Advantages: The advantages of using a hexi stove over other cooking methods are obvious to anyone who has used one. Hexi Stoves are one of the simplest and most pleasurable ways to cook outdoors. Apart from cooking on an open fire, things couldn’t be much easier.
Once you’ve bought your stove you just need a ready supply of solid fuel pellets, some matches or a lighter and away you go. Admittedly you also need to carry mess tins or a camp kettle with you but things don’t get much simpler.
You don’t need to heave bulky and numerous gas canisters around with you to a festival, a camping or fishing trip. You don’t need heavy bags of charcoal. If you just want to get away quickly or you need a light weight cooking option then the hexi stove is a great choice.
To be honest if you are thinking of buying a hexi stove, then it is probably the event or activity you are undertaking that has led you to consider one. By this we mean that if for example you are going to a festival that has banned all other forms of cooking (the mind boggles!) then this is pretty much your only option unless you fancy eating cold food all weekend.
Your other option would of course be to stump up a huge amount of cash to buy every meal from one of the overpriced stalls. A good few years ago when on a budget we successfully cooked a large proportion of our meals at Leeds Festival on a hexi stove. You can buy a hexi stove at Amazon here
Disadvantages: With its brilliant portability does come some downsides. We think the advantages far outweigh the hurdles to overcome, but you need to make your own mind up! The biggest problem is that they can take quite a long time to cook. If you are in a rush and don’t have much patience then perhaps this method of cooking isn’t for you.
Depending on how much you need to cook the cooking time can be reduced by adding a large amount of blocks at the same time. If you go for this option remember you’ll need to stock up on hexi tablets!
The other disadvantage is that hexi stoves are prone to be affected by the wind. With such a relatively low power heat source to cook on you need to shield the flame in windy conditions or you’ll be there for hours.
That said if you get the above two disadvantages sorted by your own experimentation with quantities and shelter then the portability and ease of use are a joy to behold.
If after reading the honest insight above you have changed your mind then there are several more expensive ways to cook outside. If you’d like to consider the alternatives, please have a read of this article.
