Esbit Solid Fuel Stove and Cookset Review

The Esbit Solid Fuel Stove and Cookset is a complete and inexpensive backpacking cooking system including a combination stove, pot stand, and windscreen with an anodized aluminum cook pot that has insulated folding handles and a lid. Weighing 7.7 ounces / 218 g, the entire unit nests inside the pot for easy packing together with the fuel cubes you need for your trip and a mini bic lighter.

Specs at a Glance

• Actual Weight: 7.7 oz / 218 g (minus cloth stuff sacks)
• Material: Anodized aluminum
• Pot capacity: 20 oz
• Liquid measurements: Yes, embossed on pot
• Pour spout: Yes
• Lid handle: Yes
• Fuel required: 14 g Esbit fuel cubes (not included)

If you’ve never tried an Esbit stove for backpacking, you might be surprised by its simplicity, ultralight weight, and convenience. It’s perfect for short 1-2 night trips when you just need to heat up water for rehydrating food or to cook up a simple one-pot meal. I just pop a few Esbit fuel cubes (sold in packs of 12) into my cook kit (usually 2-3 cubes per day) instead of hunting around for a partially full gas canister (for a canister stove) and trying to figure out whether it has enough fuel left in it.

There’s no waste after using a cube, other than a foil package, and you can even simmer food, by breaking a fuel cube into smaller pieces so they generate less heat. You can also blow out the flame if you don’t need an entire cube, and save the rest for later. While it takes about 8 minutes to boil a cup of water with a single cube, you can speed that up by breaking a cube in half and standing the pieces up vertically (See How to Speed Up Esbit Cube Cooking).  Perhaps most importantly, this Esbit stove will never fail and you never have to worry about stove/canister compatibility since Esbit is not mechanical at all. Esbit also makes a decent campfire starter, or so I’m told.

The pot in this cooking system has a lid with a handle, long insulated folding handles, embossed graduated liquid measurements, and a pour spout. The lid can also be propped up on the side of the pot to allow simmering. The stand is a combination windscreen, pot stand, and stove, holding the Esbit fuel cube at the proper distance for cooking.

This cooking system also comes with two cloth bags, one for the pot stand and one for the pot. While the system nests completely in the pot, I’d hold onto those bags and use them because it stops any rattling sound that the components make when carried together. A small piece of towel also works.

You can assemble an Esbit cook system that’s a few ounces lighter weight than this, but you’ll have to shell out a lot more money for a titanium pot, a titanium pot screen, a wire pot holder, and a fuel cube stand. That is certainly an option, but I still think the Esbit Solid Fuel Stove and Cookset is an excellent value and one that’s convenient to use out of the box.

Disclosure: The author owns this product.

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