alcohol stoves

trangia style meths stoves used to be common, especially with school groups. like make your own versions, they're cheap, light, silent and perceived to be safe. real world testing generally questions how fuel weight efficient they are. most accidents are around filling when hot and tipping over.

Mmm. They do require more care than cylinder stoves, that I do recognise. And in terms of fuel efficiency my understanding is they require greater weight of fuel to produce same heat as a gas stove for example, but the stove itself is lighter, and you can take only as much fuel as you need, rather than a heavy steel container of gas. Might have to pinch my mates trangia for a few trips. Or make Me a small alcohol burner. I think now with gas stoves everywhere, they are no longer percieved as being that safe.

like most tools - alcohol burners are good if used within their limitations. Another thing to think about with home built units - how to 'turn' off when the water is hot and you've still got fuel in the burner?

Id probably make a small cap to fit over/on it and cut off the oxygen, much like that which you would get with a trangia. I might have to be a bit more patient with an alcohol burner than my current stove but it could be interesting, and its not like they are costly to build or run. A bit of experimentation is always fun.

Have used a trangia for caving. Stove, meths and pot stand all fitted inside a stainless steel mug so a small robust complete cooking/drinking/eating system. Mostly used just for boiling water for drinks or "just add boiling water" food, think they would be a bit limited for anything that required more than a few minutes cooking. For a pot stand we used a modified cut down cat food can with chunks cut out the sides to allow air through to the burner.

@Size12, I went a bit of a MYOG binge with alcohol stoves about 5 years back and wrote up my experiences on a thread here: http://tramper.nz/?view=topic&id=312#message1474 Another stove I'm looking to make is the capillary hoop stove. There are commercially made systems available that may be better/offer improvements over the MYOG stoves such as Trangia or Caldera Cone, but I haven't used them. Since I wrote those posts I've gained some more experience using the homemade alcohol stoves. I use a supercat stove when it's me solo or me and one of the kids, three-season, and the trip isn't too hard, usually hut-based or camping in reasonable weather. Some points: - The stoves work well provided you work within their limitations (the same applies for any piece of gear) - the stoves cook slower than gas/liquid fuel stoves - The stoves work best for billies sized 700-1200ml i.e. for 1 or 2 people at most - The stoves are very wind sensitive, a windshield is essential. A windshield can simply be made from Al foil from a oven tray - find level ground for the stove as a full billy sitting on top of the supercat stove can be a bit unstable - the supercat stove takes a long time to "prime" i.e. takes 30-40s to get hot enough to use. I use a little square of Al foil under the stove and add a small amount of meths on the foil and light that along with the stove. The stove heats up much quicker. - Meals are generally limited to food to which boiled water can be added, ideal for hot drinks and dehydrated/freeze dry meals - Most starches/dried veges used tramping such as noodles/rice/pasta/couscous can be cooked using a boil and soak method. Using a supercat stove 30ml of meths will bring to the boil 500ml of water and maintain the boil for about 2.5min. Add your dry starch (I use about 125g for me alone) to the nearly boiling water and allow to boil until the stove burns out. Add the flavourings/spices/sauces and protein, then wrap the hot billy in a sleeping bag/fleece/down jacket until cooked. Sometimes you may need to reboil the billy a second time for some long-cooking starches. - I've have had a couple of trips where after a long hard tiring day the stove seemed just too fiddly to use and I wanted to eat hot food straight away. I take a gas stove on those type of trips now - typical fuel use for me on a solo trip (1-3 350ml hot drinks, dinner) is about 50-100ml per day. - Ethanol, the main component of meths has about 2/3rds the energy density of propane/butane and the stoves themselves are less efficient than gas stoves, but the total weight carried for a supercat stove and fuel for 2-4 days appears to be less than a gas cannister and gas stove.

http://zenstoves.net/ This will tell you everything you ever wanted to know plus a few other things on alcohol stoves. Triangias are very good for one maybe 2 people but beyond that they struggle. They are fast for small quantities and the simmer ring allows basic cooking. Not cheap to buy though. The home mades are very cheap. I could make a stove for $3 if I threw the contents of 2 beer cans out and used the cans. with these they run at full or you can turn them down to full so dont expect fine dining. Also once lit they run till out of fuel so accurate measuring on fuel is critical. A couple we met at triangle hut were using one of these and had it down to a fine are using a squeezy jam tube to measure there fuel. Also a big beware related to this. Meths is only a little less volitile than whiter spirit and only a little easier to light but in some conditions it can burn with a transparent flame. Be absolutly certain the stove is out before refueling.

Im paranoid about meths haha, I think Id carry a cap to snuff it out with and ensure it was out before refuelliNg. Thanks for the advice. Seems like it could be interesting to play with for shorter trips, certainly an interesting alternative to my remote canister stove. Might have to overcome my impatience a little when waiting for things to boil. The joy of my stove is if I let it open up, things boil pretty fast. Its not to easy on the gas tho. And I only cook for myself, so a maximum easily boilable volume of around 1l is perfect, as thats how big my biggest pot is. Cheers guys

"Im paranoid about meths haha, I think Id carry a cap to snuff it out with and ensure it was out before refuelliNg. " Thats exactly where the transparant flame gets you. I would be making sure the stove is cold enough to hold before taking it as out. I have heard Scouts in Britain have banned triangia style stoves because of the transparent flame causing some quite severe injuries. Basic rules and they are safe though.