BTW have you ever tried to melt snow with the Esbit stove? Is it better to build a candle stove with tea candles and food cans nested and suspended by a nail? And are the UCO candleliers any good for melting snow or better, boiling water? I know I'll have to experiment for myself...

Frankie

windscreen

that said, I prefer alcohol stoves to solid fuel stoves. I have bullet-proof brass trangia alcohol stove as well as some home-made penny stoves.

IME, nothing beats a good hot burner such as my MSR Dragonfly. But for simplicity, I like an alcohol stove with the solid fuel stoves third.

I have had ok luck with a heavy foil windscreen or even digging/finding a hole or depression and using a foil cover on the cup/pot.

good luck
eta a bit of foil on the bottom of your pot will keep the pot clean

The nice thing about a sold fuel stove is that you can throw it in a truk and forget about it. Using alcohol seems to have its own problems, such as leaking and evaporation.

Do not treat that book as gospel. There are plenty of errors in almost every military survival manual including the SAS book.

I'm wondering if you've got bad fuel, it does sometimes happen.

I'll be honest, I've never boiled water with just esbit or triox either, but I've gotten 20 ounces hot enough to make tea with, which to me means that there is a LOT of gas bubbles clinging to the bottom of the pan/pot, basically covering the metal below the waterline. I've also brought 12 ounces to a simmer if it is in a SMALL container, like an Olicamp cup, that has a cover, which can be enough to rehydrate your meal in some cases.

Use tablets for purification, esbit/triox for morale, warmth and tinder. That's my rule of thumb.

Water doesn't have to boil for purification. Heating to over 65C for 1 minute is enough for pasteurisation. Hotter and longer is better, of course.

I've heard different. I've always been told a 5 minute rolling boil kills whatever you need it to. The old way of boiling it for so many minutes, then adding 1 minute for every 1000' of altitude took too much to think about, and you MAY not know what your altitude it. So, keeping it simple (K.I.S.S.) is 5 minute rolling boil at ANY altitude. that should kill anything.
But, I also agree that, in a short term survival situation, if you have alternate methods for purification, use those. Takes less time, and, with tablets, you dont have to sit around & watch. Add, shake, wait, done!

Jetboil .. two minutes, two cups boiled. Its not cheap but boy, does it work. If you run out of fuel you still have a cup or the pot to cook with. [just a thought]

I've used an Esbit and I've built a can stove for solid fuel (works better than Esbit) - save that stuff for tinder!

For stove cooking you can't beat alcohol, IMO. For years (and I mean years!) I used an Optimus hiker (gasoline). Great stove - still have it and it works great. Then I went to Whisperlite for years - still have it and works great. Then I learned how to make an alcohol stove from a cat food can! Never going back! For one person (two stoves=two people, etc.) on the move there is absolutely nothing like it. The great virtues of alcohol - doesn't explode, doesn't stink if spilled on gear, buy everywhere in the world, evaporates and doesn't linger, has other uses, stove setup weighs 1/10th gasoline types, zero maintenance, instant priming - need I go on?

Spill? I use little Nalgene bottle - 1 oz. per meal (one pot + tea) - 4 oz. bottle goes a weekend. Hasn't leaked yet.

Boils one pint water in 4 minutes flat. I can make a cat food stove (Google "Atlanta Alcohol Stove"), priming pan and windscreen in 30 minutes. Cost = $0.50 (if you buy everything except cat food - add $0.50 for cat food). Guess you can tell - I love these things! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The Nuwick 120 hr. candle will work as a stove. Better yet - one of my Scouts, few years ago, made a candle stove. He cut wicking into ten short wicks (wire core materials with loops like Nuwick), melted paraffin into a tuna can (half full), added ten wicks. Voila! Stove! It worked. Made pot sooty. Needed windscreen. But - cheap, effective, imaginative!

See my other post for a real stove - from a cat food can!