TY Emberlit!
I have an old fold up hobo stove made out of SS. I've always liked it, easy to light, burns hot etc. but always thought it was too heavy for backpacking. For a weekend trip it was no big deal, but for a week long trip into the mountains every ounce counts because of all the food you need to pack.
I then tried soda can style alcohol stoves and found that they worked just as well, but then you needed a week's worth of fuel so there was no weight savings.
Now I have en emberlit. I got the ti model to save on weight. It folds smaller and flatter than my old foldable, and it's WAY less weight. (Ken, if you held the emberlit in one hand and my foldable in the other you would be surprised!) I got the pot cross bars and it holds my ti cup just fine. And without having to pack fuel, it's a winner.
I haven't used the emberlit on an extended trip yet but I have practiced with it a few times on day hikes. I brought my old foldable with me as a comparison and on my first attempt I found that my foldable was easier to use. But then I realized that it was only because I had more practice with my old one. Once I got the hang of the emberlit I loved it.
My method of use was to fill it to the brim with twigs, starting with some small white pine twigs on the bottom and topping it off with oak twigs. Pine cones work too. I then picked up the emberlit in one hand and tilted it so that the window was leaning towards the ground. Using either just the flame from a lighter at the window, or a small piece of birch bark just inside the window it only takes a few seconds to ignite the whole thing. Once burning good I placed it on the ground an away it went. If you stuff the unit with wood from the get go you wont need to add too much more to get a boil going depending on wood types available. When I filled it with oak twigs I got a nice long burn. All pine burned faster but adding wood through the window easily allows for a longer burn. I hadn't read the instructions yet so I didn't try feeding long lengths of wood through the window, but I can see what that would work fine too, but smaller lengths also work great. Also you can take your water off and add fuel from the top.
Two things I noticed that were different from my old foldable. The first is the window on the emberlit is smaller so you have to be careful when adding twigs while you have water on. If you are not careful you can catch a branched twig on the side of the window and potentially tip it over. I think a larger window would be useful, but I'm not sure how that would affect burn performance. My old foldable was more of a rectangle shape with the window at the long end so it could not tip when feeding it.
The second thing I notice that is different is my old foldable has small holes in the base for ventilation. The emberlit seems to work fine without the holes, but I wonder if the manufacturer ever tried holes in the base while designing it. Not a complaint, just curious. Also, I should mention that the holes in the old foldable were sometimes a problem since embers could sift down onto the ground and start the duff on fire. So I always had to make sure I used it on a proper surface, snow, sand, moss, rocks etc. So maybe it's actually best that the emberlit doesn't have holes in the base.
I never considered buying one of the round canister style hobo stoves because they would take up too much room in a fanny pack or even in my pack. Space is too important.
I did not buy a bag, I just have it in the clear ziplock it came with. Which is fine with me.
So all that said, I am thoroughly pleased with the emberlit. Takes up no room (its flat!), light weight (yay!), and boils water fast anywhere (anywhere!), anytime.