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[pct-l] Esbit Tabs
I used Esbit fuel tabs on 1000 miles of the PCT this year. They worked
great, and that is now my first choice. I've used a Whisperlight previously
with no problems, but the weight savings and ease of set up and use of the
Esbit far outweighs the increased cost for me.
One cup of water boils quite rapidly and I usually used less than one tab per
meal (Use a windscreen)- so one person meals were a snap. If I was heating 2
cups it took much much longer, so for solo use it's fast. Also the tabs can
be blown out and reused. It was very convenient to ship them to myself for
resupply. I ended up shipping lots of them back home because I found I
wasn't using as many as I'd expected. The weight is .5 (that's one half) an
ounce each. They also take up less room in my pack. No, they don't simmer,
but then again neither did my whisperlight very well. For most meals I
cooked this was not an issue. For shorter trips it might be if I wanted to
be more creative with my cooking. Often putting food into boiling water,
blowing out the tab, and letting food sit 10 min. would be similar to
simmering (s.a. for couscous, polenta...) One drawback was that blowing a
full tab out was quite difficult - cover your food! and take a very deep
breath. When the tabs were more used up it was easy to blow out. (This
added humor to our dinnertimes, so I didn't really mind.) And they do have a
smell - the partly used tab and stove smelled like fish to me when I opened
my ziplock.
My opinion: It's worth it. Especially if you're really needing to reduce
weight.
GT
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