I had a esbit stove 20yr ago. It was perfect size to fit in military compass pouch. Worked well wore it out replaced it with military version just because its easier to get issue hexi fuel for me and Australian military blocks dont fit inside Esbit as they are huge in comparison. If you blow tablets out, they can be relit later.
Great day to test gear. I have a similar set up using the Stanley Adventurer that comes with 2 green coffee mugs. It's a bit heavier, but the Mrs. comes with me when I make camp coffee, and the cups don't burn her lips. I use an aluminum windscreen made out of 12 oz soda or larger green tea cans(Arizona 99 cent can). I have used the square Esbit fuel but prefer the round Coughlans fuel tabs. I hold 2 in place with a cotton ball that I open up so it holds 2 on their side and don't roll off. I light the cotton and the the tabs ignite. Two tabs will heat 16 ounces of water for coffee without the need to refuel. With coffee, you don't need to refuel, because it doesn't really need to boil. With my hard boiled eggs, I use 3 tabs, on their rolling side, also embedded into the cotton ball and the water with the 3 eggs will go to boiling again using a soda can windshield. I saw that you had peeled the shell off of the egg. I used to blow my eggs out, but my wind isn't as good, so after I believe the eggs are solid, I grab a knife and I clobber it with the edge. Then I just take a spoon and eat the contents using the shell as my holder. Its not as messy that way and I just hate peeling. The Mrs. says that she feels more confident eating an egg that I hadn't physically touched the edible part of. I don't store my fuel tabs in the container because it smells like dead shrimp. I use a small hard shelled camera case with zipper to hold them and they are stored away from edibles. Liked your vid, thanks and I sub'd.
I love the stove. Just wish the cubes didn't smell so much. I wonder if the make the pot through toaks. I just bought their pot witch looks exactly the same as the Esbit and the stuff sack is the same but orange.
I use to use the exit stove while in the infantry in the field, especially on extended field problems. Although I used the heat tabs (trioxane), the stove does a great job in a pinch. However, if it's windy, it will have a hard time heating water enough for Ramen noodles. So you really do need a wind break. Of course this was before the canteen stove came out. I have to agree that I would prefer the canteen stove. But the exit is a great little emergency stove.
Wow the esbit stoves have come a long way. We would get a tube of esbit tablets and a little 3wing folding stove in our c-rations most of the time they wouldn't even warm up your main meal can. It's good to see that they made the tabs bigger. Thank you for a good review. God bless and stay safe.
Great little design. I've had this for just about 2 years now and it works way better with a windscreen! Just add some foil folded in the stove. It will turn black where the fuel sits. I keep a Bic lighter in it with fuel. It takes longer if you are on cold ground, I like a small base to get better performance. Fuel stinks!!! Keep it in its package and store in a Zip Lock to help with fumes. Colman also makes solid fuel (round). Good demo!
I use the foldable camp stove also and I, too, like it. Windbreaks are fine, but they take up weight and space. Instead I have found it more beneficial to dig a 2 inch pit and put the stove down into it. Alternatively one could use a stone or wood firebreak configured as a mini-palacade. A pint of water will come to a boil in 6 minutes with ONE tab. Fat wood if shaved to the size of a finger is another good fuel source that is free and available in the woods. Three or four sticks will boil about a qt.
Thanks for the review Ben. I have seen lots of reviews on this stove and have one myself. I have noticed that everyone shows it fully open (both sides 90 degrees) and half-open (both sides 45 degrees). No one ever shows 3/4-open (one side 90, one side 45). Fully open for big pots, half-open for mugs/very small pots, 3/4-open for the in-betweeners, like my Optimus 800ml pot with heat exchanger. The 3/4-open also gives more room to feed twigs in there.
+Tom in MO I also modified the stove by cutting off a triangular section on one end of both of the vertical sides. This lets the stove have a vertical opening on either side of one end when 1/2-open or 3/4-open, the same as if it were fully open, to make it easier to feed in twigs. I also made a windscreen for the unmodified back end, out of aluminum foil and two paper clips, which can be used for all three open modes.
Nice Video Ben! I have the same Esbit stove and i love using it when we camp out. I got a pack of 24 esbit cooking tablets at Pro Bass shop for around 10 bucks. I love that the stove is small and easy to carry. to me its worth the 10 bucks i paid for it!!
Yes in such windy conditions sometype of shield is a must or you loose a LOT of heat. The square pocket stove is "walled only on two sides so you loose a lot of heat even in the best conditions. There is actually a small Esbit round portable stove that actually fit in the same type container/pot (it might be slightly smaller) and it features some kind of shielding againt the wind. That round stove is also heats in a much more efficient way, since it keeps most of the heat inside the stove. The Esbit container/pot fits snugly on top of the stove so you loose almost no heat from the top. The Esbit CS585HA 3-Piece Lightweight Camping Cook Set is a little more than $20 on Amazon and includes the cooking pot/container with it's lid and the stove and a small storage bag. Even with the stove inside the pot, you can still store a LOT of tablets inside. Plus the Esbit pot that comes with this cooking set is a better upgrade with quantity mesurements on the side of the cup,the folding handles are covered in some type of plastic that makes them safer to handle when hot, and a small pout on the lid to make it easier to pour hot liquids from the pot to a cup. Sure the round stove cost double than the pocket square stove, but it is more efficient, so you will save a LOT of money on those hexamine cubes if you intend to use it more than once. Also, since the round stoveit fits in the pot with room to spare, it doesn't take more space than the square pocket stove in your backpack. You get what you pay for and I think that the Also, in your video you store the six tablets it comes with the $10 dollar kit inside the pocket stove by removing the wraping around them. Well, you shouldn't do that. The cubes, when exposed to air start to loose some of their combustion properties, and also they smell pretty bad. It's better to store only 4 cubes intact in their wrapping inside the square pocket stove and store the extra two elsewhere (they don't take much room anyway). The square pocket stove is still a great, cheap back-up to any heat system anyway and it is SO portable.
I have been wanting that for a while now, should just pull the trigger and get it. That titatanium pot is AWESOME. 5 cubes on a windy day isn't terrible, but you gotta do what you gotta do! Thanks for sharing!!
This is the third time I have watched this. I am convinced these are great for our car bags/ edb. Just got two. Do you have any suggestion on how many fuel tablets one should have? I know they come with six. Thanks again for another great class.
I love my Esbit stove. You are 100% right. On a Non-windy day One fuel cube can boil water really good in my canteen cup. That titanium esbit pot is on my Christmas wishlist.
I have a few different stoves but I always go to my esbit stove unless I'm cooking a few different things then I go for my Coleman stove. I have never been let down. I've also used fat wood and twigs when I run out of the tablets. You can also use cotton balls in petroleum. Your not limited to the tablets.
cool video thanks for sharing...even sometimes rolling boil for water is to hot if you are desperate for that joe...but you need that boil if your using stream water..my Nesbit stove finally started to not hit those first settings it was so old and used so often musta just wore out... i just bought a few crusader cooker bottom i am sick of wasting money 10 bucks is still 10 bucks if it don't last... with the crusader at least i no it will last for a lifetime...
Cool review thanks for sharing love the out takes brilliant,BCB make a fuel know called Fire dragon do you think it would work well with this stove ?? All the best Pete
This is the army standart basic stove, what we use in Germany in the past and maybe now. I got one for free :-) and didnt use this thing 15 jears, now your Video gives me the inspiration to put it back to my Rucksack and use it againe. thanks bob.
The Esbit and similar tablet pocket stoves are handy and useful for one-shot emergency or very, very short-term use, but aren't terribly flexible with regard to fuels for long-term survival use. I prefer the military canteen, canteen cup and canteen stove combo. You can use pretty much any dry twigs, leaves, etc. as fuel, as well as trioxane and Esbit-type tablets. I use mine mostly with my mini-Trangia alcohol stove, which fits perfectly with the canteen stove and which stores probably as much burn-time in alcohol in it as the Esbit does in tablets. The replacement fuel is cheaper and more easily available. In a pinch, 90% isopropyl alcohol (about a buck and a half a quart), though a little smoky, will do; denatured alcohol or yellow-container Heet is best. Just my $.02 USD worth.
Using a wind screen you would be able to use just one tablet to boil two cups of water. The wind will take a lot of the heat away from the fuel cubes. In a pinch you can also burn twigs on the stove. You can find fuel cubes in bulk from the sportsmansguide website under a different name if you want to save some cash.
After five or six minutes? That tab should last an easy twelve minutes. That is a horrible boil time, and whether it's because you didn't use a windscreen, or because you gave up on the first tab too soon, that first tab lasted only have as long as it should have. Done right, one tab will boil two cups of water. Even done wrong, Esbit tabs are made so you can break them into four pieces. If one full tab doesn't do the job, you're supposed to break the second into pieces so you can save fuel. And you NEVER want to crumble an Esbit tab. There is no need to do so, and, again, you'll just be wasting fuel because it will not burn right. If you need to start one with a ferro rod, and you should never be in a position where this is the case, scrape the surface of the tab with your knife and build a pile of Esbit dust. This will ignite with a ferro rod. And one of the best things you can have in an emergency kit is a small bottle of flammable liquid. Alcohol is the best because you can use it in a stove, or for medical reasons, but lighter fluid or kerosene will work in a pinch. Just three or four drop on any hard to ignite material, and your ferro rod can get it going. I keep the alcohol in an eye drop bottle. That's more than enough for several emergencies. Some people carry alcohol based hand sanitizer, but make sure you test it with a ferro rod first. Some brans ignite easily, some with difficulty, and a few require a lighter or a match to ignite. This is also a good way to carry spare lighter fluid for a Zippo, but if you do, make it a separate bottle from the one in your emergency kit. Anyway, you're giving up of those tabs too soon, or you're in a heck of a wind, or something. Two full tabs should have handled everything you did in this video. They have a twelve minute burn time. I think you may believe the tabs are about to burn out well before they actually are. And windscreen or not, it's easy to move the stove out of the wind. All it takes is a rock, a log on the ground, etc. A hill or dip in the land works, too. There's no reason for you to sit in the wind, either. One of the oldest rule sin woodcraft is "Never build a fire in the wind". If you can't find a spot out of the wind, don't build the fire. This applies to things like Esbit solid fiel stove, and alcohol stoves, as well. If you can't find a spot out of the wind, or can't at least come up with a good windscreen, don't use the stove. That "blind you passed would have kept you and the stove out of the wind. You should also never go into the woods, any woods of any size, without a pack containing everything you need both for comfort, and for an emergency. There is no such thing as a woods where you can't get into trouble, I worked with search and rescue out west when I was young, and there was a term for people who went into the wilderness, or just into a local woods, without taking along the gear they should have They were called "Search and Rescue practice Dummies". It's easy to dismiss not bringing a windscreen, but you should have brought one. And a lot of other items, as well. This much I know. It's impossible to forget something if it's already in the backpack, rucksack, or haversack you're going to take with you, and you should ALWAYS, no exceptions, take along a bag that contains the items you will need, and the items you might need, should you fall and btreak your leg. Relying on a cell phone to get you out of trouble is easy, too. Just ask all the dead people who did this, and then learned their phone didn't work, or who lost it ina fall, or who accidentally left it in the car, or who just hit a dead spot in coverage, which can happen in the heart of a city at times, let alone in a woods. There's a place about five miles from where I live that's in the middle of a thousand acres of public land. This land is surrounded by heavy population on every side, and there's a major hospital just two miles away. There's also a dead spot of about fifty acres right in the middle of it. It's suspected that the hospital's emergency communication gear has something to do with it, but no one knows for sure. Whatever the cause, it's a rough area, and an area where you might not be found for quite a while because it is rough, and you are not getting out of it with a broken leg, a back injury, etc. We found people dead, and others who almost died, in areas more open and closer to home than this. I had a friend, now diseased, who almost died on his own land. He fell, broke his neck, and landed in some thick reeds along a pond. He was out of sight, and all his family and friends thought he was gone. By the time they realized he didn't come back at a reasonable time, and couldn't be found, he had lain there for mor ethan two days, and it was a miracle he didn't die. I knew another man who wasn't as lucky. He was walking a trail that meandered along a stream, and the bank gave way with him. He landed in the edge of the stream, broke his leg badly, and probably injured his lower back enough to incapacitate him. It was hard to be certain because he was dead when found. The medical examiner figured he had lived at least thirty-six hours, and cause of death was hypothermia. His cell phone? It got soaked when he landed in the edge of the stream, and stopped working. He managed to crawl onto dry ground, but he had no cover with him. He did have an alcohol stove, but that's not enough to dry out and keep a thoroughly soaked person alive when it's cold and wet, and he has nothing to use for shelter.
would u consider throwing small kindling in there on top of the tablets ..heat / boil water quicker or would the stove not be able to handle the excess heat?
You make really good vids. Good camera, audio, thorough product review. Thanks. Do you really think 5 tablets to boil a few cups of water is efficient? Seems like a lot of waste in the fuel department.
That stove has been around since 1936 crazy I think all they did was take west off of West Germany it's still a great lil stove.Ever do any water systems like Camelback or any of those I'm not up on any new water packs or whatever you call them the one I have is old and I'd like to replace it.Any suggestions. Love your vids and I watch em all since I subbed
I'm not the poster of this video, but I always just rub the bottom of my cookpot on the grass while it's still warm & it seems to clean up very well. Of course if there's no grass around I guess you could be screwed.
I would leave the tabs in their little packages, they're toxic and the dust off them isn't good for you. Just my preference but I would store the stove and tabs separate from the cooking pot. Love seeing the vids where the conditions are less than ideal.
I never say no to a cook kit...lol. But them prices make me hesitate...lol. Have to now days...so I have to go with the extra weight and stainless steel.
I agree but it is still just a tad bit out of my range...I've always wanted a Titanium pot to see how it performs under my standards of cooking...that is frying and such to see if it sticks....and if if can be treated like stainless steel to render that from time to time...One day I shall...
All you need are the fuel cubes, the stove is an unnecessary gadget. Find a flat rock or us a tin can lid to lay the fuel cube on and put four rocks around the cube, light the cube and set your pot on the four rocks or two rocks, whatever works. All you need to carry are the fuel cubes. Save your money and lighten your pack and no mess.
Wow $10 Bucks, up here you can get it for $3.00 Cdn at the Dollar Store (Yes Esbit) Hold on a sec, I'm near Nature can you hear the Silence? I buy & use sawdust with beeswax from Dollar store for $1.25 (Nothing is a Buck anymore). lasts longer than Esbits fire starter and is easier to store.
***** No I don't but should on day, The cubes are 1"x1"x3/8" approx thick. 1 piece burns for 15 mins approx. #Dollarama product code is 06-0601303. looks & feels like hard cardboard.or press wood. Stixon Bushcraft
Dollarama here used to sell a knock off of these for $2. Not any more though. I would just add a few twigs to supplement if one cube wouldn't quite bring it to a boil.
Pro Tip: If you want faster boil times and more heat, stand your fuel tabs tall. This exposes more of the fuel tabs for burning and also brings the flame closer to the pot. In addition I usually recommend people use aluminum rather than titanium. Titanium is great for its lightweight properties, but when we're talking efficient cooking aluminum will always perform better.
You would have lost a lot of heat to that wind! Your rucksack would have made a useful windscreen and probably would have saved you a cube (just don't put your pack too close to the stove).
Ein schöner Kocher ich selber betreibe Trekking und Wandern im Sauerland und koche nur mit ein Esbit- Spiritus Kocher. Schau doch mal bei mir auf denn Kanal da kannst du sehen was für Gerichte ich mit dem Esbit Koche Gruß aus dem Sauerland
Your video has convinced me I don't want one of these stoves. Fuel is expensive there's no throttle for simmering all you can do is boil water with it. There's lots of ways to boil water. Thanks for the video
Hey, how about you use a windscreen like none of you testers ever do. You can use aluminum foil or buy a real windscreen. With a wind screen you can boil 1 pint of water in 8 minutes--- that's 1 fuel tab. 5 tabs is crazy. It's a waste of your precious resources. There is even an esbit type stove that has a built in windscreen, I think it's called a dragonfire.
Hey if you can shoot me an email I can tell you a fuel that I have been working on this winter just to try and see if it works and if it does each one will burn for a half an hour and you can make for penny's and It weighs about three penny's. So email me if yourb interested.
