Boil some water with it and give a report. My guess is that there isn't enough heat from the wicks to boil water. There is a good article at BPL that is free to read about candle stoves. The author had a pretty large wick in a cup like that one. So, if it were me, I would simply take out those three wicks and replace with a much larger area one. Other than that, that looks like a cool product. I should check it out myself. The advertising on the side and top is pretty funny. Of course the wicks are water proof, they are covered in wax.