The Outdoor Adventure Giving you tips, tricks & recommendations to help make adventuring in the Outdoors fun, safe & exciting for you and your kids.
Even in Bolivia you can find backpacking gear. There are two North Face stores that sell primarily South American made gear (yes, I didn’t miss the irony) and an army surplus store that, amongst other things, sells classic solid fuel (esbit style) stoves.
It has some real treasures. They sell a light, aluminum army surplus pot and frying pan (the peanut shaped one), the Swedish military trangia cook set (not so light, but includes base, stove, pot and pan in a collapsible set) and the esbit stove that they offered me at the right price.
| Esbit pocket stove (click to buy from Esbit) |
Positives:
The real benefit is size, weight and simplicity.
It folds up to about the size of a deck of cards.
It is light, but not made of aluminum so its a bit heavier.
It is chemical based and easy to light (with an open flame). ç
The tablets allow easy measurement of fuel use.
It and the fuel is cheap. (less than $10 for the stove and less than $10 for the fuel)
It and the fuel is cheap. (less than $10 for the stove and less than $10 for the fuel)
Downsides:
The esbit style stove isn’t extremely fast and uses chemicals.
I bolied 2 cups of water at 3200 meters 10500 feet in about 10 minutes. That’s slower than my high efficiency wood stove.
The military surplus fuel tablets I got said to make sure the powder doesn’t get in your water and to wash hands before eating. That is kind of obvious, but a usefule note of caution.
The military surplus fuel tablets I got said to make sure the powder doesn’t get in your water and to wash hands before eating. That is kind of obvious, but a usefule note of caution.
The other white fuel tablets that I got shows an obvious chemical burn that lets off an obvious chemcial smell. Make sure you use this in an open space.
It doesn’t come with a wind shield.
Use:
What can you use this for? boiling water. Thats about it. If you are looking to do more, look somewhere else, the high efficiency wood stove, the trangia set or the alcohol burner are better choices, but for something compact, light and cheap (available for $10 online… mine was cheaper).
Will I use? This summer I intend to take several different stoves with me to try them out on the trail and see what I like. I think this is going to be for shorter trips where I’m not in a rush and can’t use my high efficiency wood stove.
