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Reviews > Cook Gear > Stoves > Backpacking Light Titanium Esbit Stove > Owner Review by Colleen PorterBackpacking Light Titanium Esbit Wing StoveOwner Review September 22, 2006
Field Conditions:
The stove has been used exclusively in southern and central California
- in the San Gabriel Mountains and in the Sierra Nevada
Mountains. It
has been used at elevations ranging from 2400'/732 m to as high as
9,990'/3045 m. Since I tend to cook before sundown and rarely
cook for
breakfast, temperatures during use have probably mainly ranged from 65
F/18 C to 75 F/24 C. Weather has been mostly dry, with soft to
moderate winds. The stove itself is almost as simple as you can get. Fold the wings together for storage, swing them out equidistantly to use as a stove. Place the Esbit tab in the center, light it, put your pot on the wings, then set up your windscreen. Once you're done and the stove has cooled, fold the wings back together and stow the stove away. I have used a Snow Peak trek 700 pot, an AntigravityGear 3-cup/0.7 L pot, and my Snow Peak 450 mug on it, and it accommodated them all. I feel that wider pots are more stable on the stove than narrower ones, but not significantly so. But the wider a pot is, the more difficult it is to make sure the pot is properly centered on the stove. Pots that fit within the span of the wings will center themselves naturally and remove any guesswork. Its drawbacks are obvious and more often the Esbit fuel itself is just as much to blame. The stove has no integrated wind protection, so the user must find a way to keep it out of the wind while trying to light the occasionally fickle and stubborn Esbits. I have found I am more successful when I place the tab so that it is not nestled into the tab holder, but rather so half the tab is sticking out into the air. I then light underneath the tab and once it is solidly ablaze I use whatever is handy to nudge the burning fuel tab into place. In really strong winds it is vital to keep the burning tab sheltered, as Esbits can be blown out. Once burned up, of course the Esbits leave their telltale black residue on the stove. The residue is easy enough to scrape out without seeming to do any damage to the stove. The stove also discolored slightly after being used, but this is a typical characteristic of titanium and does not affect the stove's performance. When I first received the stove, one of the wings swung more freely than the other two and would not stay in the place I adjusted it to. But after using the stove, all three wings seem to be equally tightly attached to the stove and all swing at about the same tension level. I assume that the heat of the stove somehow affected the wings' mount, as they anchor directly underneath the burning tab. The stove stays quite stable when the wings are deployed at equal distances. I have primarily used it on rocks and sand, but did use it once in a fire pit at an established campsite. I have never been unable to locate a suitable flat spot upon which to set up the stove. Summary: The Backpacking Light Titanium Esbit Wing Stove is a fantastic way to use Esbit tabs. It's simple, extremely light (although the leftover Esbit residue might add a fraction of a gram!), and takes up almost no space in my pack. In any conditions where I think Esbit is the best fuel choice, I'll be using this wing stove from now on.
Read more reviews of BackpackingLight.com gear Read more gear reviews by Colleen Porter Reviews > Cook Gear > Stoves > Backpacking Light Titanium Esbit Stove > Owner Review by Colleen Porter | |||||||
