I was amazed at the performance of an alcohol stove compared to my white gas "jet engine" Optimus stove. I did several rather unscientific tests boiling 8 oz. of water in a titanium cook pot. Both stoves were allowed to reach maximum output before placing the pot on the burner.

The alcohol stove beat the white gas stove by 45 seconds. This particular stove was made by Dave Goodling. My attempt at making a stove was not as successful, taking over 4 minutes to boil a cup of water.

For those of you wanting a quality stove at a really good price Dave's URL is here.