Quickest way to boil water for tea?

or this..

http://dx.com/p/outdoor-portable-ultra-mini-stainless-steel-gas-stove-with-a-case-2-ag3-46371

cost less than 8 bucks, but you'll still need a fuel canister. It'll take 4-5 minutes but i's very small and the stove will fit inside a mug.

8 bucks vs 99. :eek1 You do the math, that's a lot of scones.

I think going gas canister route, the MSR Pocket Rocket at $40 would be the best bet for just boiling water.
edit- except for that $8 stove?!?

+whatever on the jetboil.
Love mine.
Also- for like an extra 12 or 15 bucks, I got the coffee press attachment- You could use that if you want real tea without bags, where you just toss in flakes.

+1 on the Pumpkin Scone. Fall is the best time of year at starbucks.

Another vote for the Jetboil. I do a lot of backpacking, and as a result, I have used or actually own a pretty broad variety of small stoves. My personal favorite is a tiny titanium Primus stove due to its very light weight and very small size, but my friend's Jetboil is just a bit faster to boil and is a simpler system if you're just looking to boil water. If all you want it for is making hot water for tea, the Jetboil is pretty much built for that. Just boil in the mug and go.

Not sure how large your tank bag is.

Cannister stoves are fast, small-ish, and light. Mine is an MSR Superfly, but most work similarly.

For minimalist, cheap, small, light, and for making hot water, I use this:



It is the Steverstove, sold by an inmate (check Vendors) for around $10 delivered. I bought several years supply of Heet on sale at $1 / bottle, and carry it in rectangular Nalgene bottles, either 250 ml or 500 ml depending on how many times I expect to use it. I mark the Nalgene bottles with a Sharpie to take the guesswork out of measuring. I use 50 ml (1.5 US oz) per kettle of water. Not as fast as a cannister stove, but dead-reliable, and tiny.

Bought one of these a few months ago from backcountry.com for $20:



Looking forward to using it. Brew and drink from it, and the stove, lighter fit inside with lots of room to spare.

The price is tempting, but even putting aside the obvious quality concerns, this stove is not on the same level as Jetboil.
Jetboil has a built-in heat exchanger and insulated bowl, they make the stove fast and help to save the fuel. It works well even in seriously windy conditions. Since all the components, including the fuel, fit neatly inside the bowl, the size of the stove is not an issue- it doesn't take any additional room in the luggage. I'm also puzzled by the fact that $8 stove comes with batteries. I thought that a piezo ignition was a de-facto standard for these applications. And you'll need to buy a bowl, which will bring the cost up.
Jetboil is not the cheapest, but I truly enjoy the way it works every time I use it. Totally worth the price. Just don't buy the cheapest model without the ignition.
MSR Reactor is also heat-exchanger based, but I have no personal experience with it.

The blue model is $70 at Amazon today, which is a great price.

Even a breeze defeats those minimalist camp stoves in my experience. That or it all falls over when I'm not looking.

For day tripping, I'm not sure but that a darn good thermos wouldn't do just fine for the OP. Or, stopping for fuel and using the stations hot water (microwaves are everywhere now).

Good points, I have the little stove and I use a double walled stainless steel mug which is used to heat and drink. It came with a battery and I'm using the original, but I've only used the stove a few times. Should still be able to light if the ignition craps out, but will have to try that before any long trip.

The quality seems great, and it's a robust little stove for what it is. but it's still fairly new to me. It'll fit in a shirt pocket though.....

Another good thing is, I cooked bacon and eggs on it in the kitchen when I initially got it and it worked fantastic with either a 6 or 8in frying pan.

It's only boiled water a few times since then..

Hard to beat 8 bucks and free shipping. It may take 3 months to get it though..

windscreen, fits inside the stove, weighs about 1 oz, Ive used alky stoves from summer temps to single digit temps in snow, rain, and high winds, never an issue.

My largest complaint about an alky stove is that the flame is hard to see in bright sunlight, but thats not really much to complain about.

boil time in even cold weather for a 900ml is about 7 minutes , ive never tried to boil just 1 or 2 cups, but im sure it would be even faster.

I've probably own 10 different stoves, including Jet Boil. The one I seem to use the most mostly for it's size and price is the MSR pocket rocket. It fits into a nice little container and uses screw on canisters. I also have the Coleman model that is just as good doesn't come in a case. I highly recommend either!

http://www.rei.com/product/660163/m...368525&ef_id=@OlNQJ-jAAABBlE:20130215145001:s

Sounds a bit silly, but when hunting I sometimes pack a small single serve thermos. Premake the tea and it should stay hot for a long time.

A double walled cup on a stove...Boom!!!

Bad idea

Battery, really? Where do you insert it? For what? It's funny that I have the same stove and I got no battery with it. No big deal since piezo doesn't need a battery...

I second. For 8$, you get a damn nice, robust and useful little stove.

I don't know how you manage to boil the water in a double walled mug, the insulation works both way. I am a big fan of DX and other cheap Chinese shopping sites, however I accepted the fact, that the quality can be hit or miss. Some items are pretty good, other go straight into garbage.

Thanks for bringing this up. I'll stop using the double walled mug.

I'm pretty sure it came with a battery but I have several stoves, so can't be sure, have to check when I get home. (edit....just checked the link and it says it comes with batteries) again I'll confirm....

The quality of mine is great.. DX has a couple dozen variations of small camping/backpack stoves.

To add.. I have several different models of the alcohol (gas line antifreeze fueled) home made stoves, and while they work pretty good, fun to play with and fun to talk about how one made it, they won't boil water as fast as the DX stove, and hard to cook on. I'd still take my 8 buck stove with me if I was going cross country as my #1 stove.

It's a well known fact that a lot of products on DX are titled/described incorrectly and sometimes in humorous ways.

This tiny stove doesn't use batteries.

Whatydoes no one respect The immersion boiler?

Can't get any smaller or easier than that...

I love mine

I'm surprised it works at all. An electric kettle is usually 1000W or or so. A cigarette lighter plug is rated 10A@12V, so the boiler can't use more than 120W. Not only it should be really slow, there is a considerable risk of draining the battery.

Those heaters are indeed rated at 120w.

Whilst it can be good to heat water for instant coffee, I'm quite sure you'll have hard time (or spend a lot of time) to almost boil water for tea using it.

The OP asked for the quickest way to boil water, not the easier method.


This and the battery draining concern surely explain it's not popular in this thread. But I can see where it could be helpful.

FWIW, I bought one of the $8 dx stoves (love dx.com!). After trying it out, I immediately bought 3 more for every emergency kit. The jetboil is cool and it totally makes me feel like a rocket scientist when you use it, but when it comes to hanging stuff in a soft bag off the side of a motorcycle, I'll take $8 vs $100 every time. It boils as fast as I need it to.

I too own a Jetboil (original model) and a MSR Pocket Rocket

The Rocket rocks.

The Jetboil refuese to light in cold weather or at altitude.I looked at the new model Jetboil, but the plastic lower section puts be right off - the Pocket Rocket is all metral and very simple.