Evernew Ti stove, trivet and USGI canteen set...

[Martyn]

Ged asked me a question about the evernew stove and trivet and the answer turned into a mini review, so I thought I'd post it here....

The kit: An evernew Ti alcohol stove, evernew Ti trivet, USGI canteen cup, canteen lid, nalgene US 1 quart canteen bottle, USGI canteen pouch, paracord strap, esbit and coffee. Unfortunately, all of this kit is imported from the US, so although fairly cheap, shipping needs to be factored. See what you think...

One thing I like about the USGI cup stand as opposed to the crusader cooker, is you can use it with almost all of the alcohol stoves. My favourite is the Ti burner from Evernew. Very light, but importantly, the jets on the stove are about 2cm lower than a trangia burner....

This means the flames are a better distance from the pot when used with the USGI stand (and also the evernew trivet pictured). That means better efficiency and faster boil times.

The old style stand is brilliant. It's made of aluminium, very light, pretty tough and loads more useful than the crusader equivalent - for a start, you can put a trangia in it.

[video=youtube;p_PJ9pdF_0M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_PJ9pdF_0M[/video]

With the cup sat on the stand in the above orientation, you get maximum height from flame to base of pot, which is great for things like hexamine, esbit, trangia, or just burning sticks. But also if you rotate the stand 180°, then the cup slides into it and locks in position. You can then stand it in the coals of a fire and it's very, very stable.

Locked together and with lid ready to go onto hot coals...

All fits together nice....

I dont need the trivet with this setup, but it only weighs 16g and it enables me to use the burner with almost any other type of pot, mug, billy or mess tin, so it's worth the weight. Bit of tin foil as a wind shield and sorted.

Everything except the stoves goes into the pouch....

The side pockets contain 2 altoids tins with esbit blocks, tinfoil, quickfire tinder, starbucks via coffee sachets, sugar sachets and potable water tablets. Inside the main pocket, there is also a lid for the canteen cup, a 3' square bandana and a set of microbites utensils. This means this pouch set is all I need to collect, filter, sterilise and boil water for coffee. The evernew stove, trivet and a bottle of meths go inside my day pack. This pouch plus the evernew gives me cooking options for esbit, alcohol and open fire with a high convenience factor, ease of use and a very low weight penalty.


Thanks for looking.

 

[warthog1981]

Excellent thanks for sharing

 

[Shewie]

How do you find the boil times with the US canteen compared to a wider bottomed conventional cooking pot ?

 

[Martyn]

How do you find the boil times with the US canteen compared to a wider bottomed conventional cooking pot ?

You mean like a glacier cup or a billy can on the same stand with the same burner? I havent really done any comparisons. I posted the vid to show what the heat transfer was like and althoutgh the mug was hot and there was only a mouthfull (probably about 50mls) of water in there, you can see it starts to steam after 20 seconds or so. I cant really say much more than that, but it certainly didnt strike me as slow. The big plus for me is that it's a self contained system - it's what I always wanted the crusader to be, but a lot lighter. Though I havent had it long, I'm well impressed with it.

 

[Shewie]

I got rid of my crusader kit a few years ago and switched over to titanium mug and a nalgene bottle. I quite fancy getting another one though at some point

 

[JonathanD]

Looks like a cool bit of kit that.

 

[Martyn]

Looks like a cool bit of kit that.

I thought you'd be interested JD, I'll do some side by side pics of this and the crusader kit later.

 

[JonathanD]

I thought you'd be interested JD, I'll do some side by side pics of this and the crusader kit later.

Cheers Martyn. Is the lid a part of the kit?

 

[Martyn]

Part II

KIT contents in detail:
OK, so I've done the gross anatomy, now to look in some more detail. In the UK we dont tend to worry too much about carrying water at all times, we get so much rain, water is never a massive concern, there is usually plenty everywhere. But it's a bad habbit. There are parts of the world where you would die if you didnt have a means of carrying water at al times. It's also conceivable that you could get stuck somewhere in the UK and be pretty pleased you had water. But a lot of people do carry water as part of a bladder system, or in their main pack. Presumably, they are working on the idea they will always have their pack with them. But is that always the case? Not for me. If I've got a heavy day pack and I'm settling in somewhere, even for just the afternoon, I'll often hide the pack in bushes and go for a wander. This is when it's good to have a portable canteen at the least ...and a full on brewup kit is perfect. The kit can act as just a grab bag, something to keep in the boot of the car, or in the bug out bag, or as part of your countryside wanderings kit, whatever. If you have it with you, you have a means of carrying water, a means of collecting and filtering water, a means of sterilising water, something to start a fire with, something to boil water in, something to eat from, something to eat with, something to drink from and something to drink. All in one little bag.

As you've seen, the kit all fits inside a military canteen pouch....

The pouch is molle compatible and has a long, adjustable and detachable paracord strap...

That the strap detaches is useful, because you can use it to carry other things, such as a bundle of platty bottles if you hit a good water source or whatever. It also means you can strip out the huge amount of paracord and if you want to carry the canteen inside your daysack, you can take the strap off to make getting at the bottle easier.

Looking inside the main pouch, you can see the microbites utensil set at the back, the heavy cover lid on the bottom which makes a flat stable base for the canteen set and also you can see the 3 foot square green bandanna I have with it...

The bandanna is a real multi-use item. It can be folded over a few times and used to cover the cup when collecting water, this is only a very coarse filter, but it should keep most of the sand, grit and pond-life out. Depending on the clarity of water you start with, once purified with aquamira tabs, the water should be acceptable to drink. The bandanna can be dampened and used round your neck on hot days, or to protect your head, or it can be used as a triangular bandage. A dishcloth, an oven glove, the possibilities are many. Well worth carrying.

The heavy steel lid was a tougher choice. It's made of thick steel and is indeed heavy duty. It adds a lot of weight to the kit....

It has a perforated rim, spot welded on which can be used to strain pasta, rice etc and a steel D handle again, welded on. Most importantly, it's fire safe. Being able to use this kit with an open fire is absolutely essential. It's not that I'm that much of a coffee addict, but being able to boil water on an open fire means you can sterilise an almost infinite amount of the stuff from wild sources, rather than rely entirely on carrying it all. The lid is also supposed to reduce boil times and there may be some truth in that, but I think it could be most useful to keep ashes and crap from a fire out of me brew. You can also fry on it, though I dont know what. The makers also say you can use the polished inner surface as a signalling mirror. I dont know how good it would be, but it's there I suppose. Anyway, it gets a spot for now, but if I dont use it much, I may bin it ...or replace it with a lighter, tinfoil lid.

The water bottle is not a genuine military item. One of the great things about the US gear, is that there are so many compatible 3rd party mods. This bottle is a translucent nalgene version. Maybe a little heavier than the GI issue, it's supposed to have a better lid and seal and you can easily see the water level and to some extent, the quality through the bottle.

In each side pocket I have an altoids size tin. These 2 tins contain the 'consumables' of the kit and need to be re-stocked as the contents get used. I might put a strip of black electrical tape round the edges to keep them watertight, but that strikes me as a bit fussy and I dont know if I can be bothered...

The first tin is a means of making fire....

There is a small ferro rod firesteel, about a dozen quick fire tinders and four blocks of the large size esbit tabs. This is topped off with four squares of thick tinfoil.

The tinfoil is pre cut with tabs to fold it into a little tray. The tray holds up to two esbit tabs and several quick fire tinders if needed. The idea is to use the tray as a little cooker in the cup stand. The quickfire help the esbit take light as the esbit tabs wont light from a ferro rod spark alone. In practice I have found 500mls of water will come to the boil happily with one esbit tab and 2 quickfire bundles, giving me the potential of boiling 2 litres of water just with what I have with me. Obviously this stuff is excellent for starting stubborn campfires too.

The second tin contains Starbucks via coffee sachets, seven I think, enough aquamira potable water tabs to sterilise 12 litres of water and there is room for some sugar...

I dont usually take sugar, but there are times when hot, sweet, black coffee gives you a massive lift. This kit can provide at least a litre of hot coffee, entirely from what is contained within. Winner.

Lastly, it's on the scales....

The bottle wasn't completely full. It holds 1 US quart which is 946ml in English money. A mouthfull of spit short of a litre. I could do exact weight measurements, but my estimate is that the kit minus water is about 1 kilogram or 2.2lbs. Full of water you can exactly double that. I know 2 kilos sounds heavy, but it's really not bad at all ...and to my surprise, the paracord strap is actually very comfortable. You can switch shoulders regularly if one starts to ache and remember, it's not an extra 2 kilos. That weight represents your cooking, drinking and eating kit, as well as your water carry and firestarting kit. That weight can be deducted from your target weight if you have one. Normally I would be chuffed to get under 10 kilos total, but with this kit, I'm left with 8 kilos for alcohol stove, meths, knife, sleeping bag, tarp, poncho and some super noodles. Easy.

Can you tell I'm happy with it? Love it. Get one ...or three.

 

[Martyn]

Cheers Martyn. Is the lid a part of the kit?

Yes mate - well is all nestles in the one pouch - see above.

I've found my crusader cup and cooker, but cant find my water bottle. I would be very interested to know the dry weight of the crusader cup, cooker and water bottle if anyone has a set they can weigh? I know the British kit is going to be heavier, but I would be interested to know by how much?

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Interesting thread. I need to get round to spot welding some lids and pot stands at school, we have a very good spot welder that can do quite thick plate.

 

[JonathanD]

Right, so, sufficiently tempted now. Where do we buy these buggers from Martyn?

 

[Martyn]

Right, so, sufficiently tempted now. Where do we buy these buggers from Martyn?

Here ya go mate....

The canteen cup can be had from ebay, or http://www.canteenshop.com/
The heavy cover lid can be had from sometimes from ebay or http://www.canteenshop.com/ or direct from the makers, http://www.heavycoverinc.com/.
The stove stand is harder to find and I got mine from ebay.
The pouch is a FLYYE army canteen pouch and can be had from ebay, http://www.canteenshop.com/ or various other outlets.
The man knitting was from ....you guessed it, http://www.canteenshop.com/
The evernew alcohol stove and trivet was from http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/product493.asp?PageID=99

Did a weigh off between the crusader cup+stand and the USGI cup+stand....

Most of the weight difference is in the stand, as the crusader cup on it's own is 290g, while the USGI mug is 235g. I cant find the 58 pat bottle still, but I can be 99% sure the US version is lighter also. I wouldn't be surprised if the weight difference between the two basic kits inc water bottle is over 1/2 pound.

 

[ged]

...It's also conceivable that you could get stuck somewhere in the UK and be pretty pleased you had water. ...

Like the M25 on my way back last weekend. Anyone used to driving in the UK really had to see the way folks were behaving on the roads to believe it, but a 26 mile traffic jam must have been a bit trying. Being on the bike (and having six or eight litres of water on board as I usually do when I'm touring) I suppose it was kind of difficult to put myself in their position. Most of the time I was trying to make sure I wasn't in their position, nor anywhere near it.

...Can you tell I'm happy with it? ...

Not, I think, without good reason. Yes, I did get that impression.

Where did that perforated steel lid come from Martyn? I've never used that style of mug a great deal although I have two or three. IMHO a metal mug can never quite offer the luxury of a pottery one, and an enameled steel one tastes better, which is what I mostly carry when I travel. But another reason I don't use them more is the lack of a lid. For the 'tales of the unexpected' kit I keep in the back of the Jeep or something like that, one of those lids would be an asset. I don't care about the weight, apart from my frying pan most of my cook kit is steel and I think the stove in the Jeep weighs about five kilos on its own. It can double as a wheel chock.

 

[ged]

...Where did that perforated steel lid come from Martyn?...

#

Oh, heck, you posted at three in the morning! Is that your shift pattern or do you just never sleep?

That'll teach me to refresh the page before I post...

 

[twisted firestarter]

I've been playing with the Evernew Ti meths burner for a couple of weeks now, my comments are that it pumps out far more heat than the Trangia but the downside is that the burn time is shorter. You can place a pot straight on top of the burner which covers the top jets but I'm wondering about keeping the lightweight stand for stability and making up a loop of thin fire rope to cover the lower jets for those times when a gentler simmer is needed.

 

[Martyn]

#

Oh, heck, you posted at three in the morning! Is that your shift pattern or do you just never sleep?

That'll teach me to refresh the page before I post...

No mate, I was out on the razzle last night and couldn't sleep.

 

[Martyn]

[double post]

 

[Martyn]

I've been playing with the Evernew Ti meths burner for a couple of weeks now, my comments are that it pumps out far more heat than the Trangia but the downside is that the burn time is shorter. You can place a pot straight on top of the burner which covers the top jets but I'm wondering about keeping the lightweight stand for stability and making up a loop of thin fire rope to cover the lower jets for those times when a gentler simmer is needed.

The trangia simmier ring works perfectly as a simmer ring on the evernew ....or on this canteen kit, turning the mug round and letting it sit inside the stand like this....

...does the same thing. Basically chokes off some of the air supply.

 

[Aussiepom]

Martyn, just for info, a pattern '58 water bottle weighs 210g, on my kitchen scales.