Anybody Have/Used a Hexi-stove?

Tolly

Tolly

Joined
Jan 1, 2006
Messages
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I was cruising CountyComm today putting an order together when I came across this little stove that I hadn't seen before, so I thought I would ask y'all about it. Here it is http://www.countycomm.com/hexistove.htm what do you think? I think I am going to order one just for the heck of it and try ot out.
 
Yeah, that's essentially an Esbit stove. Works great for warming stuff up, but forget about bringing even a moderate amount of water to a boil. In my experience, it just doesn't get that hot. It's advantage is it's super light and easy to use, perfect if you just want some water heated up for oatmeal or a freeze dried meal, as long as you treat the water first.
 
The hexi stove is great! I like it for 1 day trips where I don't really cook food, just heat water for oatmeal or tea. The tabs are great fire staters.
 
What if you used wood for fuel, couldn't you get it hot enough for how ever long you wanted it to be for boiling water and whatnot? Or is that not really feasible with the hexi?
 
Used them in the Army.
Simple and heats well.
Cooked lots of meals with it in adverse conditions.
Need some protection from the wind.
Very stable.

Blackens the bottom of the pot.
The fumes are toxic, do NOT use inside a tent.
When you close it down to smother the tab, it stinks.

Check availiablity of the fuel.
It was easy to get, and in England very cheap in surplus stores.
 
You can add wood to the burning tablet and then keep the fire going as long as you want to. The only problem is you need very small wood. Wood smaller than a pencil's thickness is needed. In this instance I have found it easier to to build a conventional fire, that is without the hexi stove. BTW the Esbit fuel tabs smell like dead fish so don't store them in the house. Word!

The hexi stove is another tool in the tool box.
 
Thanks for the info. I am going to go ahead and order a couple of them, they look like they would be great coffee and tea heaters.
 
Great! CountyComm is great to deal with. The Millenium energy bars are worth a try. They taste like an industrial duty shortbread cookie. The new battery holders are pretty cool too.
 
Just add some aluminum foil to the kit for a windscreen. Any non-pressurized stove needs a good wind screen. There's little to break or go wrong, and htey are cheap and light. As others said, it's good for boiling a couple cups of water at a time, MAX. The SnowPeak 600 is good with this, as well as the BrassLite pot I listed in another thread. The Oilicamp spacer saver pots that are made to fit a Nalgene would work well with this sort of stove, but they are a little slippery.

Esbit tabs are a little hotter; the stoves are near identical. It's all I use for solo. If you put a little dab of alcohol gel hand cleaner on the fuel tab, you can start it with one stroke of a firesteel. Otherwise, jack the tab up a little and get your mach or lighter under the corner. They do make great fire starters too.
 
Sportsmans guide has the military trangia mess kits two for $12 the mess kits are heavy but can be left home and use the stove in the field. The stove itself is fairly light weight and with a wind shield will boil a 1 qt. U.S.G.I. Canteen cup of water in about 8 or 9 minutes fuel can be found in any paint store (Denatured alcohol) or in any automotive store (Yellow Heat) gas line anti freeze
 
For what it's worth, there are a couple of things to bear in mind about Hexamine. If I remember correctly, it may have carcinogenic properties, and it may also be used in some recipes for homemade explosives--which might make getting it, or keeping it, somewhat difficult, and perhaps more so in the future. Just my two cents.
 
Return of the J.D. said:
it may have carcinogenic properties,
Click to expand...

Don't eat it, keep it out of your food. That's easy- same rules apply to most stove fuels. :P

some recipes for homemade explosives
Click to expand...

The quantities required are not insignificant- you'd stand out in peoples memory as the guy who ordered 30 pounds of esbit tablets. And a lot of the other stuff you'd need is on the watch list for crystal meth and crack production. There are easier, safer and less obvious ways of making a blasting cap. It's kinda a non-issue, and the only way at this point that it would be an issue is if people borrowed trouble.
 
Hello friends, yes i did use one, and i still have two. The Hexi-stove is just a new name of the old Esbit-stove, the way i see it, the stove was so good, that stanport camping goods co. made some. And now this new hexi-stove brand is out. I have one Esbit-stove and one off brand. If any of you try boiling water with it, the best way is to just use some US Army compressed trioxane fuel bars, around the same cost as hexamine. But thay are hotter, and i know boil water before the bar is used up, i did not time it, but i know it works. Most of the bars are just short enough to fit the stove, some times i snap one in two, and lay the two in the stove, and light. And one of you was talking about using an aluminum foil windscreen, great idea. most of the time i used rocks, like a wall around my stove. But thank you for your idea of the foil, i always keep some in my survival kit. By the way, the fuel bars from Esbit and the Trioxane stoves, still can be used, with out the stoves. You can do like me, and make one out of rocks, bricks, large wood parts, or i have used a small hole in the dirt. I don't know it all, but i do know this stove. your friend at the post, Donald S.
 
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