[pct-l] Re: Esbit Stoves

[brick@fastpack.com (Brick Robbins)]

At 10:28 AM 10/17/02, you wrote:
>While perhaps not carried on the trail, Esbit can be easily found in Army
>Surplus Stores in the US.  Pretty cheap too, like a couple of bucks.  I like
>the stoves cuz they are "idiot"-proof (meaning ridiculously easy to use) and
>make great emergency stoves, in case your primary one fails.  Problem with
>Esbit tablets is that they are hard to light.

There are two types of solid fuel tablets, and both look the same before
you light them, but not afterwards

Trioxane and hexamine.

Esbit and Stansport are hexamine based, but seem to be slightly different
in total composition from various reports.

Most of the military surplus stuff is Trioxane.

Trioxane is cheaper, easier to light but it stinks when it burns. Trioxane
is moderately toxic via oral route, but you'd have to eat a lot of it to
kill you. More information http://www.epa.gov/chemrtk/triox/c12863rt.pdf

The esbit tabs are not toxic - hexamine is even used as an orally consumed
urinary tract antiseptic. It burns much cleaner, and it is more efficient,
so you don't need quite a much of it to cook the same meal.

As far as the stove itself goes, I'd make one rather than use the fold-up
stamped metal one. You can save most of the weight.

There is a comparison test of the two fuels and more information about the
stove, and how to make lighter alternatives at
http://hikinghq.net/stoves/esbit.html


--
Brick Robbins                       mailto:brick@fastpack.com