For many years my go-to cooking setup has been a small Markill Peak Ignition Stove which fits inside a mug, and a small pot with a C100 cartridge. Small and very lightweight, it has served me well for a long time, and will probably do so for years to come (surprisingly I haven’t done a review of it, but as that model hasn’t been manufactured for years there’s now little rush. The gear junkie in me is always looking at other options though, and for years now the Jetboil brand has been the big seller (in size as well as market share) and it has spawned numerous imitators. With it’s large size and weight I have avoided going down that road – until now.
OEX is the in house brand of the group of outdoor retailers which now comprises Go Outdoors, Ultimate Outdoors, Tiso, Blacks and Millets (have I missed any?) and from what I’ve seen they do some quite reasonable gear, some of which is fairly similar to some of the big names. The OEX Tacana stove is their stab at the Jetboil style stove market, and can usually be bought for anywhere from around £65 and upwards. I say usually, because I’ve seen it drop drastically in price at Go Outdoors a few times – and managed to pick mine up for around £33! If I recall correctly I managed to bag it on sale and with a Blue Light discount on top – at that price, how could I say no?
I quickly put it to the test, and I’ve been using it for a while now, and for what I’ve been using it for, it has been excellent. The stove consists of the following parts:
*Main Pot with folding handle and neoprene sleeve, with heat exchanger built in to the base.
*Plastic lid with rubberised handle.
*Burner unit with built-in Piezo Ignition.
*Adjustable canister support (33g)
*Stove adapter (for use with conventional pots) (62g)
*Storage Bag
The total weight is 599g without a gas canister, or around 980g with the recommended C230 gas canister. In comparison, my previous setup was coming in around 300g lighter overall, albeit with a smaller gas canister.
The main selling point of this type of stove is that they boil water quickly. They aren’t designed for slow cooking, or frying, and in the main will be used to boil water for drinks or to rehydrate meals, or to heat water in which a boil-in-the-bag meal can be heated. As such, I carried out two sets of tests with the stove, one to boil 200ml of water (an average mug size for a hot drink) and one for a larger capacity of 500ml. This test was carried out indoors so that wind was not a factor and ambient temperature was more or less the same throughout.
Boil Times:
Using the OEX Tacana I was able to boil 200ml of water in 1min 45 sec, and 500ml of water in 2 min 45 sec. The new Jetboil Flash claims to boil the equivalent of two cups of water in around 100 seconds – which would be around a minute faster.
My Markill Peak Ignition Stove with a stainless steel Pathfinder Mug boiled 200ml of water in around 2 min 25 sec and 500ml in 4 min 20 seconds. These times lowered slightly with aluminium pots, at around 3 min 10 sec.
So using the OEX Tacana I was boiling 200ml water at around 30-40 seconds faster, and 500ml of water at anywhere between 25 seconds and 90 seconds faster.
A lot hinges on the combination of pot and stove though, and while the Tacana is faster, it is heavier. In windy conditions I do feel that it has the advantage over a traditional stove, due to the heat exchanger which shields the flame slightly.
As I said earlier, the Tacana has a stove adapter to allow you it use it with conventional pots. I had some bizarre results with this, and with a Tacana/Adapter/Pathfinder combination it took around 6 minutes to boil 500ml of water, and just under 4 minutes with an aluminium pot. If you want to do more than boil water or reheat meals then I would certainly suggest looking at a different stove/pot combinations.
Assembly is simple. Fit the canister support to the canister. Open up the gas control from it’s folded position and screw onto the gas canister. Locate the pot onto the the burner unit (using the two guide grooves) and you are ready to go. The stove can be used with larger gas canisters, however these cannot be stowed inside. The smaller C100 gas canisters can be used but they do not provide as stable a platform, and whatever size of canister you use I would recommend you always for the canister support. The stove cools quickly after use and after quickly drying it off it can be disassembled and replaced back in the carry bag.
Should you buy it?
If you can pick it up in one of Go Outdoors regular sales then yes, grab it. At that price it’s a steal. At it’s normal price it’s not a million miles away from some actual Jetboil branded stoves, and slightly more expensive than similar lookalikes such as the Fire Maple Cooking Sytem, which come highly rated. And if you price match you could pick up a basic Jetboil for around the same price.
The Airdrie Rambler 