IMO, for your situation (if your budget allows), Everclear 191proof alcohol is the best you're gonna get. Burns hot, food grade, and has multiple uses (first aid, antibacterial, etc.) Second best would be Sterno. Or, buy some bottles of gelled alcohol, what they use for the burners in hot buffet catering. Pour it into a cat food can or similar and you got a homemade sterno can.

Don't forget the "HOBO" stove, "Cut 1" strips of cardboard, roll tightly and place inside a catfood can or tuna can (your choice)
melt some parafin (sp)wax and pour over the cardboard, burns slow
like sterno but, it does work. I also use butane stoves I take it with me when the family and I do mountain duty for our SAR team, (we go one weekend a month during the summer).


Mike

You might try this..
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/cb/cb.asp?a=288270
I have one and they work well

The Swedish army mess kit is another good stove. It uses alcohol which is cheap and stores safely. I have one of these in my truck. I have made coffee (of course) eggs,pancakes, rice and noodles.

Looks like a tommy cooker on steroids...

When we were all debating the safety of Coleman fuel on another post, the alcohol stoves came up frequently. I'm going to look into those, we used to burn denatured alcohol in a coffee can full of sand to keep warm in the back of a truck. Safe for enclosed spaces or not? We had no ill effects but the Super Cat site states all alcohol stoves emit CO2.

I use a Coleman multifuel stove, worst case, you could drain some unleaded fuel out of your auto.

But I also have a portable propane 2 burner and the motor home 2 burner.

In So Cal, and AZ, where I have lived, temps got >100 and I never had an issue with the propane storage or the Coleman fuel. Or gasoline for that matter.

Maybe I just jinxed myself.


Edit- we didn't talk about the alcohol stoves on the Coleman fuel post- my posts runneth amuck.

I'd still suggest propane. Coleman fuel eventually goes bad. I've had containers of fuel that went bad in a year and wouldn't burn in the stove. Your mileage will vary.

As others have said, the fuel is gasoline, and storing gasoline is a problem. Propane in containers is at least as safe as gasoline, maybe safer, but whatever your volatile fuel, is should not be stored in the house and should be stored where the fumes can waft away.

I'd suggest asking your wife to do some research on safe storage of fuels and make a decision on what she wants - compare safety and long-term storage. I'd be she'll choose propane. I used to live in the country and we had (at different times) propane and butane as our fuel for home heating and cooking. Butane was stored in an underground tank, and propane above ground. Millions of people get their home heat and cooking from gas stored on their own property, as we did.

Here in the UK Coleman fuel/white gas is not so readily available as in the USA, I therefore dont use it.

Summer emergency cooking is a microwave oven worked from my PV system, or a small hotplate.

In winter I would use either a kerosene camp stove, which can be used indoors with care, or a charcoal grill, outside only of course.
At my mothers home I keep a second kerosene camp stove, and also a liard fire box, which is a substitute for a campfire, burns wood or charcoal, and uses only a little fuel.

In addition to battery lighting, I have numerous kersone lamps, and therefore useing the same fuel for cooking is desirable.

I was down at the local Adventure 16 (a mountaineering/hiking chain local to Southern California) last night. I talked to one of the staff who I have spoken to before; she's very knowledgable. She indicated that Coleman fuel is good for up to a year, but that it declines in heat output and produces more soot thereafter. She explained that the evaporation-condensation cycle within the gas can causes the white gas to start getting thicker. She said that decanting the white gas into smaller containers with a much smaller air space would preserve the white gas longer.

Interestingly, she said that MSR white gas should NOT be used in Coleman stoves or lanterns. Apparently, Coleman adds a rust inhibitor to it's fuel but MSR does not. According to her, Coleman stoves and lanterns will rust without the rust inhibitor.

This sounds right, but I haven't verified it. Any feedback on her advice?

Long ago my dad used to get white gas from a distributor, I doubt very seriously that any rust inhibitor was in that stuff. I (well, actually my ex now) still have the Coleman lantern that we used it in. One day I fired it up for the first time in probably twenty years, using the fuel that was still in it, and the mantel which was still intact. Worked like a champ...