Meta Stove

[ANDYLASER]

Has anyone else got or seen one of these stoves?
http://www.zippyimages.com/files/7176/m1.jpg
http://www.zippyimages.com/files/7177/m2.jpg
http://www.zippyimages.com/files/7178/m3.jpg
I got mine about 10 years ago, I have just found it again after some extensive rummaging in the shed. It uses white solid fuel tablets which are easy to light and burn quite quickly. 2 tablets will bring a cup of water to almost boiling ( hot enough for a brew) in about 5 minutes. The construction is of aluminiu8m and it weighs almost nothing - 3 oz

The tablets come in packs of 20, however I managed to get about 50 into a tobacco tin. I keep 2 tubes of lifeboat matches inside the cooker.

A usefull pocket sized brewing machine.

[ANDYLASER]

Hmmm I appear to have done somthing wrong with my image hosting.

[ANDYLASER]

A-HA sorted now.

[Adi007]

Full of questions ...

Can you still buy fuel for it? How does it compare to, say, hexy?

[ANDYLASER]

I have no idea if fuel is still available for it. I have about 150 tablets, so I should be OK for a while. I suppose hexy could be used instead. These fuel tablets light very easily and burn with an almost invisible flame (but it is very sunny today). I think a Meta /Hexy comparison test is in order.

[Stuart]

the blocks you have sound alcohol based

[ANDYLASER]

The proper name for the fuel is metaldehyde. it was developed by Lonza ltd of Switzerland as a slug poison. On the back of the packet it says: kills slugs and snails, ideal for lighting barbecues.
The tablets are very clean burning and leave virtually no residue.

[Hoodoo]

On the back of the packet it says: kills slugs and snails, ideal for lighting barbecues.

So is the idea here to use them for both foraging and cooking? :-D

[Great Pebble]

How about throwing trioxane into the equation, just for fun?

[ANDYLASER]

Did a quick comparison test. 3 meta tablets, which are the same physical size as 1 hexy tab, heated 250ml of water to above 70deg C in about 7 mins and were totally used with no residue. If crumbled, they can be lit with a blast match. By the way, 70 degrees was the limit of the thermometer I had to hand. I them repeated the test using ! hexy block. The block was a pain to light and gave off much nasty fumes. After 10 mins it was still burning and the water was at 70 deg C.
Conclusions: the hexy blocks would probably be better if heating a mess tin or something similar. The meta fuel is much better if heating something cup sized. Both quicker and easier. The other advantage is everything fits inside the cup, making for a compact pocket sized system.

[Adi007]

One nice thing about burning metaldehyde as opposed to hexy is that metaldehyde doesn't give off the poisonous gas hydrogen cyanide! :shock: