Rationz Hexamine vs Vargo Titanium: mini review

I bought a RationZ Hexamine stove a while ago...it's basically the Esbit style stove with Hexamine fuel cubes. I picked it up as the solid fuel seemed better than toting a bottle around for my alcohol stove.

I wanted to see what it could do on the stove top before I need to rely on it out there in the great unknown. I've done some testing with my Vargo Titanium Triad alcohol stove so this is all I really had to compare it to...but since the two were competing for space in my pack right now, it seemed fitting.

For the test I boiled just over 1 cup of water in my GSI stainless mug.

I first tried to light the fuel cube with a firesteel. This did not work at all. I soon found out why. I lit the cube with a Bic and had to keep my thumb down so long I nearly burned my fingers. Once lit it burned with a blue/yellow flame which sooted the bottom of my cup nicely...much like a big candle. At first the cube burned slowly and I was looking forward to the 15 minutes of burn time as advertised. It burned with some smoke at first but there was no smoke once the cube completely lit.

The cube burned for aproximately 8 minutes. In this time the water heated but did not boil beyond some bubbles forming on the bottom of the cup. Had I needed to sterilize water, I'd have run out of fuel cubes before I'd sterilized even a liter of water as the stove only holds four cubes and the kit came with 8. Seemed like a good deal for $11 at the time.

Just to be sure I dumped out the water and fired up the Vargo with Methyl Hydrate stove fuel. Just to add some insult to injury after the poor performance of the RationZ stove I lit the Vargo in a single flick from my Spark-Lite striker. I even let it warm up completely before putting the cup on the stove.

In 9 minutes the cup was at a full rolling boil. To test longevity I left the cup on the stove and just let it boil until it ran out of fuel. The flame wavered at 19 minutes and at 20 the flame puffed out.

While the Vargo cost me $30, it seems to have won this contest hands down. I could go on for hours about the pros and cons...wind protection (winner: RationZ), weight (winner: Vargo), and fuel cost/weight/efficiency (winner: ?) but personally the Vargo never ceases to amaze me (it weighs 1 oz.!!!) and the RationZ stove makes me want my 11 bucks back.

Two things I may test in the near future is using Esbit brand Hexamine fuel as well as other alcohol fuels in the Vargo...never know when you'll need to boil some water with gas line anti freeze.

http://www.militaryfoods.com/accessories.htm
http://vargooutdoors.safeshopper.com/181/1452.htm?952

Um, it has nothing to do with Trangia, does it?

LOL. Nice call out ame. My alcohol bottle is made by Trangia...oops!

One way to light a fuel tab without wasting a lot of butane from a lighter (and perhaps burning the finger holding the button down) is to use your knife or a stone to chip off a corner of the tab and light that first. It will catch quickly and readily light the larger chunk of the tab.

Here is a cross to another thread about why carry matches.
Matches work great for these too.

Thanks for the review on these stoves. I've been eyeballing the Vargo for a while. How does it seem quality-wise? Does it seem like it can handle day-to-day banging of trail life? I love how well my brass Swedish military Trianga alcohol stove works, but I swear it weighs a pound by itself.

Hexamine is only good for make booms.

-Blast

Those stoves with hexamine are standard issue in the british military, I used them for years with no complaints. One tablet will boil a gallon of water easily.
The first time I used an alcohol stove I thought it was a joke, it used so much fuel.
In fact there is a place for both. The difference was the Trianga works well in the wind. A hexamine sometimes doesn't work at all in it. A bit of foil and some tent pegs will make your hexamine stove good for most uses. They are also so cheap you can buy a few and throw them in the bottom of your bag or the car and forget them. And it's the only fuel you can fly with.
But if you are planning on cooking on the side of a mountain the Trianga will work better.
The Sock

One gallon? Interesting, according to the Esbit website one tablet will only bring 400mL of water to a boil.

Can we see pictures of your magic hexamine stove?

-Blast

I use Trioxane bars, they will boil a 8oz. cup of coffie and still have life left in them. I get them at the local surplus store real cheap

The British army hexamine tab weighs 245 grams (actually there is 8 separate tablets in a waxed paper box)

Each Esbit weighs 14 grams and can boil 400ml, so taking into account the box, the tablets weigh around 200 grams

Therefore 200/14 * 400 = 5.7 litres or just over 1 gallon if we take into consideration that Esbits may have a slightly higher heat output.

The British army waxed cardboard Hexamine tablet is sized to fit perfectly into a folded up British Army Hexamine stove. This helps protect the fuel inside.

There is quite a good source of info on solid fuel stoves at http://zenstoves.net/SolidFuelBurner.htm

From the zenstoves website

One thing I noticed was that the tabs do seem to be smaller than the Esbit tabs...and definately smaller than the bars mentioned above. The instructions said they are reusable if you don't need a whole one but after a few minutes of burning, what isn't still solid or burned is in a pool of flaming liquid at the bottom...I didn't test what happens when you blow it out (liquidy mess? Stuck to the bottom like wax?). Based on my test I couldn't imagine using just one for anything.

Both of these stoves are extremely sensitive to wind. In the case of the RationZ stove it comes with it's own wind protection...more than the Vargo anyhow. I've been thinking about adding HD foil to my 'cooking kit' for just this purpose. The tent peg idea TheSock mentioned is brilliant as I carry about 8 in my bag to use with my Sil-Poncho.

Blast: I think it's very high quality however it doesn't feel like it. I'm always worried I'm going to break it because it's so damned light...but it's held up to everything I put it through just fine. If I have any complaint about the Vargo it's that it's very easy to spill the fuel when filling. The Trangia fuel bottle I have has a great spout on the end and even then I usually get some on me and/or the ground.

Ah, on the Esbit website the 400mL of water was boiled with one 14g tablet, which was the size I thought Sock was talking about. Thank you for pointing out the difference. I didn't realize "tablet" equals "box".

-Blast

Hmm, it sound like you have the being using poor quality hexamine tablets. The Esbits and even the cheaper ones from Hi-Gear (circular tabs) will not burn this way. It sounds as if a larger than normal quantity of the tablets binder is made from wax. The Esbit tablets have a more brittle crystaline texture and when they have completely burned there is very little residue. The residue, which is left is very small quantity of solid slightly sticky carbonised residue. There is no waxy or liquid residue left with good quality hexamine tablets.

That's good to know. I should try some Esbit fuel before I write it off completely. The soot on the bottom of the cup was a bummer and I know from reading that this is normal. It took quite a bit of scrubbing with a scouring pad to get it off.

I think it will end up going in the winter car kit I'm putting together either way.

Do you think so? I wouldn't expect them to light fuel tabs quicker than a Bic lighter. If you have to hold the lighter switch down so long you burn yourself, a match is liable to have gone out by then. If it's at all windy I'd allow several matches.

In practice, I find it best to use some tinder when lighting fuel tabs. I have some TinderCard which works. The alcohol stoves are much easier to light, but I dislike them because I'm worried I'll knock them over and spill burning meths over my tent and me.

I use the army stoves with the hex fuel Am_Fear_Liath_Mor describes. I cut the tablets in half because a half is often enough for me. (That's half a tablet, not half a packet.) I have no trouble blowing them out when done, and reusing the residue. As always, its best to have a lid for the pot.

It's one of the few thing I use matches for. I carry an Esbit stove in most of my kits. I use a varity of solid fuels and have never had a problem except the time I used a bic, it was not holding it so long but the angle I had to hold it at.

That's hitting the nail on the head. I had to hold the stove up at an angle AND hold the lighter at an odd angle...this heated up the guard. I wouldn't have had a problem with my EDC lighter as it shoots a jet an inch long.

Hey,

I have had no experience with Esbit/hexamine type stoves, other than I tried the Coghlan's Emergency Camp Stove copy with the small circular Coghlan Fuel tablets once last winter. I remember the stove was very effected by wind and that it took 2 or 3 tabs to boil about 300ml of water.

The fuel tabs were white in colour and granular, it kind of looked like compressed salt. Are these fuel tabs actually hexamine or trioxane (I have never seen either) just formed in a different shape?

My normal lightweight stove is a Snow Peak GigaPower stainless/auto, unless I am with a larger group then it is a large Coleman naptha or propane model.

Thanks,

Mike

the military triox tablets are purple

Hi Swampdonkey,

Yep, the hexamine stoves are affected by the wind and this will effect the efficiency of the stove quite badly. Getting the stove out of the wind is pretty important.



The British army stoves are normally issued with a Ration pack. The other metal piece is used to hold the military stainless steel cup above the stove.



and the cup fits around the 58 pattern water bottle.


The Ration Pack cardboard box also works quite well as a wind break if required. And when you've finished using it as a wind break you can then use it as a target card.

Last week I ordered a BCB Integral Survival Unit from Best Glide plus the lid, pot hanger, and carrying bag...should be here this week.
http://www.bestglide.com/integral_survival_unit_info.html

It's designed to work with solid fuel tabs or cans of gelled alcohol. I hope my Triad stove fits...should be the perfect combo. Plus it will let me retire some of my other gear, saving space in my pack.

Might be worth another test with some proper Esbit fuel once it does get here.

Let me know if a US canteen will fit in the cooking unit please, the amount they want for the water bottle is rediculous.

That's a good question. The canteen isn't what goes into the cooker, the cup is...but they're a similar size and shape so it's possible.

The price and availability of surplus around here has gone to crap since the latest war in the middle east. Ordering from the states has been the best way to go...especially with the Canadian dollar doing so well. And since I was ordering stuff from them anyhow, I got the whole gamut as it's cheaper packaged.

The difficulty is that you are comparing a bicycle to a moped. Neither is optimal, but they don't fill quite the same role either.

To get the Hexi lit, scrap some of it into powder on the top of the block. I've never seen that in any directions or manuals, but it makes it so much easier to light them- just throwing sparks at a fuel tab is like trying to light a full size log on fire by holding a match under it. Keep in mind that triox and hexi/esbit are NOT designed to boil water, just heat it to the point where you can make tea/coffee with it, or heat a C-ration so it isn't cold, just nastily lukewarm.

The problem with alcohol stoves is very simple: they don't like cold. I was was testing some add-ons that I've been toying with to try to get them winter ready, and my trangias just sat there and pouted. It was right around freezing. Ethanol just doesn't have a low enough vaporization temperature for it to be any good in winter.

To have either of them be anything more than a bad joke, you need windscreens.

Best bet- carry the Vargo, with fuel, AND carry fuel tabs.

I was looking up the specs on the Vargo and noticed the new XE which can burn alcohol or solid tabs...too bad they didn't have those at the MEC when I bought mine.

I've definitely heard about the shortcomings of alcohol in the cold. Now that I'm getting the canteen cooker from Best Glide I should pick up some proper Hexamine tabs and cover all bases.

Ironically I usually just light a fire and cook over the coals when I'm camping or hiking...but sometimes you don't have that option.

Where is the best place to pick up good Hexamine?

Thanks for the information Am_Fear_Liath_Mor about British Military Hexamine stoves, I do not know if the Canadian Armed Forces supplies anything like this?

Mike

Hacksaw:

You can carry a 3-inch wide strip of aluminum flashing, rolled up inside your GSI cup for a windscreen.

Here's the best commercially-available alcohol stove rig I've ever found.

http://www.clikstand.com/home.htm

I've never had much luck with the Vargo stoves. They burn unevenly and don't seem very efficient to me. I recenly read that they were designed for ethanol only, which may explain why my experiments with methane were so lackluster. Personally, I still wouldn't rely on a Vargo stove.

Bear

I like the look of that Clickstand.

Tonight I'm going to experment and make some Pepsi can and Redbull can stoves to compare to the Vargo just in case the Vargo won't work with the canteen cup cooker.

Well laziness got the better of me and I never did make the Pepsi stove.

I did however just do an outdoor test with the Triad. It's about 30 degrees (just below 0 C) and I did the same test with the exception of adding a wind screen as it's a bit breezy tonight. The water boiled in about 15 minutes though it never boiled as hard as it did inside. The stove petered out after 19 minutes.

I had no trouble lighting the stove and it primed just fine without the wind screen. With a lid on the cup, performance would have been much better.

Just out of sheer curiosity I boiled the same amount on my new Optimus Crux just now. The same amount of water (inside on the stove top) boiled in 2 minutes and 20 seconds...and I mean BOILED. It was ready to jump out of the cup it was boiling so hard.

Let all of it, stove and fuel, sit outside for a couple hours to get to the outdoor temp. You'll get even worse performance.

I did (for the Triad).

I'm going to keep doing it as it gets colder until the stove won't light so I know at what point I shouldn't bother even busting it out.

I just ran the identical test...everything the same except the temperature (it's -20 C tonight) and something unexpected happened.

The water boiled in about the same time but this time the stove ran for a mind boggling 31 minutes! 10 full minutes longer than what it's rated to do. I wouldn't have believed it if I had not have been sitting out in the cold with a digital probe thermometer freezing my buns off watching it go.