Favorite Esbit Stove; What do you use to carry Esbit tabs?

[Ethan A.]

What's your favorite esbit stove? Is there one you like that works very well for alcohol and esbit tabs? Use alcohol stoves now but thinking about trying out an esbit stove with cheaper Coughlan's fuel tabs.

Esbit Wing Stove?

Vargo Triad alcohol/esbit stove?

Which of the two above is more stable with 500 to 1400 ml pots?

Also, what do you use to carry your fuel tabs and keep the mess contained?

[David Noll]

I use a gram cracker with a caldera cone and a SUL 1100 for two people and usually only have to use 1 1/2 tabs to get my water boiling.

[Ethan A.]

Nice. I was thinking of using a bottle cap or some scrap metal bent to hold the tab with a Caldera cone.

However I was wondering if the height at which the Caldera Cone holds various pots would work well with a fuel tab at ground level.

Also, anyone know if there's a Caldera Cone that can fit Snowpeak 900 and 1400 Ti pots? Hate to buy another pot set just to be able to use the Cone.

[Jared Cook]

Haven't tried the wing stove with anything larger than my trapper mug. Excellent weight, it boils well, about 3/4 of a tab to a tab to boil, depending on the water temp. I've started using the combo about a month ago, and it seems to be perfect for one with boil in a bag meals. I prefer it over my bios 2 alcohol stove. For the larger pot I'll just carry my canister stove.

[Ethan A.]

Wondering – how efficient are fuel tabs with larger pots, like my Snowpeak 1400, with and without a Caldera Cone?

My wife and I use the 1400 for two, and the 900 for solo.

Wondering at what point (pot size and conditions) if any you would switch to a canister stove?

[Jared Cook]

It's not directly the efficiency of the tabs why I would switch to the canister when I bring my evernew .9L. I remove a lot of the finicky guess work out of items when I bring my girlfriend backpacking, and the canister appears to be less finicky (ie worry about fuel running out or adding tabs to boil 4 cups of water). Maybe I'll prepare a lunch on our next day hike and try out the esbit wing stove with the larger pot, just not sure how I'll add tabs as the other is burning…

[Eddie Hollander]

I actually like the original. If using the original coughlan tablets you can fit 12 of them inside the stove itself. They burn for a few minutes less but one tablet is sufficient to bring a cup of water up to coffee or tea temperature (about 185-200 degrees depending on the weather). Which is only a few degrees short of a full rolling boil.

[Ethan A.]

Hi Eddie,
Had a PM for you but can't PM you because you're not a member – join up, or, where can I email you? Thanks!

[Monty Montana]

EJ, I prefer Esbit or the similar MPI tabs to Coghlan's for a couple of reasons. For one, they're in a blister pack and so are protected from water and humidity. Also, they smell like fish, so the blister pack keeps the odor out of the rest of my gear; any opened blisters go into a zip-lock for the same reason. When I do have to resort to Coghlan's I pack the small, round tabs in an empty Nuun's electrolyte tab container to protect from moisture and control odor. It holds about seven tabs.

On average I boil about 2-3 cups of water at a time, which consumes < two Coghlan's or one Esbit tab. The set-up I prefer is a BPL wing stove, Ti wind screen, and a wide diameter pot like the MSR Titan or Anti-Gravity Gear's .9 L alu pot. A wide pot is preferable to a narrow one for max effiency from these little tabs. Happy trails!

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I use the Base of my Vargo Triad XE as my favorite ESBIT/FireLite stove. I haven't used the alky burner that fits inside the base ever since I discovered how much more efficient and convienant solid fuel tabs are.

The windscreen is an MSR aluminum one that has been cut down for use with the XE. I also place the MSR aluminum circle beneath the XE base when using it on forest floor duff.

You can place the legs vertically into the ground for maximum stability.

And it will easily hold 2 fuel tablets, which I always use.

This little puppy really works with my anodized JetBoil 1.5 L. pot. I've whittled the JB pot down to just over 9 oz. buy removing the steel wire handles & grinding off most of the handle reciever. Also I cut most of the center out of the plastic "Flux Ring" heat exchanger protector cap. Now I see Primus has a 1 L. pot W/ a similar bottom heat exchanger that may someday replace my ageing JB pot.
1 L. is just about exactly the right size for solo cooking and still have a wide enough base to be heat efficient.

Eric
P.S. After re-reading the posts here I can see most are under the assumption fuel tab cooking is done with one tab at a time.

Au Contraire. Use two ESBIT or FireLite tabs for decent cooking times and you'll likely have 1/3 or more of the fuel left over. These left-over tabs can be used for the next meal by adding only one more fresh fuel tab. With that combo virtually all the fuel will be burned and you start the cycle again with the next meal. Keep the stove & left-over tabs in a small Zip-Loc bag to keep things clean.

[Chris Chastain]

I can boil 20oz with my UL Outfitters Beer can stove with one Esbit tab. It's plenty fast… how long does a single tab take to burn up anyway?

I never need that much water.
For example, breakfast coffee and oatmeal requires 12oz and this amount of water brought to a full, rolling boil always leaves a partial tab left, which is easily extinguished and stored there, in the stove..

[Eddie Hollander]

[email protected]

[Bob Bankhead]

"how long does a single tab take to burn up anyway?"

That depends on what's holding it. I use the original folding Esbit stove where the tablet lies flat on the stove. One tablet burns for about 13 minutes. I can boil 16 oz of water with 1/2 tablet.

Caldera Cones use the Gram Cracker to hold the Esbit. Esbit tablets run much hotter than the alcohol stove, and can do damage to the temper of the aluminum, and as a consequence the closure's ability to reliably stay closed.
The raised wings are designed to slow down the burn rate so it runs cooler. Mine is due to arrive this week so I'll have a chance to test it.

I leave the tablets in their original plastic and foil packaging. In the Sierra – and other bear habitat areas – I keep the packages in an Aloksack odor-proof sack as well to further contain the fishy smell. Empty packaging goes into my large OP trash sack, which gets stored in the bear canister at night.

[Chris Chastain]

> That depends on what's holding it. I use the original folding Esbit stove where the tablet lies flat on the stove. One tablet burns for about 13 minutes. I can boil 16 oz of water with 1/2 tablet.

So, what… roughly 5-7 minutes to boil what you need?
Pretty reasonable. Seems like that's about my experience too.

I'm just wondering if anyone else routinely uses 2 tabs at a time, like Eric?

[Author]

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