The 'problem' you may find is that hexamine has almost half of the heat output than LPG, so instead of carrying 250g of gas, you now need to carry 500g of Hexy. This rather defeats the object of saving 30 grams on stove weight (My gas stove weighs 40g). The saving that you will make is that :
a) You only to add the weight of a 'plastic tub' rather than an Ali gas canister
b) You can take much less 'fuel' (or, just enough for the day)
The heat output of Gas is 0.0142 KwH per gram
The heat output of Hexamine is 0.0084 KwH per gram
I was always a confirmed Hexy user but with it taking up to 12-15 minutes to boil 500ml and just 4 minutes to boil 500ml by gas I am now 'converted'
Because you are heating more slowly you actually lose heat as the water / food is cooling for longer, whilst you are heating it from the bottom, so it takes longer, so cools for longer, so takes longer (hopefully you know wht I mean - I've not explained it very well)
Another advantage with gas is that you can 'turn it down' to simmer - with Hexy, its 'all or nothing'.
If you are going for several days, you could end up carrying more weight, and, not be able to re-stock (I have found most garages / petrol stations sell gas cartridges - or, even newsagents if you have the cylinder converter - £2 from ebay)
Hi Alan, I got my new Esbit stove yesterday, along with 2 packs of 24 fuel tablets (The tablet brand is actually Strider, not Striker) and after work I tried it out. I placed one Strider tablet on the stove, put my Ti windshield around it, lit it, and put my 1 litre Ti pot on it, containing 1 cup of water (about 350ml) and set my stop watch going.
The water got got enough to let off steam but it got nowhere near boiling (no visible bubbles at all) and the tablet burnt out completely after 12 minutes and 17 seconds...Impressive really, considering the Strider tablet is a lot smaller than a 14g Esbit brand tablet, and when you consider the latter is supposed to have a burn time of 12 minutes too.
Seems the reviews were right...There is no smell of fish with the Strider tablets and you need to use two at a time to boil water, one simply isn't enough. I would say one tablet got it just hot enough to make coffee or hot chocolate.
As for storing the tablets...I managed to get 8 tablets in an empty airtight Berocca tube...Actually 9 could go in the tube, but this did not allow the lid to fully press on. I noted it was possible to modify the bottom of the lid with a knife to allow a ninth tablet to fit in with the lid fully on, but I was happy to leave it as it is. Also, in case the Strider tablet produced soot on the bottom of my Ti pot, I had wiped a thin layer of washing up liquid on the bottom of the pot before I did the test. There was a little soot on the bottom afterwards, but, nowhere near as much as produced by an Esbit tablet though (from what I have seen on youtube) and it wiped off easily using a wetted sheet of kitchen roll paper, leaving the bottom pristinly clean again. Of course, having to carry a little washing up liquid with me every time I want to use the stove will reduce the weight saved by leaving the gas stove at home, but you don't need much of the latter so it will still end up being lighter than carrying my gas stove with at least one steel gas canister.
The smallest gas canister available for my stove weighs 172g on its own! On the other hand, 16 Strider fuel tablets in two Berocca tubes, weigh in at only 143 grams...The 16 Strider tablets would definitely be enough to make 8 meals, or to boil 8 cups of water, but I don't know how long the gas would last in such a small canister as I have only ever used larger canisters, that are at least 2-3 times the size or more.
One more thing to consider Alan, is that you can't carry your gas canisters with you on a plane, but you can with solid fuel tablets. So if you rely solely on using a gas stove then when you get to your destination, you will often find yourself hunting around for days to find suitable gas canisters, and sometimes they are impossible to find at your destination...take Venice in Italy, for example...gas canisters to fit my stove are simply not available there...You have to travel onto the mainland, about an hour away by bus (many hours on foot), to get to the nearest stockist. Whereas being able to carry your fuel with you on the plane, as you can with solid fuel tablets, means when you get out of the airport you are ready to boil up some water and make a nice beverage or a meal, without having to spend hours, or even days, finding gas.