After reconsidering the definition and characteristics of the Gurney energy, we explain some points related to the evaluation and practical use of this quantity. We correct a recently published relationship between the detonation velocity of an explosive and its Gurney energy at infinite expansion. Then, in the framework of cylinder tests, we indicate that the Gurney energy gives only a rough evaluation of experimental results; it can, however, be reasonably used to compare the ability of explosives to accelerate metals. Besides, the value gamma=3 classically evoked for the polytropic gamma of the detonation products generally leads to significant errors in the evaluation of the Gurney energy at infinite expansion.