[pct-l] esbit stove

[Peter Shaw]

I think you would have a lot of trouble with this in the wind without a cone
or shield to enclose the heat. On my 2009 thru' hike, I bought a Caldera Keg
"beer can" stove by Trail Designs at the ADZPCTKO
(http://www.traildesigns.com/caldera-keg.html). Although I bought both the
Esbit and alcohol versions, I used the tablets throughout the hike. The cone
was essential to concentrate the heat and I had no problems at all boiling
water. It was quick and convenient and the fuel was light. You can't really
cook anything with this stove, but I catered accordingly with dehydrated
food that only needed boiling water and at just over 6ozs for the whole
thing, it was my concession to "ultralite". The big advantage to my mind of
the Esbit tablets were that they could be mailed in my supply boxes and so I
never had to worry about getting fuel at town stops. Based on PCT
experience, I would suggest this is an important consideration as I can't
recall ever seeing Esbit tablets available in the many small town stops. 

As a complete backpacking novice before I started, the Esbit system seemed
the more logical approach. Another advantage I saw was that the tablets
could be extinguished (a good puff was all that was needed) and the
remainder reused. The alcohol appeared to be too much guesswork on how much
fuel to use and if you put too much in it was simply wasted, but I saw lots
of fellow hikers doing just fine with alcohol stoves. However, all of them
appeared to use cones or shields of various designs to concentrate the heat.
I actually carried the alcohol stove (another ounce) and a small bottle of
alcohol as a backup. The alcohol turned out to be really useful getting the
Esbit tablet lit in windy conditions (a small squirt and it lit
immediately). The only real advantage of the alcohol stove was that it
burned cleaner whereas the Esbit left a carbon residue on the can that made
it a little messy to work with. 

It's all a balance of weight, convenience, and how much cooking you want to
do, but this approach worked great for me.

Peanut Eater

-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net]
On Behalf Of Isabella
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 7:10 AM
To: Pct-l at backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] esbit stove

I'm looking for some feedback on using the Esbit Stove that Backpacking
Light is currently advertising.
I've used tablets before a number of years ago but maybe they're better now
cause it was definitely difficult to get water to boil!!
Isabella (Pikapika)
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