X Boil Alcohol Stove review #alcohol #alcoholstove #ultralight

Looks nice bit of kit , strange how it was so slow , nice viddy as ever 👍

Do like a alci stove, want one !

Decent looking kit, the company need to fix their ordering process though, a pdf file emailed to them isn't really that great of a method :/

I'm firmly on the side of "if you're outdoors, what's the rush" but when the Descattys is only £5.25 and it's faster 🤷 would be interesting to see against a Trangia.

I never realised diluting meths with water stops the soot.
That tip is so useful as the soot is the only thing that annoys me about my trangia.
Cheers Michael 👍
Really enjoying your videos mate. Thank you

I like the idea of using the lid to protect the table, still not sure it would stop my table from melting though
Looks a good bit of kit

I made a system 99% identical to this over 10 years ago. i then discovered cones and started making them instead. . i guess the pics will still be on the old Outdoors magic forum.

Incredible! Cracking piece of kit.

Windshield looks fantastic, but for 50quid it's a bit rich for me Mike, I'll struggle on carrying a extra few grams my fiver one cost me lol

interesting product but... Des Cattys stove 23g, Lixada Ti windshield 19g & 2x Ti nails 4g = 46g, a damn sight cheaper & buying local with one part

Great review, succinct and straight to the subject matter.

I nowadays use a Trangia combined with a nano titanium firebox which I bought from the Bath Bushcraft Shop (I’ve no connection but what outstanding service they give).

Hi, if you don't put the lid under the burner, it will be much faster! The distance between the burner and the bottom of the pot determines the burning power of every alcohol burner. More distance = more power
1mm height difference can add up to a minute of cooking time.

Loving the pictures on their website. Can't beat a wurst and a pretzel in the wild 😂Nice bit of kit.

IMO alcohol stoves are rubbish all round. They are for emergency or really cold weather where the gas stove might be struggling .

Fantastic video... Liked and subbed. Thank you :)

Have you tried the Speedster Stoves Boarder Raider? It's equal in performance to this set up (using bioethanol) and is a bit cheaper I think, although I haven't checked the price so I'm not absolutely sure.

Nice Video! I own the X-Boil too and made some tests. Boiling time will be faster if you use the stove without Lid underneath, because the stove needs a minimum clearance to the pot to be most effective. (so the hottest part of the flame is hitting the pot...) (Same clearance-story with trangia burners) Lid is only needed if you use solid-fuel like esbit (Lid on top)
the burner isn't getting that hot underneath to damage the surface. I did the testing on a wooden table ;-)

I wonder if you could use a fry pan with it?

I am happy with Polymathproducts stove that comes with a stand and windshield and uses carbon fibre and it sells around £14.

Cheers for that. I know it is pricey for what it seems to be but tbh, it ends up ok … I think !!
Following this, I bought one (from Leo) for a Toaks 750 size but I bought the “standard burner” with it

If I’m honest, I figured I’d just use his Bruner in “near tent” situations and slot in a Toaks Meths burner for the rest. (Already had one). The Toaks is usable with a Trangia simmer ring too so it works for me if a bit “hybrid”

Anyway, point is ….

Whenever I get anything I first run some tests on the thing so I know where I am with it. Here is what I found (indoors)

- the standard burner with the base rig seems a lot quicker for 500ml than your test but I think you used the ul burner version on yours and I wasn’t outdoors so all variance is possible. It boiled 500ml in just short of 8 mins using just over 15ml fill which I didn’t think was bad really for what I’d need it to do (coffee). I would say that I didn’t sit the burner on the cap as you did, giving it more head space gap. When I put it on the cap, it was slower

- the Toaks burner works … BUT … it needs a bit more head height than the “dropper pot clips” give it. I just turned the pot stand upside down and dropped the clips in to that and it was enough to give it a gap. In real world, I may drop a couple of twigs under the “right way up” option but it works.

- I hate Ti pots when trying to heat real food so I also tried a lentil soup in the Ti pot and standard burner/set up with the x boil stove. It actually worked fine and didn’t immediately adhere like merde to a blanket.

- I used the Toaks stove with the screen but without the clips and a small Trangia 28t frying pan sat over the top of the screen. Looking at the original pictures they seem to have changed the top profile of the screen to give air space and it worked well.

- burn times with 15ml fuel, I got about 9 mins and 500 ml boil using the supplied burner, the Toaks was a quicker boil but burned 20ml fuel on full open burn. Burn time on 10 ml for the Toaks was about 3.5 mins but on “simmer ring” was closer to 3 times that for the same fuel.

How does this help ? I have no clue but I did the tests so thought I’d add them in case they are some use to someone else.

My take home was… I’ll use both burners (rather than ditching the x boil as originally planned). It is pricey but I like it and will certainly be using it

Cheers for the heads up

Looking to get this nice video

Oh interesting tip on water

11k subs wow 👌 your lion video helped I guess lol well done

Thinking about an alcohol stove myself for wild camping. This was a simple, straightforward test and I really liked it. Thankyou for that. Excellent post!

Did you get stung much on customs?

Thanks for sharing! Have you tried using the burner with a trangia? Would it fit you think?

I bought a 30ml Speedster Stove. Haven’t timed it but I’m sure it’s a lot faster than the X Boil. 12 mins is a long time to wait for a cup of hot water 🤔

I want this 🙌

How do you think it will perform in the wild on grass? I always worry that these stove that sit on the ground will cause a fire. That put me off the Caldera cone type stoves too.

Which is the right distance to the botttom of the pot, with the lid propping the stove up or not?

Cheers I've ordered one... looking forward to testing it out. Great review 👏

Great for boiling water, no good for cooking!

What size des catty? I see they sell a mini and bigger size.