I tried making a Pepsi can stove and a Red bull can stove. It's supposed to be easy but I got too frustrated and bought a Vargo Titanium for $30. Pretty much the same design internally. To each his own...I'm lazy and live 4 blocks from a Mountain Equipment Coop smile

I've done controlled comparisons in my kitchen and found the Vargo filled as recommended is very comparable to a single Military Esbit tab. The only main difference seems to be burn time between stoves and tablets with slight differences in efficiency between brands from what I've seen.

My personal observations can be summed up as follows:

Esbit:
  • Great ratio of space and weight to energy produced.
  • Fairly easy to light but you need to know the tricks
  • Smell like fish
  • Leave residue on your pots and cooker
  • Technically can be blown out and reused even if messy to do so.
  • Easy to pop in an extra tab if one isn't enough.


Alcohol Stove (Vargo in my case):
  • Can use gas line antifreeze or Everclear as fuel in a pinch
  • Very efficient fuel wise
  • Low BTU output but comparable to Hexamine IMO
  • Burns clean with no residue, soot, etc.
  • Burns quiet
  • Flame is not bright and barely gives off a bit of blue at night.
  • Easy to spill when filling (fuel is toxic and shouldn't get on your skin ideally)


I've posted about my Vargo many times on this site and commented on posts made by others. I took the liberty of digging up my ramblings (plus a few extras) and linking the posts. You might especially be interested in the comparison I did between the Vargo stove and a Hexamine tablet. It was an inferior brand compared to the military style ones I use these days but still an interesting comparison if I do say so myself smile

http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=113624&fpart=1
http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=116245&fpart=1
http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=108713&fpart=1
http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.ph...=true#Post89264
http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.ph...=true#Post55481
http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.ph...=true#Post45089

If you search 'Vargo' or 'Stove' or even 'pepsi can' you'll find tons of posts on this forum on just about every stove there is. You might want to search out Blasts post about the woodgas stove he built...pretty cool stuff.