alcohol stove

“I made a new stove today, it works really well. It actually has two burners, in one pot stand. The burners are made out of the little metal bottoms of tea candles. The pot holder is made out of a normal size can cut in half. It has a burn time of about 3 and 1/2 min. with about 1/2 onces of fuel in each burner for a total 1 once. It burns for 8 min, one burn will burn for the same time but won't really get a good boil going.

Link to pictures

http://thebackpacker.com/pictures/album/iftfl1vm.php”

“Kewl! Thinking 'out of the box'.”

“Definitely a good flame on that. I'm guessing you meant it has a boil time of 3 and 1/2 mins, with a total burn time of 8?”

“Cool! How much does it weigh? If you wanted to cut a little weight out, you could use a big beer can for the base, and roll the lip to give it a little more strength.”

“it's less then 3 ounces. it has it really put out the flame, cause of the two burners you get a lot of flame coverage, and yes i meant boil time of 3 1/2min and burn time of 8 min”

“Boil time of 3.5 min is really good. Congrats!”

“3.5 is damn good. That's JetBoil territory, isn't it?”

“Um, yah. How much water were you boiling photoguy?”

“i did one cup but also was able to get almost as good as resultes with 2 and 3 cups”

“Most of us use two-cup-boil times as our benchmarks. Do you recall your two-cup time?”

“I can beat everone of y'all!!!!!

I'll just use 1/2 cup of very very hot water to start! ;-)”

“2 cup was just over 4”

“Okay, I'm a convert now. I just spent 4 days out with my pepsi can stove. After watching my companions dealing with flare-ups and plugged jets on their whisperlites, and half full cannisters that would no longer support a flame on their primus', I'm determined to do all my cooking from now on with my 1/2 oz. pepsi can stove. It performs like a jet engine, and is virtually trouble free. I honestly had my water boiling before the dude with his whisperlite, not because it's hotter, but because I had it set up and lit while he was still assembling his stove, and then had to deal with a flare-up.

I believe the only exception will be winter camping, when I'll probably have to continue to use my pocket rocket.”

“Just want to know the conditions you were in when using your stove...

I just got back from California's "Lost Coast"(3d/2n) and only took my Alcohol Stove to prove to myself...
Read more at: http://bpmaniacs.com/phpbb2/
(Multiple stoves... Multiple uses...)

Ken
BpManiacs
http://bpmaniacs.com/phpbb2/”

“What was the significance of the link in regards to this topic? I'm afraid I'm a bit confused.

To answer your question, the first morning it was 28 deg. F. when lighting my stove. It took a couple of minutes to prime, then was a veritable blow torch. After that, It was warmer, and primed a bit quicker. Conditions varied between quite windy and calm. Does that answer your question?”

“http://www.kzpg.com/Backpacking/Stove/Stoves.htm

nice website for comparing stoves, fuel, weight”

“Welcome to the Pepsi brigade, hobbit. Your experience mirrors my own over the years - it might take longer to boil when you look at the raw numbers, but by the time everyone else is set up and has finished troubleshooting, I'm taking my first bites of food.

What stove design do you have?”

“I love the little stoves but you can't tell me that you can get stove out and fill it much faster then you can get a pocket rocket out, it is all about what you need, and try finding a canister or alcohol over seas.”

“photoguy - OK, I will not tell you, but I can.”

“And why could one not find Alcohol overseas??? I don't get that one :)LOL Is there something I'm missing?

hobbit... I asked because I was interested!
The link? well I was hoping you would post your Alcohol Stove conditions... Ok, it was 28*F, thanks:) Water quantity, elevation, bp(maybe)??? How much fuel did you really use to warm up the stove and cook? Just wondering? Sorry if I confused you...

Ken”

“Stovie you can really get a stove out fill it light it put a wind screen around it faster then i can pull out my canister stove and srew it on and hit the auto ignite. I love to make stoves i'm just not the the place i want to take it as my only stove.”

“My stove was used in temps ranging from 28 deg. F to 60 deg. F. I never boiled more than 3-4 cups at a time, but usually just 2 cups. I can boil a couple of cups with about 1 oz. of alcohol, and that typically leaves me enough alchohol left over to warm some water for wash-up. The elevations ranged from 3800-4800 feet. The design I use looks a lot like this:

last edited: 3/29/05 6:43:25 AM”

“The reason I was always paranoid about taking a single stove when hiking alone was because I've had them fail me too many times. I can't see how this one could fail me, other than perhaps letting Lizs borrow it for a few minutes. I hear she's pretty hard on them.”

“I recently got back from an AT section hike from Amicalola to Hog Pen Gap in Georgia. I had a blast meeting about dozen thru hikers heading north and even two SOBO’s just completing the trail. It was interesting seeing all the stove types. About a third were alcohol stoves of the store bought Anti Gravity type. Another third used canister stoves like Primus or Pocket Rockets. The final third used white gas stoves like whisperlites and dragonflies. The alcohol stoves performed well for simple meals that require boiling water like noodles and oatmeal. One thru hiker tried to cook some chili but had problems generating enough heat to cook it completely. It was very entertaining watching the whisperlite types light up. After one flare up someone made a comment about sacrificing virgins. The canister types were the quickest group to cook and eat their food with no fuss. They also seem to have the widest selection of freeze dried foods that require simmering. I asked a canister user how do you tell how much fuel you have left and he shook his head and said it is a guess most of the time

I personally was the only oddball who used a wood burning Sierra Zip stove. It’s a little bulky compared to an alcohol stove but I don’t have to carry fuel either. I noticed at the first major resupply point at Neels Gap thru hikers were all ready inquiring about fuel. But then again they were the same guys that accidentally knocked over a fuel bottle loaded with fuel. The only extra fuel I was carrying was several esbit fuel tablets I use in my Zip stove as a fire starter when the wood was a little damp after a thunder storm.

I have actually have 3 stoves. A Whisperlite, a Esbit, and a Sierra Zip. I opted for the Zip because I don’t like to carry fuel. I only use the whisperlite for winter camping or when I am want to use it with my Outback Oven for brownies or a pizza.

Sojourner”

“Hey photoguy...
Take a look at this set up.
http://www.datasync.com/~wksmith/newdesign.html”

“if you want to simmer look at the trangia alcohol stoves.
[url]http://www.trangia.se/[url] the basic kit is cheap, and the stoves have been proven to work in the harshest conditions. It's less of a blowtorch than some of the pepsi can designs, and comes with a simmer ring. You can also make a simmer ring for a pepsi stove v easily.
Look at the winterizing kit for the trangia, and the mini-trnagia system. Or you could just get the burner and work around that.”

“if you want to simmer use a cozy”

“photoguy - denatured alcohol is 95% ethanol (and 5% poisonous methanol). Ethanol = grain alcohol. Except for most middle eastern countries that ban drinking alcohol, I doubt you'll have trouble finding ethanol anywhere.”

“V true tech. You can get it anywhere. Also called metholated spirits in other parts of the world. Basically and place with a hardware store will sell it.
The places where you'll be limited to Kerosene or Parafin will be very limited.”

“I have both a pepsi can stove and a pocket rocket. I like the Pepsi can stove because I can usualy find fuel anywhere- gas stations and other places like that, which is great when I forget to buy fuel at my sporting good store before my trip, but I like the pocket rocket because I find it easier to cook really good dishes. Now to give the Pepsi stove credit, I have only made one, and dont have a very good wind screen.”

“adventuregirl - Browse my website for all kinds of windscreen ideas.”

“I find alcohols tove to not be worth the time to make, wait to boil or the extra weight. Waste o' space.”

“Alcohol is hard to beat for 'boil two cups of water, dump in bag' meals.
That's the only kind of cooking I do on the trail.”

“Thanks StoveStomper I really liked the medal one with the tent stakes. I think that would work well for my needs. I need to make a new stove sometime soon here. Your grape juice can one, how well did that get a simmer?”

“No simmering, only boiling. LOL
You CAN make a simmer ring for alcohol stoves, but why bother?

If you are gonna simmer, use a cozy system like HOI has. Check out the HOI system on my site.
http://www.datasync.com/~wksmith/hoikit.html”

“I've been to some 3rd world countrys and they don't have homedepot or even a really corner hardware store. I've been on trips were we went to get paint for a building and you don't go to a little shop. You go somewhere were they only sale paint, i think they made it there too big buckets full every were. You then go to a vender that sells brushes. And they use gas as the paint thiner. And yes you could you a high proof alcohol but that would cost a lot. More then what we use here in the states, i don;t know about stuff like heet though you might be able to find that.”

“I was just kidding Stoveie. I like using alci stoves. The last time though I grabbed a bottle of the RED heet and melted my windscrean and everything else within 5' of the stove.”

“I like them too i'm just not sure i want to use only them and give up my canister”

“No ya got to have one of everything! I really prefer my Esbit wing stove for boil and eat stuff.”

“I'm an Esbit user too, although I am converting to alcohol since I can just about build the stoves in my sleep. Esbit has never let me down though. Needs a little more time? Just add a tab.”