Esbit Spirit burning stove–first look

Up until now I have been using a lightweight stove, with a not so lightweight gas canister to heat a Trangia kettle of water that I then pour into the pack of dehydrated food or into a 58 pattern black plastic mug when making drinks. The total weight has not been a problem, but the volume has been. I have been packing the stove inside the kettle, but then the kettle, the gas canister and the mug had to live separately in whichever rucksack I was using at the time.

I was therefore looking for an alternative. I think I shied away from things like the Jet Boil and the Primus because they look too tall to be stable and I didn’t really want yet another gas stove. So, I took the plunge and went, in my eyes, for something completely different – the Esbit Spirit burning cookset. This can also use solid fuel tablets, which I am familiar with (from our Ridgeway walk and my time in the cadets and OTC), so I guess it wasn’t something completely new.

Anyway, it arrived at work last week but I had to wait until this morning to try it out. In our re-enactment group we always tell new members to try out new gear in training before taking it to a show. There is nothing worse than wearing a new helmet for the first time during a battle only to find out that it isn’t padded properly and you can’t see anything. Similarly, I thought that it would be a good idea to try something as fundamental as a stove in the safety and comfort of my home, rather than relying on it in the hills for the first time.

The cookset is well designed with the spirit burner and stand nestling inside the 985ml jug (which has a natty little pouring lid and is marked inside with various volume measurements). The cup sits on top of the jug as a lid.

I filled the spirit burner with meths and placed it inside the stand. It lit first time from a lighter and I placed the larger jug (containing 800ml of water) on to the stand and covered it with the cup.

It took about 20 minutes to bring the 800ml of water to a boil. This seems like quite a long time, and I will be interested to see how long it takes using solid fuel tablets. I did the test in my garage and tried to shelter the stove with a large plastic box. However, the breeze still blew the flames away from the base of the jug and up the outside, thus reducing the overall efficiency. I am therefore tempted to make some sort of windbreak for the stove, possibly along the lines of a Caldera cone.

Videos of the test can be seen on my Flickr site, here and here.