I have recently been looking to improve my cooking set up & get “bang for my gram”
I have been a confirmed Hexamine user since working with the Army Youth team some 40 years ago, sooty, smelly and a little slow (and the hexamine wasn’t much better) it always got the water to the boil – even when wet.
Part used tablets can be extinguished and saved, but its messy.
Temperature cannot be adjusted , its all or nothing.
Comes with its own pan-stand.
Can be used with twigs when hexamine supply is exhausted.
I tried Meths (didn’t like the taste and it made my eyes go funny) but was not happy about either the weight of a 500ml bottle and contents (over half a kg), the smell, and the possibility of a leak in the pack, soaking clothing & bedding.
A few years ago I ‘found’ ethanol-gel (also known as ‘Sterno’, or Chafing Fuel), burns fairly cleanly, takes about the same time to boil water as a Hexy stove but benefits from the fact that as soon as the water boils you can extinguish it by putting the can lid back on.
Just about gets water to a ‘rolling boil’, but certainly hot enough to reconstitute dehydrated meals, or, make a brew.
Cannot adjust temperature, its all or nothing.
Need to carry a pan-stand (mine is 35 g) to clip onto the top of the can.
I have more recently become a gas convert – particularly the ‘gas-mix’ (a mixture that gives the cold temperature performance of Propane with the output of Butane) Boils water much, much faster than Hexy or Gel, has no smell, & is clean with almost no soot.
Simply switched off when finished
Temperature fully adjustable for boiling. Simmering, or even (heaven forbid) cooking food.
Needs a stove to fit to the gas cartridge – I have several types weighing in at between 45g and 114g both with & without auto ignition Piezo devices, and purchased at costs of between 99p and £5 off Ebay.
So having looked at the pros & cons, which performs the best for its ‘carry weight’ ?
It takes 105Wh to heat 1 litre of water by 1 degree Celsius, so to heat from (say) 5 degrees to 100 degrees takes 9975 watts (call it 1 Kw)
Looking at each fuel :-
Meths produces 7.22Wh per gram
Petrol / Diesel produces 12.5 Wh per gram
Dry & Seasoned wood produces 4.2Wh per gram
Hexamine produces 8.0Wh per gram
Chafing Fuel produces 7.44 Wh per gram
Camping Gas (70/30) produces 14.2 Wh per gram.
A Hexy stove with 8 tablets (and its own built in pan stand) weighs 361 grams and produces a total of 1.47Kwh
A Chafer Gel Can containing 200g of Gel weighs 245 grams, add 35g for the pan stand, gives a total weight of 280 grams and provides 1.49Kwh
A Coleman 220g gas cartridge weighs 372 grams, add 45 grams for the stove giving a total weight of 417 grams, and provides 3.12Kwh
My 99p stove head brings 1 litre of tap water to a ‘rolling boil’ in 4 minutes 30 seconds and uses 15g of gas (Camping gas 70% Butane, 30% propane mix) so, from a 220g cartridge I can boil approx. 13-14 litres of water (or looking at it another way – 50 mugs of tea).
The stove is producing 2.84Kw, which is not dissimilar to a domestic gas hob.