I got my GVP Cook System a couple of days ago and have spent the last couple of nights messing with it trying to figure all the little details out. One question I have is "what kind of boil times have people been getting with alcohol and esbit?" It seems to me that the esbit is lighter, but takes more time. In a perfect world, the most efficent would be the lightest, but I guess nothing is perfect.

On the question of boil times, I was getting about 7:30 with Esbit and right around 7:00 with alcohol. It was about 59 deg outside with a slight wind and cool tap water. Do these numbers seem pretty "normal"?

One thing I do like about the stove his how efficent it is. It might not be the fastest boil time, but less than one ounce was bringing 2 cool cups of water to a boil. I think the best result I got was 2 cups boiling with .8 oz of HEET.

If anyone has gotten faster boil times, or more efficent use of alcohol, please let me know how. Also, I would like to know what some people's over all opinion is about the GVP cook system. What are your likes and dislikes?

Edited by dufus934 on 10/15/2009 11:14:19 MDT.

I only have the old esbit only version.
Honestly I don't care about boil time that much. As long as I get hot water I'm fine. It doesn't make any difference if it takes 7, 8 or 9 minutes. Are we also time weenies and not only gram weenies? :)
You just start that little thing and do something else till you get a boil; just enjoy nature for example.

It's simple to use, you just have to figure at once how to set up the windshield and there you go.
They nice part of esbit is - apart from smelling a bit- that you can blow it out and reuse it.

I realy love how fast all parts of the stove chill down. You could even build yourself a cozy for the gvp and ditch the cady. But I like to use the cody to refill my gravity filter, use the smaller part as bowl and use the bigger part to pull water over my dirty hairs.


I never stoped to time when I used it. But I was able to get a boil for about 750 ml with 1 esbit tab at 1700 m and about 10 °C. So it's sufficient for 2 people under normal circumstances

Edited by sol on 10/16/2009 01:04:30 MDT.

I've used the GVP Caldera Cone Keg since shortly after it was available and couldn't be happier...I only use it with esbit tabs and get approximately 2 boils (2 cups of water per boil) per tablet.
I went with this system as the Caldera Cone nestles completely inside of the Keg so there are no sharp edges so I do not use the carrying caddy.
IMO, the GVP is an extremely light weight, compact, reliable, and user friendly cook system for boiling water.