Esbit 1300-Degree Smokeless Solid 14g Fuel Tablets for Backpacking, Camping, and Emergency Prep

This review is for the Esbit fuel tablets in the 14 gram size. Developed in 1936 in Germany, these fuel tabs are made of hexamine and are in solid form. They have been used in purpose-specific pocket stoves for decades, in WWII, as part of humanitarian packets worldwide, and for years as part of NATO troops' standard kit. I use these primarily for the Esbit pocket stove but they also make for excellent fire starters, especially in adverse conditions. Amazon has proven a reliable source for these as well as a decent price, though I've found they can be had for comparable prices at local outdoor/adventure stores. I have been using these for years and have found them so reliable that they live in my home and auto-based emergency kits, my dayhike pack, and my backpacking gear. The following is a breakdown of my experience with the Esbit fuel tabs: Pros: * Utterly Dependable - It has been found that these fuel tabs burn just as long and just as hot after decades in storage. I don't know that I can say that about any of my other camping stove fuels: White gas, diesel, isobutane canisters, or alcohol. Any of the others would be prone to spills, evaporation, varnishing, leaky valves after an extended period of time. After years of use, I've never had one fail to light or burn, ever. This kind of dependability makes them ideal for long term storage in emergency kits, that you may not be opening regularly. * Flexible - My typical use of these fuel tabs is in the Esbit pocket stove Esbit Pocket Stove , but they also happen to make excellent fire starters, especially in less than ideal conditions. If your tinder happens to be slightly damp, starting a fire can be a challenge. These fuel tabs will burn over ten minutes (14 gram size), giving time and heat enough to dry and ignite surrounding tinder. This allows you to save matches on those cold damp days when you really to get a fire going. * Performance - As a stove fuel, the Esbit tabs are perfectly reliable and can bring a pint of water to a boil with a single tablet, under good conditions. To increase the heat, or to extend the duration of the burn (a single tablet burns approximately 12 - 14 minutes), you can simply burn more than one at a time, or in succession. For large scale cooking, or when you really need to modulate the heat, a backpacking stove or camping stove is the way to go, however. * Clean - As a solid fuel, spills are never an issue. When burning, the flame is smokeless, usually less than a burning candle. The fuel tab can be reused also, by blowing out the flame - the remaining tab can be re-lit for the next meal. When completely burned, there minimal residue remaining. To keep your Esbit stove especially clean, just put a small piece of aluminum foil on the burn surface - after the fuel tab burns, just toss the foil with the residue on it. * Simple - This may well be a drawback to some, but this reviewer appreciates the simplicity of this fuel, along with the Esbit pocket stove. I've got several fancy backpacking stoves that have valves, o-rings, pressurized fuel bottles, multi-fuel capacity, and that can boil water in minutes flat. And sometimes that's good: When the wife is hungry and tired, it's not healthy for me to make her wait. But when I have that rare moment when I can be somewhere remote when it's just me and the silence, I really enjoy the quiet, dancing flame of my Esbit stove. No pumping, priming, adjusting, or extensive set up of a fancy stove, nor the jet engine howl of the gas burner. No. Just unfold the stove, light the match, and listen to the soft hiss as your water comes to a boil. With all the electronic connectivity of modern life, sometimes simple is good. Better than good. Cons: * Wind Sensitive - As these can be easily blown out, care needs to be taken to shield them from the wind if the best performance is to be had from them when cooking or heating water. I make my own windscreens for my Esbit pocket stoves by folding a long sheet of aluminum foil length-wise a few times until it is about 3 to 4 inches wide and about 18" long; I then make slits at the bottom to allow air to the flame and place the windscreen around the outside of the stove, allowing enough space for air to flow. Thus protected, I've never had issues with my Esbit-fuelled stove. Most backpacking stoves are likewise sensitive to the wind and need to be similarly protected by a windscreen. * Limited Cooking Options - When used in a pocket stove, Esbit fuel is ideally suited to boil a pint of water to reconstitute a dehydrated meal, cook ramen noodles, or to make tea, coffee, or hot cocao. This makes it ideal for minimalist backpacking, day hikes, as an emergency or backup stove, or for keeping in your truck (like I do) for those times when you are out in the boonies on a frigid day and could really use a hot cup of tea or coffee, or a steaming bowl of noodles. It's not that you can't cook a full meal on it, and I have - but it will never be as fast, easy, or convenient as using a more capable and adjustable backpacking stove. * Smell - When burning, the fuel doesn't give off too much odor unless you're in an enclosed space. (which, of course, you shouldn't be anyway) The residue, however, smells of old fish. I recommend storing your stove (which will have the residue on it after use) in the excellent Opsak bags by Loksak OPSAK Odor Proof Barrier Bags (3 Size Options) These bags will stop odor dead in its tracks. If you're backpacking or hiking in a regulated area, your stove bag also makes an excellent way to pack out human waste for those areas that are regulated, or if you just want to be a good citizen. (Side recommendation here: 12-pack WAG(tm) Bag Kit ) Possible Uses: I carry spare fuel tabs, along with the Esbit pocket stove, stormproof matches, four tea bags, plastic baggies, a nano pack towel, an ounce of campsuds, and a titanium spork in a Snow Peak Trek 700 cup/pot. This little piece of kit is a surprisingly versatile cook kit that lives in my truck and goes on every day hike and backpacking trip. It's always at the ready to serve up a cup of tea, rehydrate a Mountain House meal, or cook ramen noodles. Of course, it's also there if I needed to boil water in an emergency in order to purify it, start a campfire, etc. Bottom Line: While there are many options for camp stoves, I always carry these Esbit fuel tabs in a pocket stove wherever I go and also use them for my home-based emergency kit. I've found them to be reliable, durable, and handy. I can unequivocally recommend them for outdoor recreation, simple camp cooking, emergency use, or for back up to other camp stoves. Great product, five stars.

You know the old saying: “Opinions are like backsides – everybody has one”. I will therefore refrain from opinion and offer some facts, along with a few questions. Esbit was developed in Germany for the Wehrmacht (German Army) in the1930's. With this gear, German soldiers survived three winters in Russia during World War II, with temperatures routinely going down to minus forty degrees. Sizable numbers of German troops operated in Karelia as far north as Petsamo, which is north of the Arctic Circle. When was the last time you survived 3 years in a camp north of the Arctic Circle? Esbit has been around for 84 years. How many worthwhile things can you think of that have been around that long? Hot dogs and mustard? Baseball? Really, how many? How long have those fancy $150.00 mountain stoves been around? Are they as good as a hot dog? The characteristics of Esbit are disliked by some people. They say it gives off a chemical odor. I would point out that a wood fire also give off a chemical odor, as well as poisonous gases. So does every other kind of fire. This is the nature of fire. It consumes and decomposes matter. Esbit leaves a residue on the bottom of the cookware? Soldiers were expected to clean their mess kits after eating. How about you? I recommend using one of those “magic eraser” kitchen sponges. They weigh nothing and take up little space in a backpack. Esbit shelf life? 20+ years. This is from personal experience. Germany was rightly defeated in World War II but one of its legacies was this humble, individual field kitchen, Esbit. Eighty four years is an astonishing life span for a field cooker. The reason? It is the least expensive, most effective life insurance policy for survival situations that you can own. You know the old saying: “Opinions are like backsides – everybody has one”. I will therefore refrain from opinion and offer some facts, along with a few questions. Esbit was developed in Germany for the Wehrmacht (German Army) in the1930's. With this gear, German soldiers survived three winters in Russia during World War II, with temperatures routinely going down to minus forty degrees. Sizable numbers of German troops operated in Karelia as far north as Petsamo, which is north of the Arctic Circle. When was the last time you survived 3 years in a camp north of the Arctic Circle? Esbit has been around for 84 years. How many worthwhile things can you think of that have been around that long? Hot dogs and mustard? Baseball? Really, how many? How long have those fancy $150.00 mountain stoves been around? Are they as good as a hot dog? The characteristics of Esbit are disliked by some people. They say it gives off a chemical odor. I would point out that a wood fire also give off a chemical odor, as well as poisonous gases. So does every other kind of fire. This is the nature of fire. It consumes and decomposes matter. Esbit leaves a residue on the bottom of the cookware? Soldiers were expected to clean their mess kits after eating. How about you? I recommend using one of those “magic eraser” kitchen sponges. They weigh nothing and take up little space in a backpack. Esbit shelf life? 20+ years. This is from personal experience. Germany was rightly defeated in World War II but one of its legacies was this humble, individual field kitchen, Esbit. Eighty four years is an astonishing life span for a field cooker. The reason? It is the least expensive, most effective life insurance policy for survival situations that has ever been developed.

Works as expected. Burns clean and smokeless, and on some occasions (depending on light) you can barely see the flame. It does a great job on bringing soup, water, coffee or even a can of beans to a boil. Lol I'll order more that's for sure!

I am an avid backpacker and primitive wilderness camper and explorer. The Esbit tabs are OK, especially for a $7 fuel source. They don't smell as "fishy" as everyone claims. Don't buy into the "overly fish smell" hype. They do smell faintly fishy but nowhere near an amount that requires the level of whining you'll see from others. Let me put it this way: the worry that they might smell should not deter you from buying. That said, there are some drawbacks: 1) They claim 1 tablet will burn for 12 minutes. I got 8 minutes max out of each tablet. This was with zero wind, a 65° temp, and 80% humidity. 2) It took a tablet and a half, 15 minutes or so, to boil 500ml of water in a closed lid titanium pot, with zero wind, a 65° temp, and 80% humidity. That's somewhat poor performance in my opinion, especially given my MSR Pocket Rocket and my MSR Dragonfly white gas stove would boil 500ml in 3-4 minutes in the same conditions. 3) The foil backing in the tabs punctures easily, exposing the tab to oxygen and potentially reducing its storage life. 4) The corners of the containers for each tablet are extremely pointy and sharp. The corners will puncture fabrics easily. Pack them carefully. 5) They leave a lot of soot on the bottom of the cooking pot, which runs off on other items in the backpack. On the positive side they pack small and are very light. They light easily.

These things work awesome at starting fires. They take only a few seconds to get going, and boy is there a big flame! You can just set some kindling and some big logs on top of one of these suckers and it will ignite like you wouldn't believe. I use them when I go camping, which now sucks because I just found out I have something called "Strabismus", which I guess means I'm cross-eyed. News to me. It's probably why people have always asked me, "who are you talking to?", and why I keep running into the door jam whenever I enter or leave a room. Yea, I found out because I got attacked by a Pomeranian in the lobby of a Days Inn, and tried chasing the little demon-seed of Chewbacca out the front door, but it was a revolving door and I went in the wrong side and knocked myself out. Apparently I jammed the thing because I woke up in the ICU with a cast on my right arm, which was the only part of me that made it through the door, and for 15 minutes the door kept trying to revolve (it was an automatic one I guess) and kept smashing my ulna in the same spot. They tried showing me the X-Ray of the break, but I kept asking why they were showing me both of my arms broken. They both said, "why are you talking to the examination tray?". They then sent me home, but said I can't do a lot of the things I've always done (like camping) because apparently whenever I've gone camping, I've built the fire outside the pit and that is some kind of "fire hazard" in this state. Plus I had to give up my license as a school bus driver AND can't go to work at the firing range any more. So all in all, these fire starters are great. Highly recommended.

Fuel tablets made of hexamine can be a good camping fuel for simple lightweight cooking for 1 or 2 people. They contain a lot of energy in a small tablet that is easy to carry. You always know exactly how much fuel you have left. They produce fumes that some find unpleasant, and should never be used in a closed area such as a tent. They can be somewhat difficult to light in windy conditions. They leave a sticky residue on the bottom of the pot that is easy to remove with damp dirt, but can badly irritate your skin if you contact the residue. Burning hexamine fuel tablets can be blown out or smothered if heat is no longer needed, and the remaining partial tablets used the next time. If the tablets become wet you will no longer be able to light them, but they will burn if placed next to another burning tablet. The rate at which the tablets burn is determined by the amount of air that can reach the tablets and by the vertical distance between the burning tablets and the bottom of your pot. The stove sold by Coghlan's limits the amount of air that can reach the tablets and therefore limits the rate of burn. What I do is place the burning tablets on a small piece of aluminum, create a pot support from a strip of hardware cloth (the width of the strip determines the height of the pot), and surround the bottom part of the pot down to the ground with a large ring of lightweight aluminum to protect the stove from the wind. The pot that I use holds a quart. The distance between the bottom of the pot and the ground is such that the size of the flame when it reaches the pot is just a little smaller than the pot. If the distance were to be smaller then cooking would take longer and more heat would be lost to the environment. If the distance were to be greater then the flame would extend up the sides of the pot and heat would be wasted. A Vesuv Windscreen or a Caldera Cone can serve as an excellent windscreen and pot support. Either one must be matched to the pot that you use. They permit you to get by with a little less fuel. Either windscreen can also be used with any one of the many simple stoves that all burn either ethyl or methyl alcohol. Boiling a pint of water, adding pasta, and then bringing the contents back to a boil usually uses just under an ounce of fuel tablets. At that point I extinguish the flame and save the remaining fuel for the next time. The pasta continues to finish cooking without additional heat. Comparing purchases of similar amounts of fuel tablets: Godora fuel tablets in the form of 46 half ounce (15g) tablets, at 23.30 after the 10% discount, is just over $1.00 for each of my meals. Coghlan's fuel tablets in the form of 6 boxes, each containing 24 tablets of 0.24 ounces each, at 32.00, is a little under $0.90 for each of my meals. Esbit fuel tablets in the form of 3 boxes, each containing 12 half ounce (14g) tablets, at 22.50, is $1.25 for each of my meals. The Esbit fuel tablets don't leave a residue. The other tablets appear to use a different binder and leave a small residue. They all produce approximately the same amount of heat per unit of weight.

These are an amazing addition to almost ANYTHING that has the potential to be outdoors with you or save your life. Yes, they do smell bad... (but you can bawl about that after they save your life). They TRULY work as described and offer so many various functions or can be used in millions of ways. We have boiled water, used them just to start campfires, or strategically placed them to light at various times within a controlled burn. We keep a few packs around at all times, we have stored these for almost 10 years before with them still being able to start a campfire. I usually build a campfire using the Tee-Pee method with a newspaper under the Kinlin Tee-Pee... Now I place one of these instead of using newspaper, and it's reliable EVERY TIME no matter the weather. I will say that in a perfect scenario, we do make sure the square has been burned off for at least an hour before we cook open food (smores, hotdogs, etc.) on the campfire that it was used to start.

This review is for the Esbit 14 gram fuel tablets (ASIN: B005NGMJLY) These work great....if you can take the stench. I use them with a small camp stove to heat water for coffee and freeze dried meals when camping. The burn time is about what is advertised. They store well (if you put them into a sealed container or vacuum bag)...I've had these since 2017 and they still light and burn perfectly. They burn more or less cleanly leaving a modest carbon deposit. Compared to the paraffin and sawdust fire starters these are really clean burning. (The paraffin/sawdust ones leave an amazing amount of carbon all over the bottom of my pots.) So why just three stars? First, they are just not as cost effective as other products like Coghlan's Solid Fuel Tablets (ASIN: B0181EV5GY). Even though I have to typically use two of the Coghlan's tablets and only one of the Esbit tablets, they are cleaner burning and are still cheaper. Plus, (and it's a REAL plus for me) the Coghlan's don't stink. In addition, the little foil sealed packets don't stay sealed...which of course releases that oh-so-pleasant stench which in turn stinks up the other stuff in my pack. Note that burning them does NOT impart that foul smell into food, although I've only tried cooking something directly over them once. All other times a pot of some sort was involved. Having used all the products mentioned in this review (and those sawdust/paraffin ones, too), I will be using the Coghlan's fuel tablets from now on. Oh, BTW...the Coghlan's tablets fit perfectly in a 50ml centrifuge tube (One such option is ASIN: B0D7HCPMB5). Each tube will hold 7 of the Coghlan's tablets. The tubes are nearly leakproof...They will leak under certain circumstances like a significant change in air pressure (think packing the tubes at sea level and then taking them to the top of a mountain). I tested them by partially filling a tube with water, capping it tightly, flipping it over so the top is down, placing that in a quart canning jar and then using my vacuum sealer to create a vacuum in the jar. Under that scenario, the tubes WILL leak.