Esbit Stove

pontoon · Feb 8, 2016

I've been looking at stove options and am starting to like the looks of an esbit (solid fuel) stove. You can get a titanium stove that's 0.4 ounce and a titanium windscreen that's .8 ounce and a pot with lid that's 2.6 ounces. Fuel is .5 ounce per cube which should boil two cups easily. So 10 cubes is 4.94 ounces of fuel for a weekend and that's leaving plenty of extra. Total weight is 8.74 ounces for this setup. A jetboil Flash Lite and Ruta Locura modification with fuel is 13 ounces and that's being optimistic. It might end up being more like 14 or so ounces. Also I could pretty easily cut the Esbit weight down by carrying fewer esbit cubes. For a weekend trip I really don't need 10 cubes. I would probably be fine with 7 or 8.

The jetboil has the advantage of boiling faster (2 mins vs 6+ mins) and probably less smell. I don't know if I should be concerned about scaring the animals with the smell of an esbit burning since I've never used one. The esbit has an advantage of being very lightweight.

Anyone have experience/insight with esbit? Does it work well or is it worth the extra weight to carry a (modded) jetboil?

corylee4870 · Feb 8, 2016

I have the $29 esbit cookset from REI. It works and it does boil water but it takes 2 cubes to get the water to boil every time.

pontoon · Feb 8, 2016

Corylee do you use a windscreen? Are you using the 14g ones or the tiny ones?

zman · Feb 8, 2016

Esbit worked fine for me this year on a five day backcountry hunt. Its light and cheap. All I do is boil water so it works just fine. I didn't bother with the windscreen... I can always find a few rocks to pop up around it. That said I didn't have any gusty weather... if so I might have wanted the windscreen. I never thought the esbit would be worth a darn but I saw one in the closeout bin at EMS for $4.99... and that included four cubes. At that price I had to try it... and I liked it. You can also throw some twigs on top of the fuel cube to get a little extra pop out of them. All the ash just dusts off when you are done.

tttoadman · Feb 8, 2016

I was not sold on it the first couple times. 2 cubes is obviously faster, but one trick is to stand the one cube on end to get it closer to the pan. I haven't ruled it out. The couple good comments here make me want to give it another try on some training hikes. if you light up 2 to get the water hot, you can put them out and save em for the next night.

huntinrod · Feb 8, 2016

I tried esbit for a while but tired of the smell and sooty pot...

go4thegusto · Feb 9, 2016

huntinrod said:
I tried esbit for a while but tired of the smell and sooty pot...

Yo-Dat....those solid fuel tab fumes have to be toxic. I dumped mine and went to a Whisperlite but also have an alcohol version for short light trips. Lots of those out there from Vargo, Ruta, etc

StrutNut · Feb 9, 2016

I still have mine and it comes in handy and yes, I typically use two of the larger fuel tabs to get water really boiling. They also do stink a lot. I use mine more with sticks because of the odor. I have also used cotton balls with Vaseline. Cheaper and less odor than the tablets and a heck of a lot easier to start. Those tablets did not light easily for me.

pontoon · Feb 9, 2016

go4thegusto said:
Yo-Dat....those solid fuel tab fumes have to be toxic. I dumped mine and went to a Whisperlite but also have an alcohol version for short light trips. Lots of those out there from Vargo, Ruta, etc

Yes the fumes are definitely toxic. You have to use the esbit in a well ventilated area (not your tent).

pontoon · Feb 9, 2016

StrutNut said:
I still have mine and it comes in handy and yes, I typically use two of the larger fuel tabs to get water really boiling. They also do stink a lot. I use mine more with sticks because of the odor. I have also used cotton balls with Vaseline. Cheaper and less odor than the tablets and a heck of a lot easier to start. Those tablets did not light easily for me.

Do you use a wind screen?

MattB · Feb 9, 2016

You really need to use a windscreen to get good results out of the Esbits. I found one that fits inside my pot so it is easy to carry. With my Esbit, I can boil enough water for a MH meal with 1 tab at ~7,000 feet elevation - no need for 2.

Yellowknife · Feb 9, 2016

I use one quite a bit in the summer as part of my "coffee making kit" for field work. The stove, coffee cup, and a few fuel pieces all tuck down inside a 0.8L pot quite nicely. Also use it to make the occasional hot lunch, so I have a decent amount of experience with them. I like them for what they are, but they don't make the cut for me as a serious (5+ day) hunting stove.

1. They are extremely subject to breezes. A cut down aluminum windscreen is critical, but above treeline you may still never get a boil.

2. They can be difficult to light at times. Not sure why this is. Most tabs light pretty easy, but I've had a few that were almost impossible.

3. They are SLOW. Particularly with cold water, high humidity, and the slightest of breezes. No real issue on a weekend backpacking trip, but if you are stumbling back into camp at midnight with a load of meat, it's not real fun to baby your stove.

4. Can be a bit of a fire hazard with the open flame close to the ground.

If you can live with all that, then they will work. As mentioned by others, a few dry twigs can help things along. Also, like most stoves, it helps if the bottom is wide enough to mostly contain the flame. A tall narrow cup doesn't allow for much heat transfer.

rayporter · Feb 9, 2016

i have carried a canteen cup heater for 25 years to make coffee and cook lunch on. trioxane is easier to light by far and i always have one bar for emergency and to light the stove with. a dime sized piece of trioxane will light the stove in the morning. i have found a broken piece of esbit with a sharp edge helps with lighting. also scrape the top to get some powder on it and it will light easier.

my kit has an extra cup with the handles ground off that stacks with the cup, cup heater, and water bottle. several layers of plain aluminum foil folded makes a good windscreen and a paper clip holds it together around the cup heater. a lid made of folded foil helps a lot too. i can achieve a boil at tree line in 8 minutes. never tried above treeline.

the soot is easily removed by rubbing the bottom in grass or leaves, no big deal for me. trioxane does not leave a soot.

for one night or 2 fine but for more i prefer something else. lunch and coffee- nothing compares, rain, wind, snow, whatever, there is going to be coffee at lunch.

there are several on the market now but i cant justify changing. if starting out you might do better.

rayporter · Feb 9, 2016

the set weighs 15.8 oz and just the cup and heater and wind screen weigh 10 oz. in stainless. i have aluminum that weighs less but it was buried too deep. add a platypus water bottle inide the set and you are good for a morning.

round burners and cups are available too.

CrzyTrekker · Feb 9, 2016

I've got an Esbit stove. I love the concept but it's messy.

My stove system this year is an MSR Micro Rocket, which is ultralight for a canister stove and has the ability to simmer. My pot is the MSR Titan Kettle. For me, the couple ounces of extra weight (over the Esbit system) is well worth it for reliable hot meals.

airlocksniffer · Feb 9, 2016

I'd go with a alcohol stove over the esbit based on the cost and relative ease at finding fuel. Denatured alcohol or Heet (in the yellow bottle) both work great. I built a penny stove 2.0 that works pretty good in my initial testing. Probably going to go with that for next season as well. I pretty much just boil water but you can add simmer rings if needed. Zenstoves.net has lots of good resources for DIY stoves. I also recently saw a pretty cool Vargo setup on Massdrop that will do alcohol, esbit/solid fuel or wood.

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/vargo-converter-stove-with-hex-wood

pontoon · Feb 9, 2016

I'd go with a alcohol stove over the esbit based on the cost and relative ease at finding fuel. Denatured alcohol or Heet (in the yellow bottle) both work great. I built a penny stove 2.0 that works pretty good in my initial testing. Probably going to go with that for next season as well. I pretty much just boil water but you can add simmer rings if needed. Zenstoves.net has lots of good resources for DIY stoves. I also recently saw a pretty cool Vargo setup on Massdrop that will do alcohol, esbit/solid fuel or wood.

Ease of finding/buying fuel doesn't really factor into my decision too much. I see that alcohol can boil in as little as 10-12 grams so that's actually more comparable to an esbit than I realized. The ease of lighting alcohol and lack of mess might make it worth it to me. If I get a caldera cone it comes with both and works with both. Still trying to find the ideal pot and windscreen combo. The beer can caldera is interesting but flimsier and requires a relatively heavy plastic container. Ruta Locura makes light pots but I'm not sure if they are compatible with any titanium caldera cones.

pontoon · Feb 9, 2016

I've been researching more, and I'm going to at least try the Toaks 550 pot without handles (1.5 oz without lid--may get a custom ridge line put in it for the caldera cone to interface with), Ruta Locura carbon fiber lid (.28 oz), mini caldera cone in titanium (might have to make it myself--probably under an ounce), and either the gram cracker esbit stove (.1 oz) or an alcohol stove (slightly more weight but not much). If using alcohol, add 1 ounce for a fuel container. That's under 3 ounces for a stove (or under 4.5 oz for alcohol), windscreen, pot, and lid, and it has just enough capacity to rehydrate food which is all I need. I figure it's worth a shot. If I don't like it I still have the Jetboil to fall back on. Alcohol might be the way to go because apparently it takes half an ounce to boil 2 cups of water with a good stove+windscreen. That's about the same as the weight of a 14g esbit cube. The 1.5 ounce weight penalty for the alcohol system may be worth it for the ease of lighting, less smell, and less mess.

moxford · Feb 9, 2016

Esbit is nice because it's light and because it's QUIET.

It's not so great in a lot of places because the BTUs are low, they're a little finicky, they're not so great for melting snow, and leaves a nasty residue.

They're also not legal to use in some backcountry areas (such as California.)

moxford · Feb 9, 2016

Alcohol is very susceptible to wind as well, still low on BTUs and not allowed in some wilderness areas (like California ... sigh)

Esbit Stove

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