I needed a new esbit stove so headed to Canadian Tire with a gift certificate and picked up this:
Coghlan's Emergency Stove

Then, while at Walmart looking for a dry bag (FYI I decide to try this - Coleman Dry Bag) I saw a Coleman emergency stove that looked just like the Coghlan's one but at $6.99 it was only half the price. (Can't find an on-line link, sorry.)

I'm curious why the big price difference. A few bucks I understand, but half price? The Coleman one didn't seem as heavy but I wondered if anyone has any experience with it. The Coghlan's ones work great and I wonder if the quality is the same.

I've got the standard ESBIT brand one. Looks like the same as the Coghlans. The Coleman looks basically the same too.



HJ

Thanks Jim. I think I'm going to pick up one of the Coleman ones. That price is hard to resist!

here's an Esbit for $6.90 with cheap shipping

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001C1U...NZK7ANW9FA6GYJQ

Hexamine stoves are very interesting.

Ultralight hikers prize them for their light weight, but they can be a nice addition to any kit as an emergency stove. They've got about the most stable fuel around. The fuel doesn't evaporate or go bad. You can generally burn 40 year old fuel that hasn't been sealed without problems. I keep mine sealed and protected (they can be crushed or chipped pretty easily), but I've seen some old hexamine fuel that burned just fine. They're great for long term storage in a kit that you don't plan to touch often.

The down side is that they don't put out a lot of heat, can be hard to light (particularly in wind), and the low velocity flame really needs a windscreen. They also leave a residue on the bottom of your pot, but in a survival situation, that's probably the least of your worries. I usually keep my pot in a plastic bag if I'm going to be burning hexamine.

One trick for lighting them is to set the tablet on the edge of the stove at first. Get your flame under the tablet. Once it's lit, then move it to the center of the stove with a stick or something. This trick is a little easier with the larger ESBIT brand rectangular tablets than the smaller "pill shaped" tablets that some companies produce.

Hexamine's not bad stuff, but it's not particularly powerful either. It's worth playing with it a few times in order to get used to its quirks. Don't set it down in the bottom of your pack untried and then expect to pull it out and be comfortable with it in an emergency. It's no big deal, but it's worth getting used to how to light, how to cook with, how to extinguish, etc. before you need to.

Despite the fact that hexamine is not volatile, hexamine is not permitted on airline flights. Hexamine is a precursor to explosives such as RDX/Cyclonite. You wouldn't want to go into an airport with the scent of hexamine about you.

HJ

Thanks. That's a great post, HJ.

Thanks Jim!

Thanks guys.

First, a hexamine trivia question: What does the acronym ESBIT stand for? (see answer below)

A couple of addenda to the above:
- A little squirt of alcohol will speed the lighting process up. Haven't tried it, but hand sanitizer should work too.
- You really don't need much in order to have a hexamine "stove." A couple of bricks and a (non-flammable) spot on the ground will do. The lid from a shoe polish can, a ladies compact (if it's metal), pretty much anything will work so long as you can figure out how to rig a pot over it.
- A really light, compact example of a commercially produced hexamine stove is the Ti Wing stove.

HJ

ESBIT = Erich Schumms Brennstoff in Tablettenform (which basically means Erich Schumm's Fuel Tablets). Now you know.

Cool!

I really like them in my emerg kits. They're small and light. It takes a little while but I can heat water in my army mess cup without going to much trouble rigging a set-up. I also like not worrying about fuel. As long as I've got some tabs and a way to block the wind, I'm good to go.

Thanks for the purelle tip Jim!

Purell definitely works for this purpose.