SUL Cook Kit

[Stick]

In anticipation of an upcoming SUL hike, I decided to give my UL cook kit a look over and see if I could make any improvements to it, as well as lighten it up. This cook kit uses Esbit as its fuel source and a Heine cook pot with it. Some of the items are DIY, and some were purchased.

The core components weigh in at 1.75 oz and the entire cook kit weighs in at 2.9 oz! I am pretty excited about it.

Here is a video I did on it earlier today:

As well, here is the link to a much more detailed write up:

SUL Cook Kit

[TollerMom]

Now that's cool. Is that a bigmouth Heiney? How ounces? What is tyvek and where do you buy it? What does someone get titanium foil? I read about people who trade out their nalgene water bottles for Gatorade bottles. What size Gatorade bottle are they using? 21 days until my overnighter.

[Stick]

TollerMom, It is one of the old 24 oz Heine Keg Cans, which they unfortunately do not make anymore. (From what I understand, it seems like Heineken has had some issues in the past with backpackers using these keg cans as cook pots, so it may have had something to do with why they do not make them anymore...not sure though...)

Tyvek is a waterproof, fairly durable material that is used as house wrap. Many backpackers use it as footprints for their tents. I believe that it can be bought by the foot off of ebay, as well, some backpacker shops sell precut pieces, such as Six Moon Designs. Just Google it though and it is pretty easy to come by. Another thing that you can do is stop by a construction site and ask if they have any scrap pieces of Tyvek. Or just run by the post office, FedEx or UPS and pick up a Tyvek envelope.

I got my titanium foil from Ti Goat. It is the same piece that I used to make my DIY windscreen. I used the scraps to make this stove.

I love my Gatorade bottles. The 32 oz size bottle weighs 1.3 oz empty. With a heavier pack, I will typically carry one of these attached to my shoulder strap, however, with this lighter wieght pack, I will carry 2 of the 20 size bottles since the single 32 oz bottle on one shoulder strap is very noticeable. Heck, when filled, that 32 oz bottle will weigh half as much as my base pack weight! So, I will just use a 20 oz bottle on each shoulder strap so that the weight is more evenly distributed.

[TollerMom]

I was telling my friends today about your SUL stove. Thanks for the additional advice on your DIY products...and for the educational videos!!!! I take note of EVERY-thing!

[Stick]

No problem! Glad to help. And thanks for spreading the word!

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

So far as bottles are concerned the holy grail for me are the (Unfortunately) discontinued 1L wide mouth Aquafina bottles... 1.65oz. A little heavier than the Gatorade bottle but I always found it so much easier to get in and out of the side pockets of my pack due to its shape and the sturdy plastic it was made from. The new bottles ditched the easy to refill wide mouth and have a much thinner material - But of course reducing the environmental impact of the all the bottles is a good thing. That said, the two bottles that I have in my collection are among the gear items that I value the most!

[Stick]

Here is another video I recently did with my SUL cook kit in use...

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

That's a really nice looking setup - Everything fits together really well. Noticed the comment on the lighting issue, have you tried to shave off some of the Esbit tab to get things going by chance? Didn't seem to be too much of an issue in the video though. Crazy light weight - You were even able to throw in the cup as a luxury item! How are you liking the system compared to an alcohol solution?

[Stick]

Aaron, I cannot say that lighting the Esbit is necessarily a problem, but after being so used to using and lighting alcohol, it ain't the same... I have thought about using matches and just lighting the match and then laying it next to the Esbit, but I don't want to deal with matches that may get blown out before lighting the Esbit... the "degree of difficulty" as seen in the video is about the same as lighting the Esbit other times as well...

I am really happy with both Esbit and alcohol. For trips that weight is a definite issue, then I think Esbit wins it out for me. However, I have come to the conclusion that if I ever take my MLD 475 ml mug to use as a cook pot, then I will use a tea light tin as my stove. I have found that (depending on environmental conditions) I can get 12 oz of water to boil (or just to a boil) in the 475 mug using 13 ml of fuel in the tea light tin. So, this is a pretty light weight option too...

But, I do find that using Esbit is a little easier than alcohol since I just pop the blister pack open and lay the cube in the tray. That's it, no measuring and accidentally dribbling fuel. Plus, if the Esbit get's knocked over, it will not be a flowing pool of fire... However, I will also admit, I really do enjoy using alcohol stoves, regardless of the measuring of fuel. Also, with ALL stoves I take a lot of precautions and make sure that the area around me is cleared, stable and simply safe.

For the most part though, when using alcohol, I just as soon take 1 oz of alcohol per meal, which typically comes to 2 oz per day since I usually like to boil water for breakfast and for dinner.