out.

[David Lewis]

I’ve been looking at this Ti rod and foil that BPL sells now and I calculated that… using these materials… my 62 gram esbit cook kit would go down to 44 grams!!! 44 grams (or 1,5 oz) for a pot, lid, stand, windscreen, burner and grabber!! Amazing. I’ll let you all know if it works.

[Michael Freyman]

I have been experimenting with a new esbit stove/pot setup today. It came out to be 1.5 oz. total.

8 oz. pot w/ snap on cover – .6 oz
pot stand – .4 oz.
can stove – .3 oz.
windscreen and pot lid – .1 oz.
( + .1 oz between everything; my scale only calculates tenths)

For a total of 1.5 oz.

Everything fits into the pot with the snapon lid closed.

[Michael Freyman]

I can also fit 3-4 esbit tabs into the enclosed pot as well as the other itmes.

The plastic snap on cover weighs .1 oz. but the convenience of enclosing everything for storage is worth the weight.

[David Lewis]

What are you using for a pot Michael? My setup uses a big beer can (so about 25 fl oz.)… but for solo meals… I don’t really need that much water. I could probably get away with a pop can pot. At 27 grams, the beer can pot is by far the heaviest part of my system.

[Ken Helwig]

been switching back and forth between the Ion and the Vargo Triad. I like the Ions base for hold a Ti 400 cup, but the flame base that the Triad puts out is fantastic.

[Michael Freyman]

David, see my new post of the pots I use –>

1.5 oz. Esbit w/ Pot

[David Lewis]

Ok… I finally did up a page with pics, specs and plans for my 62 gram Esbit stove (includes 24 fl oz pot).

Here is the link

[Michael Freyman]

David, nice setup. The 12 oz. Heineken can would be a natural fit for you. It is a little extra work to get the top off, but you would shave another .5 oz. over the large can.

[David Lewis]

Thanks Michael. I’m actually going to try modifying a can openner to work with the smaller cans. I usually only need about 1 to 1.5 cups of water for the solo meals I make. If you were to figure in the smaller can, smaller windscreen made of Titanium and a slightly smaller grabber also made of Titanium… this entire setup could easily come in at under 30 grams. Crazy :)

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