[pct-l] Add Salt to your Alcohol Stove Fuel

[sabra985]

that's a cool trick, reaching back into ancient history/physical science -
I loved burning stuff in middle school science!!!

*and Potassium Chloride (KCl) will make purple flames - this is one of the
salt substitutes found in the spice section of the grocery store. Has
anyone experimented with this? (if it works, perhaps a fun treat to throw
in the bounce box :)  )


On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 11:42 PM, Matthew Edwards <iceaxehikes at gmail.com>wrote:

> This is under the heading of unsolicited advice. But it has come up
> recently on another forum and I think it is important enough to bring up
> here.
> The addition of a pinch of table salt to your denatured alcohol (or Yellow
> Heet) stove fuel will render and alcohol flame bright yellow and visible.
> The PCT, particularly in Southern California, is a hot and extremely dry
> environment. Having just hiked the PCT, CDT and AT I can tell you for a
> fact that the driest, most fire prone area anywhere on those trails is on
> the PCT in SoCal.
> There is nothing even remotely as dry on the AT as the PCT in California.
> Those little cat can alcohol stoves are great, light, and effective.
> The downside is that they can be tipped or blown over easily and pure denat
> alcohol or HEET burns with a nearly invisible blue flame.
> You may not think it will happen to you, but a LOT of hikers have mishaps
> with their stoves on a thru hike.
> The ability to see the flames might make the difference between a bad burn
> or setting a massive forest fire and being able to see the fire and put it
> out.
> Salting your fuel makes the flames visible. This can also help you avoid
> trying to add more fuel to a lit stove that appears to be out.
> The logistics are very simple.
> Fill up your alcohol fuel container at a resupply and add a pinch of table
> salt from the shaker while at a restaurant in town where you will no doubt
> have a meal.. or three.
> A pinch of salt being that which fits between your thumb and fore-finger.
> You can add more if you like as it does no harm but a pinch will do the
> trick.
> I found that even if i forgot to add salt, the residual salt in the
> container still made my stoves flames bright yellow between resupplies.
> I used an aluminum alcohol stove (Trail Designs Caldera) from Mexico to
> Echo Lake and a Brass Trangia 28 from Echo Lake to Canada, both of which
> burned salted alcohol without any ill effects. YMMV.
> Please forgive me for giving un-solicited advice.
> When you go for alcohol or HEET in town remember the salt.
> Cheers!
> -Iceaxe PCT09, CDT10, AT11
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