Long Hikes with Esbit fuel Tabs

Yes.

200 miles in Scotland

Using a homemade cone and MSR Ti Kettle and end of a soda can fuel holder.

It’s lighter than alcohol.

Easy to predict quantity needed compared to gas.

I take a 20ml bottle of alcohol and put a couple of drops on a tab to help light it quickly. It lasted the trip.

I’d do it again.

What are the issues you understand there to be with using Esbit?

I’m moving towards not cooking food but i like the safety margin of a warm cup of tea/coffee every now and then. If we hiked the JMT again this summer I would bring ~1.5 tabs of 4gram Esbit per day for me. It’s just so simple to use and my cookset is under 3 ounces with a lighter. I know there are questions about using it during fire bans but the SEKI rangers said it was OK during fire bans last summer so I’m cool with it.

I think the issue Jerry is alluding to is that you cannot count on buying Esbit readily when resupplying. You’d have to carry it all or ship it to yourself.

No issues on my end Dylan..
I have 8 Stove set ups and finally started using Esbit, it is the way to go for me. I use bag meals and make coffee and Hot tea, and what I like is the weight.I Use a Evernew 500 pot with the Esbit wing stove,and you don’t even know your carrying it.

Jerry, misread your post – I read “I know the issues”…

My bad.

One tip I learned was similar to what Mole J said, Since I already carry a small container of hand sanitizer, I just put a drop on my tablet and let her fire her up.

I’ve used ESBIT in a TD Sidewinder / Evernew 900ml setup on many ~100 mile trips. One 14 gram tablet boils 1-2 cups of water for dinner, and heats another cup for tea, quite reliably.

Last trip I accidentally left the GramCracker stove on my desk. On the first night, after much swearing, I crafted a tablet holder out of the aluminum ground sheet – worked fine. On other trips I’ve burned broken tablets with no problems. I’ve used most every other kind of stove over the decades, and keep using ESBIT for all the reasons others listed. The burning fumes can be a bit noxious, reinforcing the recommendation to use all stoves in well-ventilated locations.

Yes, a dab of hand sanitizer works great as fire starter.

— Rex

I found that for 16 x 700 ml full boils, a canister stove is actually lighter than Esbit, and certainly more pleasant. Perfect for a ten day trip. I will often only boil one cup for coffee, and just warm up, but not boil, a cup for food. However for 7 days or less (12 boils or less), you can’t beat the weight efficiency of Esbit.

Can you get 16x700ml full boils from a 100 cart with a UL gas stove?

I can’t answer Mole J’s question directly, but my experience is: Using the wide Toaks 900ml pot and a Soto Windmaster I can reliably boil 16oz of water with 4-5g of fuel.

Just another data point: Using Dan Yeruski’s Toaks 550 + Caldera Cone setup I can boil/simmer 1.75 cups of water with 6-8 grams of Esbit depending on wind/temp/altitude and I don’t have the weight of an isobutane stove or the canister.

Can you get 16x700ml full boils from a 100 cart with a UL gas stove?

I can get roughly 14 x 16 fluid ounce boils (closer to 500ml than 700) with my Soto ODR from a 100 gram canister.  It’s my understanding that a Jet Boil has better fuel economy performance.

Anyone hiked a 100 plus miles using only Esbit as your fuel source.I understand the available issues, but other than that what do you think..

Yes I have.  For me, if I’m only having one hot meal per day at dinner time, it works great.  Total weight for my cook kit and fuel for the Wonderland was about 8 ounces.

More than one hot meal per day and I prefer a gas stove, especially when I’m hiking with other people.  It’s frustrating for me when others are done eating and ready to go while I’m still waiting for my water to heat up.

I through hiked the at last year using only esbit. I often carried more than needed but I never had an issue finding them when needed. You do need to be more aware when running low to look out for them unless you just ship them to yourself. Ground only just like canister fuels but priority mail is fast within the us.

i used the wide 600ml enernew with caldera cone and gram cracker. More than a full boil with one cube. Just blew it out and reuse the rest next time. My only complaints are the smell and the residue. I did not clean my pot often (every couple weeks usually) but did not notice too much of a drop in performance.

I’ve said it before but I get zero sticky residue with 4g tablets. Just a little dry, black smudge on the pot. Good reads:

https://ulgearblog.com/2016/03/19/merit-of-the-often-ignored-4g-esbit-tab/

https://ulgearblog.com/2016/05/08/zelph-toaks-550-cook-kit/

Back in 2011 I did the JMT (220 miles) in 15 days with just Esbit…one hot meal per day.

What I found that helps with lighting the Esbit is a small “trick” birthday candle to save on lighter fuel consumption and to avoid burning my fingers from the heat of the lighter with the long times needed to ignite the esbit.

See link to discussion on the topic:

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/magic-relighting-birthday-candles-for-lighting-esbit-cubes/

Esbit can be a real B#%@^ to light in the wind, my best recommendation is practice.  I took a weeklong trip and forgot and lighter, I had to “learn” how to light Esbit with a light my fire.  At the end of your 100 mile trip you will be an Esbit Master.  Have fun.

Use 1 drop of hand sanitizer on the cube and light it up.No sweat.

I’ve been using fuel tabs for a number of long hikes. most recent the SHR last summer. I like the Coghlans round solid fuel pucks. They are like half price and twice as versatile. I think i paid like $2.25 for a pack of 24.  on sale so I bought out the store for like 13 packs.

I use 1 tab for a hot drink and 2 for a meal. No measuring, no spilling, no wondering how much fuel i have left., no moving parts,  etc. love it. simple

I will sometimes bring along a 3cc mini dropper with denatured alc and drop 2 drops down the side and then all it takes is a quick spark to get it lit.

Only disclaimer is ive never used it in REALLY wet weather. only moderate thunderstorms

Matthew King wrote:

I’ve said it before but I get zero sticky residue with 4g tablets. Just a little dry, black smudge on the pot. Good reads:

https://ulgearblog.com/2016/03/19/merit-of-the-often-ignored-4g-esbit-tab/

https://ulgearblog.com/2016/05/08/zelph-toaks-550-cook-kit/

One of the things I note about the first link in the above post is that the author of the blog was not getting a boil of 2 cups of water with two 4g tabs.  Has this been an issue for people using the Caldera Cone with two 4g tabs?  Of course you could use three 4g tabs, but at that point, why not just use a single 14g tab and eliminate the fiddle factor?

I really like having my dinner water come to a boil so that I don’t have to filter it or treat it with chemicals before heating it.  While everything else I see about the 4g tabs is positive, if you can’t get a boil out of 8 grams of Esbit, it seems the smaller tabs have a pretty big down side.

Thoughts?

I don’t think I boil a full 2 cups. I don’t really measure my water carefully but that probably accounts for the discrepancy. I also don’t worry if my water only gets to small bubbles because it’s hot enough for drinks or rehydrating. I filter all of my water so I only need it to be hot enough to make me happy with a cup of tea.

I’m haven’t cooked a meal while backpacking in the last 10 or 15 nights out. I’m just making tea and coffee these days.

Last year I did Springer Mountain to Franklin, NC (110 miles) using Zelphs Toaks 750ml caldera style system. I carried a pack of 4 gram tabs and found them to be far more versatile. I used a single 4g tab for morning coffee and two 4g tabs for dinner and tea. Using the 4g tabs allowed me to carry less fuel weight and have less waste in tabs.

Yes, I get around 16 boils out of a canister, and with the BRS head, the weight is not great.

A search will produce many posts on this subject. It occurs to me that the term “boil” is a bit loose. What is rarely mentioned is that the Esbit struggles to get water super hot, which is fine with me as I usually only want “somewhat ” hot. A stove can quickly power through to make the water hotter, which may be desirable to some people. If I am not careful the water gets hot enough to distort my plastic eating/drinking container, and unduly delay drinking that all too important first cup of coffee.

The other thing worth mentioning is the difficulty of lighting and burning Esbit in a super windy place. I was frustrated recently on a very cold and windy trip by my inability to have a warm drink while hiking.