Alcohol Stoves

[hikin_jim]

use a stove with a wick to address decreased performance in cold - you can make a Supercat or any other stove a wick stove by epoxy-ing a few wraps of wicking around the circumference of it.

Interesting. Makes sense.

Trangia sells a little "winter kit" with their burners. You basically have a little pan you put under the stove. You pour alcohol in the pan and light it on fire. The "priming" alcohol gets the alcohol in the burner warm enough that the burner works properly.

HJ

[frediver]

Good to know, thanks.
What type of "flip" bottle are you using, the measure bottle with "flipper"
I got with my stove leak's, are you removing the "flipper" between uses?

[markskor]

Been looking into Pepsi type alcohol stoves for a while.
Here is the question: If one were to go out for 10+ days at a time, go high, 10,000+, cook fish, some pasta dishes (maybe 20 minutes stove-time each night - mostly simmer) and usually a coffee boil mornings...

How much fuel would you need to haul as compared with my canister WindPro? Usually on a 10-day trip carrying two 460 isobutane canisters, (usually one 1/2 full - <1 pound) and stove (7.6 oz) = ~1 1/4 pounds for stove and gas. What would, on a same comparable trip, a 10-day alcohol stove, fuel bottle, and needed fuel weigh?
Thanks,
Mark

[freestone]

Markskor, without getting into the minutia of details, the message I get from the tests is that the longer the trip, the more efficient the cannister style stove is when compared to a alcohol burner, especially if you are cooking and simmering pasta dishes. In order for you to approach that efficiency with alcohol, you would have to make big changes in what and how you cook. I use an alcohol stove but my trips are under 5 days and the meals are based on boiled water (2 cups H2O, 30cc alcohol) poured on the food, then placed in a cozy. I boil on average 6 cups a day and use 100cc to do it. 1000cc (one liter) will get me 10 days, 1 liter of denatured alcohol weighs about 3.7 kilos. My old hippie memory says 2.2 kilos=1pound.

[freestone]

Very cool Vandman. What is the red thingy in your last image that the pot seems to be setting on?

[Carne_DelMuerto]

Very cool Vandman. What is the red thingy in your last image that the pot seems to be setting on?

Freestone, I believe that is the flame.

[AlmostThere]

The amount of fuel depends on a number of things - what stove you use, how much water, what kind of cooking, and whether you want boiling water or if just-warm-enough water will work for you. I can get away with an ounce a day with the right stove and the right menu.

[markskor]

1000cc (one liter) will get me 10 days, 1 liter of denatured alcohol weighs about 3.7 kilos. My old hippie memory says 2.2 kilos=1pound.

Freestone,
Perhaps you suffer from old hippie syndrome...(BTW, me too.) but believe your math a bit skewed.

Without sounding like an anti-intellect, (whatever that means but like it - thanks Mr. Carter), 1000 grams of water - (slightly heavier than alcohol but close) weighs 1000 grams...
= 1000cc = 1000 ml = 1 liter.
454 grams to the pound (remembered from old hippie days - the chronic ) means 1 liter (1000ml) weighs 2.2 pounds. Add in the weight of the alcohol stove and fuel bottle and you are probably right in that a canister stove would indeed be slightly more efficient for longer type trips.
Peace!
Mark

[AlmostThere]

use a stove with a wick to address decreased performance in cold - you can make a Supercat or any other stove a wick stove by epoxy-ing a few wraps of wicking around the circumference of it.

Interesting. Makes sense.

Trangia sells a little "winter kit" with their burners. You basically have a little pan you put under the stove. You pour alcohol in the pan and light it on fire. The "priming" alcohol gets the alcohol in the burner warm enough that the burner works properly.

HJ

Yup, I have one of those. I use it with the White Box.

Hmm... think I have a lot of stoves or something.

[freestone]

Ha ha ha! My math or vision was not doing too well last night! On my Trangia I am use to seeing the flames go up the side a bit so leave it to me to ask the dumb questions! Your cannister will indeed give you more cooking time on less weight on longer trips. Shorter trips, a different menu, and cooking style then it could be a different story. I use Alcohol because it is so reliable. My previous canister stove really struggled on cold mornings above 10,500 ft (or 3200 meters!). Previous to that I used the Svea 123r and that was very noisy and somewhat temperamental. They are all good, I guess it "boils" down to personal style and choice.

[frediver]

If you decide you would like to get rid of that Seva, let me know??
All the stoves have quirks.

[TahoeJeff]

Somebody say Whitebox?



I'm just about ready to make this my go-to stove over my canister stove. Since I almost exclusively eat Mountain House type stuff or make my own Freezer Bag Cooking meals I use the Primus Litech Kettle:



I guess my final hurdle is fuel consumption. I use hardware store denatured alcochol and haven't quite got my boil times down vs. how much fuel to use. To be on the safe side I figure about an ounce to boil 2 cups of water for most conditions. The water boils before the fuel is gone and the fire burns another minute or two. Is it best to err on the side of caution and just bring more fuel than is really needed?