[pct-l] Esbit Cubes

[Timothy Nye]

My two cents.

I have the standard foldng Esbit Stove (3 oz) , the titanium minimulist
Esbit ( 1/2 oz, or 5/8 oz with the pouch which is a good idea to use ) and
the Caldera with gram cracker ( which with the plastic screw top
container is 4 5/8 oz).

The big advantage of the caldera is the titanium wind screen and it's heat
retention.  The big negative is that it has to be protected from being bent
or damaging the slotting mechanism that locks the screen into it's cone
shape.  The Gram Cracker is not made of a thick enough gauge of sheeting, in
my opinion.

I liked the idea of the Caldara, but it takes up a lot of volume and the
plastic container needed to protect it seemed to defeat the weight savings.
I attempted several substitutions with pieces of shipping tubes, etc, but
found nothing that satisfied me.

The standard folding stove has the advantages of being able to be oriented
toward the wind and thus protecting the tablet, the tablet seating area is
raised with venting adjacent to the tablet that allows a strong draw and the
two sides of the stove reflect the heat and concentrate it.  The titanium
stove really requires a wind screen and in the end I found Yogi's advice for
her alcohol stove, a standard MSR windscreen ( 2 oz ), worked best.  This,
of course, is compact and can be altered for conditions and unlike the
Caldara is not specific for a particular pot or kettle.  Thus the whole
thing wound up at 2 5/8 oz. ( I use a piece of aluminium foil for the floor
)

My trials involved heating ice water, about 35*.  In each case, if protected
from the wind I achieved a satisfactory result for 3 cups of water with each
tablet.