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Alcohol Stoves
Sterno was famous during the Great Depression. Stuck between towns and between jobs you could either cook supper on it or drink away your troubles. Today's alcohol fuels are likely to be poisonous varieties of the liquid. Don't drink anything that didn't come labeled for human consumption. If you want to take drinkable fuel, invest in something good like Everclear. Forty proof alcohol is mostly water.
Many people who use alcohol backpacking stoves build their own from soda cans, cat food cans, and a wide assortment of other throwaway resources. While these stoves are light and definitely do work, there are some drawbacks to the homemade backpacking stoves. The stoves do not seal, so whatever fuel you add to them must either be burned or dumped out. Dumping out poisonous fuel is not an environmentally friendly act, and any wasted fuel is pointless weight to carry.
Sterno was famous during the Great Depression. Stuck between towns and between jobs you could either cook supper on it or drink away your troubles. Today's alcohol fuels are likely to be poisonous varieties of the liquid. Don't drink anything that didn't come labeled for human consumption. If you want to take drinkable fuel, invest in something good like Everclear. Forty proof alcohol is mostly water.
Many people who use alcohol backpacking stoves build their own from soda cans, cat food cans, and a wide assortment of other throwaway resources. While these stoves are light and definitely do work, there are some drawbacks to the homemade backpacking stoves. The stoves do not seal, so whatever fuel you add to them must either be burned or dumped out. Dumping out poisonous fuel is not an environmentally friendly act, and any wasted fuel is pointless weight to carry.
Safety is another concern. Many of the designs I've seen are
obviously tippy, with tripod pot racks that I wouldn't trust. With
practice they are probably fine. My Svea stove uses a tripod rack
and it works great, but it's simple and well designed. Some home
built stoves are not that good. Though the worst that could happen is usually that you might dump your supper on the ground, ultralighters
who trim away every unneeded ounce may be figuring their meals by stringent rules. A wasted supper could be a problem.
The better manufactured alcohol backpacking stoves like Triangia are a little heavier than ultralight homemade rigs but will seal off unused fuel and eliminate that waste. Windscreens also serve as safe and stable pot rests. You get a stove that's sensible and more durable. Alcohol stoves provide less heat than white gas or pressurized fuel, taking about twice as much fuel to accomplish the same heating task and extending cooking times. At high altitudes, gas stoves make better sense.
The better manufactured alcohol backpacking stoves like Triangia are a little heavier than ultralight homemade rigs but will seal off unused fuel and eliminate that waste. Windscreens also serve as safe and stable pot rests. You get a stove that's sensible and more durable. Alcohol stoves provide less heat than white gas or pressurized fuel, taking about twice as much fuel to accomplish the same heating task and extending cooking times. At high altitudes, gas stoves make better sense.
Well made with a built-in extinguisher; seals in unused
fuel. Open Spirit model includes an improved pot rest.
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Copyright: All original material on this site is the sole property of the author and cannot legally be copied or used in any form without his permission. That would be me.
Data Collection of Non-Personally Identifying Information:
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.