[pct-l] Alcohol Stoves

["Tom Simon" <simontom@cgocable.net>]

I have been building and testing several of the alcohol stoves that have
been talked about on this site recently. I built the "Soda Can stove", the
"Tuna Can Stove" and a couple others. Finally my wife's two cats are of some
use in that their food can's are good for stove experiments.
So far the best stove considering heat output, durability and efficiency
seems to be the Tuna Can Stove. If anyone is making one of these I suggest
that you search around for aluminum cans and then your stove will weigh in
at only 1 oz. You'll have to modify the construction a bit but you'll end up
with a solid light stove that should last the duration of a thru hike.
Aluminum has no spring to it so cut out tabs for ventilation will not hold
the two cans together as with steel cans. Make cutouts using a Dremel tool
with a cutting wheel and join the cans using small nuts and bolts.
Most of the stove designs say that all you need is 2 tablespoons of alcohol
to boil 3 cups of water. Starting with cold water around 50 degrees F., as
is most water in the higher elevations I find that this much alcohol will
not bring 3 cups of water to a boil in any stove design. It will burn out
well before boiling. It seems like the fuel requirement for a 3 cup boiling
meal is more like around 4 tablespoons of alcohol. My testing is done at
near sea level. What's going to happen at 11,000 ft. when I'm up in the
Sierras next July?
Does anyone know anything about the look of the flame? I always thought a
nice blue flame was hotter and cleaner than an orange flame. The soda can
stove has a bluer flame while the Tuna Can stove has a more orange flame.
Strangely I have found that the nice blue flame carbons up the bottom of a
pot while the orange colored flame leaves no residue!
I am hopeful yet about using an alcohol stove next year and leaving my
Whisperlite Shakerjet behind so I can have a quiet peaceful meal. The answer
may lie in heating the water a bit, soaking the rice or noodles for a few
minutes, the finishing off the cooking. It's an easy task with the easy to
light alcohol stove that requires no priming. Anyone have any results to
relate about these stoves?

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