British Army Hexamine stove

Imperial Dave
Reviewed: 05 March 2011

Indestructible back up cooker - but yes it blackens your pans!

bombproof
no perishable seals or suchlike
relatively small
great as a backup
lightish

it smells when lit
the flame can be poor
it really can blacken your pans
gas and meths are far superior on a purely cooking speed comparison
difficult to light in high wind
wouldnt recommend cooking without ventilation

I first used one of these on my early D of E trips and it was ok, it did a job and if I rummage around in my kit box, its still there at the bottom somewhere. The flame you get off one of these cookers isnt great and the speed of cooking can be slllloooowwwwww. However, I found that it was very much dependant on the quality of the fuel blocks you used for it. They all seem to give off a slight blackening soot but from memory the Coghlan's tabs were the best. Its a long time since I have used one so not sure how far technology has progressed in their manufacture to see if this aspect has improved.
To summarise, the stove and tablets are easy to pack and can be sat on etc without affecting its functionality. The cook time is slow and sooting of your pans can happen but then its cheap, cheerful and a great backup
If you realise its limitations, its not a bad stove

NickNick
Reviewed: 27 February 2011

Better with the Crusader system

simple, few moving parts to break

heavy, smelly, slow, sooty

Hexamine is much better in the Crusader burner/mug combo than in the hexi cooker although the hexi cooker can convert to wood burning by, er, burning wood in it. Someone has mentioned that you can't put hexi out by stamping on it - I've also seen the great comment that you shouldn't put gas stoves out that way either!

Thomasaurus
Reviewed: 15 February 2011

Will make your pans black and last a few minutes!

Small and useful for emergency use but thats about it.

Leaves all your pots and pans black and the blocks last a few minutes.

Useful as a back up emergency stove to just leave in the bottom of your pack but just use a gas stove. It'll make your life so much easier. Every one that gets issued just gets binned and gas stoves used every time.

Bluff
Reviewed: 07 November 2010

Pretty poor really

None, I couldn't recommend this in any way

Heavy, smelly chars / soots up, suitable for single use only

Get a gas burner

Spen
Reviewed: 31 October 2009

LOW COST DISPOSABLE STOVE

No moving parts to go wrong.
Cheap as chips (free for cadets and soldiers).
Great for starting larger fires, particularly when 20 people pile up all of their spare fuel blocks.
Can be absolutely soaked through and still work.
Once lit it doesn't go out unless you pour water on it or deprive it of oxygen.

Difficult to light, turbo lighters, shelter and some accelerant might JUST get them lit in bad weather.
Unstable even with the mess tins that they are designed for.
Fire spreads much to easily from them.

Good if it's all you've got, although be prepared for luke warm meals and fun cleaning mess tins after the event, if mess tins are used you must ensure that you don't allow hex fumes to condense on the upper mess tin otherwise the water will not be safe to drink.