Alcohol fuel for a Pepsi-can stove

“I made a Pepsi-can stove, but I don't have any denatured alcohol lying around the house. I tried rubbing alcohol and some bourbon, but both resulted in a nice flame in the middle of the can that never spread to the outside burners. Does the fuel type make it work?”

“Get the right stuff at WalMart or Home Depot.”

“denatured or HEET”

“Heet in YELLOW BOTTLE (Auto parts Store)
Denatured Alcohol (Paint Department)
99% Medicinal Alcohol (Drug Store)

The 99% is used to sterilize Needles, as the Pharmacist if it's not on the shelf.”

“The regular rubbing alcohol is up to 25% water, so get the pure stuff like ST said. That water prevents the stove from working right. Best bet is a gallon of denatured alcohol from Home Depot, for about $10. That stuff is about 95% ethanol, 5% methanol to make it poisonous (and not taxable as an alcohol).”

“go to home depot and pick up a metal can of denatured alcohol. :)”

“Just about any gas station mini-mart will sell HEET. About $1.50 for a week's supply. Get the yellow bottle, it burns hotter and cleaner.”

“After a long night of hitting the Bacardi 151, you can just piss in the can and light it.”

“DO NOT USE HEET IN THE RED BOTTLE!!!!
Yellow bottle only!!!”

“DO NOT USE rubbing alcohol. It contains water that doesn't evaporate and $#@s up your stove.”

“Y'all forgot the most obvious and pure form of alcohol. 100%, burns clean, and has mutiple uses. Everclear. Very pricey however. I myself purchase denatured alcohol from Home Depot. I think the last gallon can I bought cost me about eleven bucks.”

“Thanks guys! I got some denatured alcohol and boiled an egg and cooked lunch today on it. Works great.”

“When you spend hours doing burn tests on the back porch with your newly crafted Pepsi can stove, you might be a redneck backpacker.”

“no - you might be a stoveholic”

“i forgot about the red heet rule. ive only ever seen the yellow bottle (good thing). thats all ive seen in the gas stations”

“After I put JB weld on the inside seams of my stove, it kicked up the output considerably. No more blow back into the main chamber.”

“Can I put "Heet" in my plastic bottle I normally put alcohol in...or is it too thin????”

“"Heet" is alcohol, therefore you can put it in your "alcohol bottle."”

“are you BSin me????

LOL....ok...thanks for the info!!!”

“i believe there are 2 kinds of heet. one is ok, one is not”

“get the one in the yellow bottle. that one works. the one in the red, the iso-heet, i dont know for sure”

“so if you have the one that is ok then you're fine...but if you don't...
last edited: 5/07/08 5:48:18 AM”

“I have the yellow...thanks Crash....you're ok...I don't care what anyone says..
LMAO”

“i'm thinking they both work, but the yellow bottle works much better. possibly the red burns way too fast, or way too slow”

“helinka uses something in her stove. i believe it's some kind of paint thinner.

hel, if youre reading this, what was it we used when we went to algonquin?”

“Iso-HEET is Isopropanol.
HEET is Methanol.
You want the yellow bottle with Methanol.”

“i believe there are 2 kinds of heet. one is ok, one is not�
crash bang
8:42:49 AM

possibly the red burns way too fast, or way too slow�
crash bang
8:48:48 AM

you are just a wealth of knowledge ;)”

“I just don't want it to eat thru my plastic bottle!!!”

“Go ahead and steal some out of everyones tank, I mean alcohog.”

“Regular rubbing alcohol is isopropanol. The problem with using it is that it is either 70% isopropanol and 30% water or 90% iso. and 10% water. The problem is the water. It causes the alcohol to burn cooler and produce soot.
Iso-HEET is 100% isopropanol. It should burn clean. I don't know about temparature comparison with methanol. I am guessing that methanol is hotter. Methanol is Poisonous

You also can use Denatured Alcohol from the hardware store. It is Ethanol with about 10% methanol added to make it undrinkable. (Ethanol is the same as Everclear.)

I am guessing that the Denatured Alcohol is probably the safest. The can even says that it is a clean burning alcohol/marine stove fuel. I have both and have used both. I usually use the Denatured Alcohol because it is cheaper.

Anyway Divinity, to answere your question: any of it will be okay in your alcohol bottle- no BSing here! Just the facts.
last edited: 5/07/08 6:20:13 AM”

“i'm a fan of denatured, although heet is nice cause it's at every gas station in the country”

“heet is nice cause it's at every gas station in the country”


it seems like when i did the AT, heet was kinda hard to find. i had an easier time finding denatured”

“I think the Denatured was easer to find because the outfitters could buy it in gallon cans a lot cheaper and dispense it in quantities the customers wanted.”

“i mean in the gas stations. but i could be mis-remembering”

“The RED bottle HEET burns with a very 'dirty' flame and will smut up the burner and bottom of the pot. It can be used, but is nasty.

The YELLOW bottle HEET burns with a clean flame. This YELLOW HEET is what I use.”

“I prefer yellow bottle Heet (methanol) but have tried them all. Air brake antifreeze from a truck stop or auto parts store is just about the same as Yellow Heet but typically harder to find.

The denatured alcohol in the metal can is what I started with. I found some cans burnt far cleaner than others. The producer can use a number of chemicals to denature the ethanol, it turns out they don't need to stick to just methanol to denature it.”