Lots of discussions, disagreements, personal opinions on this subject. One place where camping, backpacking and marine recreation overlap.
Denatured alcohol will work, but is it REALLY the best bargain? How quickly will it heat your food? What you're looking for is $$/BTU or heating efficiency AND clean burning. You might find this video enlightening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt69fbNhCgs The video compares several alcohol fuels. Granted, the comparison is done in a non-pressurized stove but the comparison methodology seems fairly sound. The results were defined in terms of economy ($$$) for bringing water to a boil. In short, denatured alcohol performed poorly in terms of economic efficiency. The best performing fuel was an automotive gas antifreeze, HEET in the yellow container. HEET is primarily methanol. I suppose you can always go to a truck stop and get air brake antifreeze. Unfortunately, no actual stove fuel like Origo or Tru-Heat was tested. Alcohol stoves are designed to burn ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Unfortunately, you can't find 100% ethanol. Ethanol must be "denatured" by adding methanol to avoid liquor taxation. Nigel Calder says you need a minimum of 95% ethanol. Further, there doesn't appear to be any standard for denatured alcohol. Make sure any fuel you buy is labeled for use in alcohol stoves. Some denatured alcohols may be as little as 50% alcohol. Pressure alcohol stoves are more fuel sensitive than non-pressurized alcohol stoves because of the orifice. If the fuel contains oils or impurities, the orifice may become plugged. Before you burn any new fuel in a pressurized alcohol stove, burn several ounces in a metal dish and check for residue after the burn completes. Make sure any fuel you buy is labeled for use in alcohol stoves. Read the label. Look at the MSDS. There doesn't appear to be any standard for denatured alcohol. Some denatured alcohols may be as little as 50% alcohol. So, you might actually spend more $$ or incur more maintenance issues by using a cheap denatured alcohol than a fuel formulated specially for alcohol stoves. For the record, Touche' has a pressure alcohol stove. The Admiral and I use it often. I tried big box store denatured alcohol (labeled for stove fuel) and it worked but I personally prefer the Origo stove fuel. Just seems to work better. Might be my imagination or the fumes. :) Dennis C. Touche' 35-1 #83 Mandeville, LA On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 9:36 AM, Burt Stratton via CnC-List < cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > This my first go-around with alcohol stoves. Seems to work very nicely. > Cleaned it up filled it and brewed a big pot of coffee in no time. Is there > any reason not to use plain old denatured alcohol instead of stove cooking > fuel? > > > > Skip > > > > _______________________________________________ > This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album > > Email address: > CnC-List@cnc-list.com > To change your list preferences, including unsubscribing -- go bottom of > page at: > http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com > > >
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