So as not to hijack another thread, who uses alcohol stoves?

What kind? Solo or group use? Make your own or buy?

I have a Trangia Stove, I use it with the SS Clickstand, and I burn HEET gasoline line anti-freeze in the YELLOW bottle in it. I carry the fuel in one of those red bottle for fuel. But only get the YELLOW fuel not the HEET in the RED bottle. Anyway I use it solo or with a group, but mainly for times I need to boil water for oatmeal,soups, mac and cheese, etc. slower than butane stoves, but works just GREAT. Here are links to my setup.
SunCatcher
Trangia Stove#
Stainless Steel Clickstand for Trangia Stove
Fuel Bottle
Heet Fuel
other BWCA discussion on subject

I havent taken one yet, but I'm going to start taking one as a backup. I've been making different models from online plans and I've been using denatured alcohol. Wind screen is very important. Boil 2-3 cups in 5-6 minutes with an ounce or 2 of fuel.

I've been using a Brasslite for the last few years. What I like about alcohol stoves is that they are silent. Great for making coffee in the morning without the roar of a jet engine. A friend of mine made a stove from a catfood can with some holes drilled in it. Can't get any cheaper.

I made one last month out of an aluminum bud light bottle. It too runs on the yellow heet or denatured alcohol. I am going to try it out this May on my solo trip. This link will give you step by step directions for making one. The hardest part is finding the aluminum bottles. It is very similar to the white box stove. Alcohol stove!


tony

a tangent...

alcohol fuel storage. are MSR bottles really ok for that application? is the gasket compatable with alcohol use?

Titanium XE in the back.
I just use small nalgene bottles for fuel. Even a soda bottle works. Don't see a problem with the MSR o-rings if they handle white fuel. i could be wrong.

Tea cup candle bottom is lightest stove I know of. fill to top will boil two cups with windscreen. Pot stand is hand made from coat hanger.

K..i have a small MSR bottle to carry the alcohol for pre heating my kerosene stoves and the O rings are like new after 5-6 years of use.

quote wetcanoedog: "K..i have a small MSR bottle to carry the alcohol for pre heating my kerosene stoves and the O rings are like new after 5-6 years of use."

thanks!

quote kanoes: "a tangent...


alcohol fuel storage. are MSR bottles really ok for that application? is the gasket compatable with alcohol use?"

little k... fyi

I have had that heet fuel in my two bottles for a year and not had any problem with the gaskets, on the bottles.

Might even work for your EC? :)

SunCatcher

quote kanoes: "a tangent...


alcohol fuel storage. are MSR bottles really ok for that application? is the gasket compatable with alcohol use?"

I'd be more concerned about your pee bottle disintegrating. :)

Last trip, I took a Swedish military alcohol stove as a supplemental/backup stove to my Whisperlite. I carried less fuel for the Whisperlite and used the alcohol stove for small meals and coffee. I missed using it when I ran out of alcohol because it was so fast and simple when I just wanted a hot drink.

Regarding alcohol fuel, I have burned both denatured alcohol and 91% isopropyl alcohol. I found the isopropyl in a dollar store a couple of years ago and, after buying one bottle to test, went back and loaded up. I have plenty of both kinds stored now and I don't notice much, if any, difference in burning qualities. I tried each kind in my Swedish military surplus and in one of my beer can stoves.

I think this is then next stove I will purchase. It can simmer and boil/fry.

magic mushroom

Anybody ever use this one

Isn't a can of beer cheeper than catfood these days? :-)

(Well, at least the kind of beer that I drink)

quote snapcrackpop: "I think this is then next stove I will purchase. It can simmer and boil/fry.

magic mushroom

"

Be careful with a purchase from Minibulldesign. Some bad experiences out there, one of them mine. Just make sure you know what you are getting we will leave it at that.

I made a few of these last year and took it with on our trip just to see how they would do. It worked so well that I only used my other stove for the JMO.
Very easy to make and the pot stand/wind screen unclips to slide down the back of my pack.
I don't have a pic of my fuel bottle but I bought one of the Optimus ones because it is green, I wanted a different color to indicate the different fuel. I also find that the HEET in the yellow bottle works as well as the denatured fuel.

CraigK - where did you get that design?

I am with Suncatcher and the clikstand set up. I took that unit out for a week's trip last summer (lake one/hudson/fire loop)and was very pleased with the results. It was a good deal more fuel efficient than I had anticipated. I think that, unless I am hiking on foot and really trying to be a gram weenie, the trangia set up will be my go to cooking rig.

quote boonie: "CraigK - where did you get that design?"

I got the idea from here. Zen Stoves
I used a small roll of uncoated aluminum roof flashing material.
Holds up very well and takes up virtually no room in the pack.
I store the stove inside of my coffee mug while traveling to keep it from getting crushed.

quote rlhedlund: "So as not to hijack another thread, who uses alcohol stoves?

What kind? Solo or group use? Make your own or buy?"

Here in Norway the Trangia 25 sets is the most common cookset whatever.

Why? You get the pots, and pan, you get wind protection, you get something available everywhere, and you may get parts to your old set after your parents. It is just working and working.

What's the drawback? It may bee deemed as heavy. Alcohol is not easy to get burning from 0 to 7000 BTU, actually impossible. You may get something from 500 to 3500 BTU

The performance from the burner is easy to get in a Pepsi can stove or other lightweight stoves, just remember to have burner with a reservoir to let you end the meal with maximum 1 refueling.

The weight of the fuel makes alcohol 1.6 times as heavy as white gas, so even this will count on the trip. Cost should be no big issue.

Conclution, I use my Trangia set with other burners.

Your MSR setup pictured in this thread should give a better solution than any alcohol stove.

dsk

lots of good stuff here.

Alcohol stoves are almost always for solo use. I made a slightly modified version of the "Photon Stove". My base and stand is the same at that, but I did the windscreen and burner hole pattern more like this one.

With that stove and a KMart Grease Pot for a pot, I boil 16 oz of water in about 5-6 minutes using 1oz of denatured alcohol. Sometimes have enough burn time left over to heat up a cup of water for cocoa or something. Had a friend along on the last trip who was pretty envious of how simple and lightweight it was, and that it boiled water faster than his much heavier white gas stove.

Boonie, I haven't used the Caldera Cone, but have seen a friend use it. It works extremely well. He boiled 16 oz of water in about 4-4.5 minutes using about .7oz of denatured alcohol. Very efficient stove. He's an extremely knowledgeable guy who's been there and done that and highly recommends it. I'm tempted to get one myself, and one of the reasons I use the grease pot is that they make a cone to fit it.

quote Craig K: "

quote boonie: "CraigK - where did you get that design?"

I got the idea from here. Zen Stoves
I used a small roll of uncoated aluminum roof flashing material.
Holds up very well and takes up virtually no room in the pack.
I store the stove inside of my coffee mug while traveling to keep it from getting crushed.
"

Thanks, some interesting stuff there.

quote Benutzer: "Alcohol stoves are almost always for solo use. I made a slightly modified version of the "Photon Stove". My base and stand is the same at that, but I did the windscreen and burner hole pattern more like this one.

With that stove and a KMart Grease Pot for a pot, I boil 16 oz of water in about 5-6 minutes using 1oz of denatured alcohol. Sometimes have enough burn time left over to heat up a cup of water for cocoa or something. Had a friend along on the last trip who was pretty envious of how simple and lightweight it was, and that it boiled water faster than his much heavier white gas stove.

Boonie, I haven't used the Caldera Cone, but have seen a friend use it. It works extremely well. He boiled 16 oz of water in about 4-4.5 minutes using about .7oz of denatured alcohol. Very efficient stove. He's an extremely knowledgeable guy who's been there and done that and highly recommends it. I'm tempted to get one myself, and one of the reasons I use the grease pot is that they make a cone to fit it."

Thanks, Ben. I have one of the original AGG pepsi can stoves, windscreen, and pots, so I've also been thinking about it for that reason also. Setting the pot on top of the stove is not a very stable configuration, but it looks like the cone would solve that problem (?) and increase its efficiency. I also am interested by the fact that you can use an esbit stove with it. Esbit tabs would eliminate worries about spillage.

They all seem to have their advantages and disadvantages. The advantage I see to the Trangia is the ability to seal it up with fuel inside. It also seems to be an integrated and fairly efficient system.

I am also intrigued by the idea of stoves that burn alcohol or wood.

I just built another alcohol stove yesterday....the Aluminum bottle version linked above. 1oz of denatured alcohol boiled 2 cups of water in a litle over 5 minutes. The flames looked a little rich to me...I may have to widen the holes. That makes about 5 types I've built. The easiest and most efficient was the Super Cat , a 3oz cat food can and a paper punch. There's something about the 3 oz size when it comes to volume, surface area and vapor pressure that makes the little thing work. I made one model with only one row of holes and it seems to work as good as the 2 row version. No stand, set your pot right on top of it.
One extra little thing I made for these stoves is a aluminum sheet to set them on. I just rounded off the corners on an 8x8 square sheet. It makes the stove more stable plus I squirt a shot of alcohol on the base by the stove and light that to prime the stove. A lot easier than trying to reach down in and light the stove itself.

quote talusman: "I've been using a Brasslite for the last few years. What I like about alcohol stoves is that they are silent. Great for making coffee in the morning without the roar of a jet engine. A friend of mine made a stove from a catfood can with some holes drilled in it. Can't get any cheaper."

I checked the link and became very angry at seeing the person just dumping the beer on the ground. Then I remembered it was Bud Light. LOL! My buddy makes and sells these stoves and I really like it. I like the fact you use the stove as a stand. I use it for solo backpacking trips that require simply boiling 2 cups of water. My cooking is a lot more involved on BWCA trips though.

Hello

what did you use to punch the holes.

Zen Stoves website is a great web site. I built one of the angled windscreen versions out of some rolled aluminum. My holes are not as clean as yours. I can have 5 1/2 to 6 cups of coffee ready to pour in 15 to 16 minutes. Have tested it a number of times on my deck and used it on my trip last year. I am going to make another one out of some heavier aluminum. I have melted the edges a little and would like to try using wood.

Roger

I used a thumbtack and changed for every 4 holes.

When you make an alcohol stove it is several variables to be aware of.
Meths and meths are not always the same. My experience tells me: at least 1/5 methanol makes no soot!

The colder the more difficult to get the stove to stay with a steady output.

If you choose an open center stove (design = Trangia) the center hole has to be equal to the height to work well in the cold. Higher it may extinguish itself before it is empty.

The distance between the stove top and the kettle may have great affect to the output. Within 25-50 mm will probably be right.

Simpler designs may very well give equal output. E.g. 6 cm aluminum cylinder (deo-spray?) with a ring of about 6-8 mm holes 1 cm from top.

The windscreen may be the most important part to secure a reliable output.

dsk

Pancakes this morning on the alcohol stove.

had to laugh rlhedlund - we must be crazy people to be cooking things over campstoves in a fully operational kitchen "just because". :)

Well, do you really know how that cook-top works?

Take a look here: cook-top

dsk :-)

quote dsk: "Well, do you really know how that cook-top works?


Take a look here: cook-top


dsk :-)"

Some people have WAY too much time on their hands.

quote BWPaddler: "had to laugh rlhedlund - we must be crazy people to be cooking things over campstoves in a fully operational kitchen "just because". :)"

I get more thrills out of the experiments than the real thing.

While slightly uninterested in the Super Bowl on Sunday, I built one of these after reading this thread.

http://www.jureystudio.com/pennystove/

Took longer to find Heiniken in the can than to build the stove. A side note, Heiniken in the can is not as good as in the bottle, but I sacraficed for science. 12 pack was all that was available, so I should have 6 stoves (2 Heiniken Can's one coke can) by the end of 2011 at my normal beer consumption rate.

Anyway, I lit the stove using the Yellow Heat, and it worked. No further testing yet, but it seems like a fun way to go. Been thinking of making a trip to Isle Royale with the 6 year old, where I'll be carrying all the heavy stuff backpacking. So time to lighten up the kit, maybe this will help.

Tips on using one of these would be appreciated. Seemed to burn for 5 or 6 minutes, but I didn't time it.

Make a wind screen. It makes a big difference in the performance.

i built ten of the aluminum bottle stoves today for grins. hmmmm what am i gonna do tomorrow?

Alcohol Stove