Originally Posted By: Chisel
I have been experimenting with my esbit stove ( maybe not geniouine esbit, but anyways). I made some Cup-A-Soup. and some coffee. I tested one tab of fuel, 2 tabs, and then 3 tabs all together.

I noticed that 3 tabs was overkill . The flame was like ( too much fuel and little oxygen). It made my pot blackish. Two brought the pot to a rolling boil, and one tab didn't. However, I wondered : why do we need water to boil. In any case we will have to wauit for it to cool a bit before drinking it. So, I am planning to use one tab only even if water won't boil completely. It only needs to boil if you are sterilizing water or cooking something. IN other cases, you need temp to go up and hover below boiling for a few minutes.



I understand you don't really need to to boil for several minutes. Once you get the water to boiling temp you actually have killed off most of the organisms. A rolling boil for several minutes is overkill but still promoted by a lot of people to be "extra" safe.