Very true CANOEDOGS, esbit tabs stink something fierce. I keep my stove and tablets in a cheap (airtight) otterbox type container and that seems to work. But when I first open it up, MAN! thats some strong smell! When I used the Esbit as my primary stove I always used a minimum of two tablets (and sometimes 3) to boil water and cook. I was very satisfied with the heat output and the utter simplicity of the stove but hated the blackening of the pots so now i use alcohol as my primary and have the esbit as a backup.