alcohol

“anyone use an alcohol stove, like a pespi can stove? are they really that reliable?”

“No they suck

Next?”

“Not as reliable as esbit tabs


or a Jetboil


*ducking*”

“Well, Stratd00d is entitled to his own opinion, but I wouldn't say go by it. I've made and used many alcohol stoves. There are MANY MANY designs and variations that make them very good stoves. If you compare weight between alcohol and regular market stoves, you'll see that alcohol stoves win. The advantage of using alcohol stoves is that there very small to pack, usually fit right inside pots, and there very cheap to make and adjust. Heck, you can make 1000 stoves for free if you wanted, the only thing that's going to cost you anything is the alcohol. If I were to say so, I'd say that these stoves are very reliable and cheaper. Looking into designs and constructing a few stoves would be a good idea. I wouldn't say I'm an expert in any sense, but I know from experience. Zen stove designs are good and reliable and many different sites have step by step instructions on making them. I hope this gets those thoughts moving in your head. Let me know what you think and feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer the best I can. Cheers!”

“Ok maybe they don't suck that bad.... But for a few grams, I'll take le pocket-de rocket any day”

“I understand what your saying, and I dont blame you, I guess it just depends on your preferences and limitations. Price, size, space, and so on.”

“i have a jetboil, the personal whatever its called, the little one. i also have some propane stove my mom bought me from walmart a long time ago, its big and heavy, but it cooks quickly.
the alcohol stoves just seemed like a convenient way to kill time, save weight, and get ride of some trash.
im hopefully going camping this weekend, so im definitely gonna try to make a couple, and hopefully use them too.
any designs youd like to suggest kingsmanname?”

“I'm pro-alky stove. They may take longer to boil than a jet boil, but when I'm out on a trail I have time to kill. Its all I've used for 10 years. My entire cooking kit, excluding fuel and my bowl, fit inside an Old Country Tyme Lemonade container. It includes the stove, windscreen, pot stand, lighter, pot grabber and spoon.”

“What techntrek said. Since I went to alky stove and freezer bag cooking, things have been much better on the trail.”

“I carry a wood burning stove (emberlit) and alky stove as backup. The alky stove is zelph companion burner stove”

“Look at the other stove thread. I posted a couple of links to sites that sell/have designs. MY preference is a side burner model that has an integrated pot stand (the burner). It's just one can. Slightly unstable but still the best bang for the weight, IMHO. For 90% of my hiking, an alcohol stove suffices and I never have to worry about it not working.”

“I only use alcohol stoves... never have had a problem... of course i'm relagated to 4k peaks onthe east coast..”

“Abc, I've always been a fan of the pressurized jet design. http://zenstoves.net/BasicPressureBurner.htm It seems to burn quite hot, not too bad on fuel, and if built right will last a long time with few problems. Few drawbacks are priming, heat adjustment, and you usually have to have some kind of potstand. Granted these are small things, there still drawbacks. Let me know what you decide to go with and how it goes. Feel free to post pictures as well, Id love to see how it turns out for you.”

“im going to make my own. this design http://www.thesodacanstove.com/alcohol-stove/how-to-build.html

and if i can find more cans, im going to try a penny can stove also.”

“almost finished”

“alright. its done. but its not perfectly level. in fact, on side makes the bubble on my level completely past the line. but its barely noticeable to the naked eye.
is this going to be a problem?”

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last edited: 6/26/12 4:48:19 PM”

“i used arizona cans, witch i think are slightly wider than normal soda cans, but due to my awkwardly sized scissors i couldnt cut it straight because they were forced at an angle, so the stove ended up being shorter than i would have liked, by maybe half, im not sure what optimal heights would be.”

“the local hardware store closed at like 4 or something crazy, so ill test it out tomorrow, i probably wont boil water or anything, just see the burn time and what not.”

“I could use some....
I'll take tequila...cold...no salt...with lime please...”

“because you said please”

“Please, Sir, me too, Sir.”

“what fuel should i use for my stove? i saw a video that said most denatured alcohol has random #&%!$ added to it so you cant drink it, and that sometimes, the miscellaneous substances can really #&%!$ up a stove by being smutty and smelly. is that true?”

“It depends on the "denaturing" part. Some companies use methanol, others use benzene or other substances. You can avoid this altogether by just using straight methanol, available as the yellow HEET at the auto parts store. It has a little less energy than ethanol, but not really enough to make a difference. People use HEET all the time on long trips because it's more readily available than ethanol.”

“I could not find denatured alcohol ...
So I used Heet...”

“well, ill see what i can find. i planned on getting heet.”

“Oh yeah, on the whole "level" thing, I made a separate potstand out of machinist's cloth for my setup. Didn't have to worry then if the stove itself was a little crooked.”

“i made another can, a penny stove, and it the jets on the second one actually work, and the fuel burns more efficiently, for over twice as long of a burn time.”

“Get a gallon of denatured at Home Depot, in the paint department. It is cut with methanol, so no worries about other crap. And much cheaper than HEET.”

“i went down to my local hard ware store, they didnt have heet, but i bought a container of sunny side denatured alcohol for $5.99, i think. i dont remember how much was in it, but it was the smallest one. and after testing two different stoves a couple of times each, its still over half full so.
next time i venture down to a home depot, ill definitely check it out though.”

“do you know any brand names? that would be a big help so that i dont have to resort to trial and error.
btw, sunny side leaves residue on your pans and makes marks that dont come off.”

“Last time I checked they only had one brand.”

“Walmart and lowes carry it as well...”

“http://www.lowes.com/pd_148736-78-QSL26_?PL=1&productId=3063669

been using this for years works well with no issues.”

“Yup... that's the stuff”

“the nearest lowes to where i live, theres a lowes and a home depot practically across the street from one another, with target right next to them, and a mall down the street, so i will make sure that i find that and try it out.”

“I had to run to lowes to pick up some crap.. picked up a gallon for $15.00”

“The residue on the pots could be a stove design issue. Any denatured alcohol should burn clean if a high enough temperature is achieved. Pouring it in a tealite tin will burn but won't burn hot like a sideburner would and will leave soot.
If you choose to make your own stove, copy a tried and true design as closely as possible..same number of holes, size and spacing. There is some science happening there.”

“never had a problem with soot using a tea light tin and good alcohol like yellow bottle Heet - I suspect use of something that contains isopro alcohol which will leave soot”

“idk what it was, ive used that stove three times since i made it a few days ago, and only that one time did it ever leave any residue.”

“does the dimensions of the stove make any difference?

for example, arizona ice tea (my favorite canned beverage) cans are slightly larger in diameter than say, diet coke.

i have two stoves, two designs, two cans.

i have a shorter, wider, arizona can. http://www.thesodacanstove.com/alcohol-stove/how-to-build.html of this design.

then i have a diet coke can, its taller, and narrower. a penny can stove.http://www.jureystudio.com/pennystove/
it looks like the stove in the second to last picture.

i know the different designs are going to affect the stove, but does height/width have a significant affect?”

“I once read that pepsi cans are the best to use because they have an inner rim that seals everything together. But since then I have seen mane different designs using all sorts of cans, and all who make them claim that thiers is great. If you are having fun making them then try different designs and see wich one works best. If its not fun then just make the one. I made one pepsi can stove, it was hard work, I was afraid I was going to cut myself and it was more detail than I like to do. That was 12 years ago. It went on a two week long trip with me and performed like a dream. I still have it and it still works great.”

“Well maybe the residue was something on the can then and it burned off after the first time.

One of my whitebox stoves was like that, the first time I lit it it turned brown, the stove itself. The other one I have never did. Same alcohol in both.”

“makes sense.”

“i did end up cutting myself, four times. only two of witch bled though.”

“My experience is the same as adventuregirl, the first pepsi can stove I made is the same one I still take with me on trips. I made it at least 10 years ago. I remember sitting on my back porch at my old house doing burn trials with it so I knew how long it would burn, how long to boil, etc.”

“what do you use for a pot support? i tried to make one out of a wire clothes hanger but it was too week”

“Use hardware cloth from the local hardware store. It is wire mesh with 1/2 inch holes. I think 20 links by four is a pretty good stove support.”

“Also to make clean cuts on your aluminum can stoves, score around the can at the height that you want to cut. Then make a rough cut a least a half inch above this cut. Make small slit cuts down to the scored lines being careful not to cut down past the scored line. Then after making those slits all the way around the can, bend those tabs between your cuts back and forth till they break. Do this all the way around the can and you will get a clean cut. A lot of this depends on how clean your score line is.”

“how much does hardware cloth cost?”