Stove of the Week: Tibetan Ti Wing Stove

Well, another week has passed, so it's time to post another stove. This week, the stove of the week is the Tibetan Ti Wing Stove. At 12g, the Tibetan Ti Wing Stove is one of the lightest backpacking stoves there is. Every investigation I've read lists hexamine as the lightest overall fuel, all things considered (stove, packaging, the fuel itself).



The Tibetan Ti Wing Stove is a solid fuel stove. It is typically used to burn hexamine cubes or tablets. Esbit brand is shown on the left and Stansport brand is shown on the right. Esbit it the "name" brand and is generally more expensive but is also, at least where I live more widely available.

The Ti Wing stove can also burn other things like military trioxane (toxic), Wetfire Tinder, etc.

OK, let's head out to one of my local test beds, the Verdugo Mountains of Southern California.


Finding a suitable spot, I unfold the three "wings" of the stove and place an Esbit cube onto the burner pan. Note that I've displaced the cube to the right. Sometimes the cubes are a bit hard to light. Being able to get a flame under the cube helps substantially.


And after a moment, we have flame. Note that the flame is quite yellow. Apparently the US military abandoned hexamine as a fuel because of this yellow flame and went to trioxane instead which has a much more subtle, blue flame. Trioxane is however toxic both in terms of touching the fuel and in breathing the fumes. Use trioxane with care.


Ti Wing Stove in use


Hexamine isn't a powerful fuel. If you're used to the boil times of stoves that use petroleum based fuels, hexamine will be considerably slower. Hexamine's power compares favorably to alcohol. Nonetheless, in fairly short order, we pass the "tea test".


The steam is a bit hard to see, but for you doubters, here it is, a full roiling boil:


And now, for a delicious cup of tea.


There are a couple of downsides to hexamine. 1) It's generally the most expensive fuel out there and 2) it leaves a brown residue on your pot. It wouldn't be so bad if the residue were a hard residue, but, no, the residue is sticky and gooey and gets all over things. I bring a plastic bag to put the pot in after use. The good news is that the residue comes off with ease.


One nice thing about hexamine is that it can be blown out. You do not need to burn the entire cube once lit. As it cools, hexamine forms these odd crystals.
[img]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_o5608HJMn44/TTMWP579eCI/AAAAAAAAJe0/4AkkTtQJhGQ/s800/P1050407.JPG[/img]

Finally, tea enjoyed full well, I fold the wings of the Ti Wing Stove. She's now ready to be stowed.
[img]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_o5608HJMn44/TTMWQze1zyI/AAAAAAAAJe4/F9zIJIj8UgI/s800/P1050408.JPG[/img]

A most compact package. The stove weighs a mere 12g (less than half an ounce). The pot less than 3 ounces. For less than a quarter pound, I've got a nice set to brew up with. This is the lightest, most compact set up out there for hikers, hunters, mountain bikers, etc. It's not the most powerful or versatile. Definitely not one I'd want to have along in foul weather, but very light, compact, and easy to use.

I went hiking with my daughter yesterday by the way. We had a fabulous time sitting by a creek together. She enjoyed splashing her feet in the water. Daddy enjoyed a break. Can you see the family resemblance?
[img]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_o5608HJMn44/TTMWSoQ1rXI/AAAAAAAAJfA/TB02W2aoofY/s800/P1050422.JPG[/img]

I hope you've enjoyed this, another installment in my "Stove of the Week" series.

HJ

Great that you're doing these reviews, Jim.

Thanks.

I recently got the Vargo Titanium Hexagon but remain interested in these ittier-bittier stoves.

Since when did the Tibetan's Prosper well enough to,Afford Titanium Anything,lol?Very Cool Test,& These put my Steel Wing stove to shame,Practically 3grams lighter,though Much more Rigid,than the steel ones,However... My Wing stove costed-$2.99 w/ 3-Hexamine tabs included!Your Daughter is Adorable,& I see she has the Gy-Jeen Ears/Chin,:)

ok..first a big stove,now a tiny one,next a middle size.this is like like the three bears!!

Nice!

I've heard mixed reviews of some of Vargo's Ti stove offerings. How is yours working for you? Any photos? Seriously, I do hope my posts will "shake a few closet stovies out of the woodwork". Love to see what other people have got and hear how they're working.

HJ

Well, I can't beat your price, and mine didn't include hexamine.

Good eyesight on picking out my daughter's features. You're dead on.

HJ

And we're going to keep going until we find the stove that's "juuuust right."

HJ

Why, thank you.

And it is nice. That's about the only stove that I've seen that I might actually include in a PSK. There's little excuse not to have a stove when they're that small and light.

Of course a pot is more important than a stove (you can boil water without a stove, but can't without a pot), but there are places where fires are illegal, fuel is scarce, etc. or where a quick heat up (onset of hypothermia) might make a difference. If one had some kind of base, I would think my little wing stove would work in a snow cave. I would not try a wood fire in a snow cave!

HJ

The BOBs I've built for me and my wife contain Esbit stoves and fuel. For small, light, inexpensive and shelf-stable, I don't know anything that tops it.

I agree with you about the utility of the TTW "stove" and I have one in my minimal kit, but I don't think it would work in an area whee open fires are prohibited, even though it is way better than a campfire. A lot might depend on the judgment of the individual official you encounter.

Now, the Nepalese variant of the stove would sail right through....

Useful for backpacking day hikes, although I tend now to take a 50 gram Titanium Gas Burner and the smallest 100 gram Coleman butane/propane gas cartridge. This allows me to boil around 6-7 litres of Water (3 days capability) compared to 3 litres for the extra 100 grams difference in weight carried over the above setup. i,e. 400grams for the gas burner with pot compared to Esbit Stove with Pot (the pot is a 450 ml Lifeventure Ti Mug). The other advantages of using a gas burner also outweigh the poor performance and mess of the Esbit tabs)

The little Esbit Titanium wing stove is a useful addition to PSKs, it will fit into a BCB PSK tin along with 3 Esbit Tabs quite readily, i.e. enough to get you 2 or 3 cups of hot beverage. The Esbit tabs are also useful firelighters as well.

And there, sir, is the operative word. Hexamine stoves are good ones for caches or any kit that you have where you won't be checking it often.

HJ

Unfortunately, you're correct. Alcohol stoves (with some exceptions) and Esbit type stoves are generally illegal in Southern California except in established camp grounds (and where's the fun in that?) Basically, any stove used outside an established campground has to have an on/off valve of some type. Gas stoves, white gasoline (Coleman type fuel), and kero stoves typically meet these criteria.

HOWEVER, the real "biggie" is an open wood fire. People get very excited about illegal open fires in Southern California. Wildfires cause billions of dollars in damages annually and there are frequently fire related deaths. In practice, most rangers will look the other way or give you a verbal warning if you're using an "illegal" alcohol stove or solid fuel stove, but if you have an illegal open fire, you will get a very different response and not a pleasant one.

I will be posting about alcohol and solid fuel pack stoves. I will not be posting about wood pack stoves.

HJ

Terrific Stove Review HIKIN_JIM and it is great that your daughter is involved in your adventures, premium quality time to remember!

I included Coghlin's Knock-off version of an Esbit stove in the 10 Snowmobile Wilderness Kits I built last year. It filled the need for a small stove that was simple, non-liquid, non-explosive and worked in cold tempertures.

The thing I do not like about Hexamine is the fishy smell, even in a Zip-loc bag the smell seems to escape into my pack.

I tried Greenheat Ethanol Fire Fuel Sachets, they were clean-burning and non-smelly but I found them to be expensive and underpowered.

I recently saw on You-tube about people soaking cotton balls in parrifin wax (one guy even added a container/wick) and using them as fuel instead of Hexamine. They are odourless, non-toxic and cheap to make but produce less heat and still blacken your pots with carbon.

It is tough to find the perfect small field stove. Mike

Aye, to be sure. Stoves, like life, are a series of trade offs.

I've got one stove, the Primus Omnifuel, that some consider to be the ultimate of modern pack stoves. It can operate on standard threaded gas canisters in either vapor feed or liquid feed mode. It can burn Coleman type fuel. It can burn kerosene. It can burn cruder fuels like diesel. In fact, it can burn just about anything although the rougher the fuel, the shorter the periods between maintenance.

However, I don't know of anyone who would characterize it as lightweight, it's not particularly compact, and it's darned expensive. I don't think I'd park it in my trunk with a bottle of Coleman fuel for a year either.

HJ

Hikin_Jim, Great idea with the "Stove of the Week'. I'm really interested in the alcohol stoves reviews because that's mainly all I ever use. BTW, you daughter is absolutely adorable, keep her involved with everything you do and she'll be Daddy's girl for life

Nice review Jim.

I have the Wetfire stove which looks almost identical to your stove. After doing some reading on the residue--soot issue, I tested mine a couple months back also using the Esbit tab with good results. To avoid the residue I wrapped the portion of the stove where the tab goes and the bottom of the cup in foil. From everything I’ve read the wetfire tabs leave even more sooty residue than the Esbit tabs.

I too think the 'Stove of the week' review would be a great idea.

Glad you like the "reviews". They're kind of fun although a bit of work. Let's see if I can really do every week.

I do by the way, have some thing planned around alcohol stoves as well as a Gas Stoves 101 post.

HJ

I think from what I've read that the general consensus re Wetfire is: good tinder, bad stove fuel. Your experience bears that out.

The tinfoil is a pretty good idea although that could be a bit awkward on a multi-day trip, yes? The goo comes off pretty easily, so maybe just a scrub pad in a ziploc is in order.

HJ

Great review. I do, however, have one question: What type of genetic engineering did you participate in to get you and your daughter both born with headlamps? She's a cutie. I pass along a "ditto" on the comment regarding sharing these moments with your daughter. Great job!

Yeah, I'm loving it when I get a chance to take her out. She's eating it up too; her eyes are all over looking at everything.

HJ

HJ,

Love your daughter!! Enjoy the time. Before you know it she will be older (but a trip to Admiralty Island with mine does help to make up for it).

I bought the Wetfire version, and found it to be worse than the Esbit I have used for years. You must use a smaller tea cup than I do, neither will boil the water here in FL. Both will do it at 10,000 plus feet, but that is not so much of a chore.

I have tried the stove as a pot stand for a small wood fire (I used them for years for "boiling the noon kettle") where it worked fine. Just a double handfull of thumb sized squaw wood (Rocky Mtn. pines) will do for a quick cup. Not a lot cleaner than the Esbit though.

I will keep it for a PSK or something, it is nice and light but I wish they had the fuel cup on a pivot (working on that) so that it would pack flat.

Respectfully,

Jerry

p.s. I am enjoying your "stove of the week" very much. I am not much of a stovie(4 stoves in 40 years, two of them the same), but I enjoy learning about them.

+1 on all of the above, even the number of stoves - but even with my meager collection I consider myself a stove fanatic!

The addition of a bit of tin foil to act as a wind barrier would be a welcome lightweight addition to the stove.

Jerry,

That little pot that you saw in the photos holds 2 cups just barely if you fill it to the brim (about 500ml). It can boil about 350 to 400 ml reasonably well. I didn't show it in my post, but I had a couple of other people with me on that outing. I had to refill and boil again in order to get enough water. The cup you saw me drinking out of was a Snow Peak Ti Sierra Cup. It comfortably holds 250ml although it can hold a bit more (300ml?).

Hey, no requirement to "join the club." Glad to hear that you're enjoying the posts. That's what they're there for. This is just my little project: to get my stoves out of their boxes in the attic and get them out and use them. This will stretch me since in order to post 52 unique stoves, I'm going to have to fettle (repair) several non-working stoves. Also helps me to remember just how many freaking stoves I really have. lol

HJ

Yes. Indeed, more than welcome: essential in many circumstances. I normally do carry a little Titanium windscreen. The day was perfect and I was running a little late, so I didn't grab it out of my other pot set, but you're absolutely right that a windscreen is in order. Particularly on low heat output fuels (such as the hexamine I was using), a windscreen can be vital.

HJ

HJ

[quote=Hikin_JimThat little pot that you saw in the photos holds 2 cups just barely if you fill it to the brim (about 500ml). It can boil about 350 to 400 ml reasonably well. I didn't show it in my post, but I had a couple of other people with me on that outing. I had to refill and boil again in order to get enough water. The cup you saw me drinking out of was a Snow Peak Ti Sierra Cup. It comfortably holds 250ml although it can hold a bit more (300ml?).

(Content Deleted)
This will stretch me since in order to post 52 unique stoves, I'm going to have to fettle (repair) several non-working stoves. Also helps me to remember just how many freaking stoves I really have. lol

HJ [/quote]

The top explains the problem I have -- A Drinking Problem -- I normally use a 750 ml pot and put 500 -600 ml of water in it to fill my cup. One tab will not boil that much water.

You have 52 stoves! I am even more interested now, there must be a few in there I need to try.

Thanks,

Jerry

Well, yes and no. It depends a bit on your set up. I have a set up that will boil at least 500 ml per Esbit. I'll have to post that one up at some point.

Oh, I probably have double that, but there are some that need "a lot of love".

HJ

The caldera cone is probably efficient enough to boil a half liter or more on one esbit tablet.

The Hex tabs are handy to start a relatively 'wet wood' fire, too. It will dry fine wood pieces and start them-which,in turn, dry slightly larger........

gimp

Edit: Sorry, evidently common knowledge on this site. I was waking up + fairly new to site.

That's the one. As alcohol stoves go, that one is pretty efficient. I'm not convinced that it's more efficient than a (civilian) Trangia, but it's up there.

HJ