Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Odd you should post this, I opened a new box I bought a while back. I had put off using it after I lit an old one the first time and decided it wasn't for me, but was out of meths(not the kind toothless hicks make in soda bottles from cold pills and lithium batteries) and was testing a project outside so I thought why not. I was pleasantly surprised I could stand near it without that "bitter-beer face" and mild gagging. It almost seemed like it had been scented but that may jut have been the mix of esbit and steam oil.
On second thought, you may be right and they might have dried to the non-funky stage. They didn't seem to burn with any exceptional vigor, somewhat like sterno. The old one I tried, may have been wet and maybe that's why it burned with ferocity and sparks

My neighbor is somewhat of hiker and a disaster “prepper” who follows sites like the Woodpile Report and https://sectionhiker.com/how-to-speed-up-esbit-cube-cooking/ and he thinks Esbits are great to have around ... just in case.
I looked up the label on my Esbit package and it says : contains METHENAMINE, which when Googled gets all kinds of weird results.
The tabs I recently used that were non-smelly and had the texture of a sugar cube. They may be desiccated.
I think I’ll try and get some newer Esbit and re-evaluate it for running the steam engines. If it still is the stinky stuff , my neighbor says he will gladly take it if I don't want it.
[DrRevDelmar— the old “toothless hick” version of the wicked meths is old skool. Since the TV series Breaking Bad it is a high tech international high octane object of addiction shipped from south of the border. Evil stuff]

Aren't esbit similar to the fuel tabs that come in the MRE? I can't recall the name of the chemical in those, but don't want to open a ration to find out.
I also have an older boy scout camp stove, complete with esbit branded fuel tabs.

It seems like many of todays “fuel tablets” are some derivative of the !936 German Hexamine invention (according to Wikipedia). I would have imagined some improvement in the subsequent years, but maybe the basic original formula is good enough for most applications ?
I ordered a box of Esbits on fleabay titled Trocken Brennstoff Solid Fuel. There is also a Coghlans fuel tabs that look like big aspirins.
I figure if civilization here in the USA keeps approaching Mad Max & Fury Road levels of anarchy , I can take the Jensen 75 with Esbits deep into the forest . I can belt up a dc generator to charge the cellphone, boil some creek water, and use the steam to make expresso. I wonder if the top of the boiler gets hot enough to cook squirrel meat ?

If you have old Esbit tabs that have been exposed to high humidity over time, they will like perform much as Nick has described (and shown in a video recently). However, if you lay those same old "hydrated" tabs out on a hot sunny day with low humidity, you may in fact substantially revitalize them. Heating in a nice warm oven would likely have the same effect, but with some added risk, so I prefer the more natural outdoor solar method!