#230036 - 08/18/11 06:17 PM
Re: What's the Best Alcohol for Stove Fuel?
[Re: Roarmeister]
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Sheriff
Pooh-Bah
Registered: 10/12/07
Posts: 1804
Loc: Southern California
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Thanks for your entire post, but for this in particular: The thing I like with alcohol stoves is that you don't need to transport a white fuel or canister stove when travelling by air. If you don't carry a stove, you won't get hassled by the TSA or equivalent. Simply empty a couple cans of pop or beer, cut, fit, make jet holes and add alcohol to burn! And at the end of the trip, just recycle the stove. These days, that's a really practical consideration. Add to that the fact that alcohol can be pretty easily obtained even in towns without a "mountain shop" type store. HJ
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#230037 - 08/18/11 06:18 PM
Re: What's the Best Alcohol for Stove Fuel?
[Re: speedemon]
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Sheriff
Pooh-Bah
Registered: 10/12/07
Posts: 1804
Loc: Southern California
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Id have say that the dual use nature of Everclear seems to make it the clear winner in my mind. Of course you have to make sure you don't get carried away and drink the rest of your fuel. Now, who would go and do such a thing? ![wink wink](/images/graemlins/default/wink.gif) Everclear is at least a dual use item. Triple use if you use it as a wound cleaner although some people have said that one should not use Everclear for cleaning a wound. I'm not sure about this last application. HJ
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#230038 - 08/18/11 06:20 PM
Re: What's the Best Alcohol for Stove Fuel?
[Re: Susan]
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Sheriff
Pooh-Bah
Registered: 10/12/07
Posts: 1804
Loc: Southern California
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Thanks! I always wondered what the difference was between the yellow and the red Heet.
Sue The way I keep them straight is by comparing them to traffic signal lights: Red = Stop! (Do not use at all!) Yellow = Proceed with caution. (Don't spill it on your hands or breath the fumes, but it's a decent stove fuel.) HJ
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#230040 - 08/18/11 06:32 PM
Re: What's the Best Alcohol for Stove Fuel?
[Re: Hikin_Jim]
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Geezer
Registered: 01/21/04
Posts: 5163
Loc: W. WA
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...if you use it as a wound cleaner... It would probably be safe to use it as a disinfectant for swabbing the area where you intend to lance a boil, blister or abscess, and use an antibiotic afterward, not the alcohol. That high of an alcohol content might do damage to raw tissue. And it could be used to disinfect contaminated tools. If an 80% isopropyl alcohol soak will do it, 190-proof certainly should! Sue
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#230063 - 08/19/11 01:12 PM
Re: What's the Best Alcohol for Stove Fuel?
[Re: comms]
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Journeyman
Registered: 04/13/10
Posts: 98
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I haven't met anyone yet,that could actually tolerate drinking Everclear straight-up,though I watched a few drink crudely refined boot polish in the military,Yuck! I thought same thing. I couldn't carry enough OJ in my pack to drink Everclear as a beverage. Way to strong and who wants to wake up in the backcountry that hung? OMG that stuff will put you on the couch for a weekend. Water it down and add some sort of powdered drink mix. As for a hangover, don't drink that much. ![smile smile](/images/graemlins/default/smile.gif)
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#230076 - 08/19/11 04:31 PM
Re: What's the Best Alcohol for Stove Fuel?
[Re: Aussie]
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Sheriff
Pooh-Bah
Registered: 10/12/07
Posts: 1804
Loc: Southern California
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... a few folk swear by adding a small amount of water to thin it down a bit before using. They claim a “cleaner” and hotter burn. Generally adding a bit of water will result in a bit less soot; you'll generally get a bluer flame. But hotter? I doubt it. The water acts to cool (slow down) the combustion process, resulting in a cleaner but not hotter burn. I haven't experimented with the exact proportions. Generally the alcohol I'm using for fuel already has about 5% water in it, and that alcohol burns pretty cleanly. HJ
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#230121 - 08/20/11 02:55 AM
Re: What's the Best Alcohol for Stove Fuel?
[Re: Hikin_Jim]
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Addict
Registered: 06/04/03
Posts: 450
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Yellow Heet is the cleanest burning alcohol fuel I've found in my Trangia burners. It is also easy to pour the fuel into the burners from the Heet bottles. Considering it's easy availability from the auto parts store near my house, it's my fuel of choice, unless I just wanna hear the roar from one of my old Svea white gas stoves.
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#230135 - 08/20/11 02:31 PM
Re: What's the Best Alcohol for Stove Fuel?
[Re: sotto]
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Sheriff
Pooh-Bah
Registered: 10/12/07
Posts: 1804
Loc: Southern California
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Yellow Heet is the cleanest burning alcohol fuel I've found in my Trangia burners. It is also easy to pour the fuel into the burners from the Heet bottles. Considering it's easy availability from the auto parts store near my house, it's my fuel of choice, unless I just wanna hear the roar from one of my old Svea white gas stoves. Nothing wrong per se with methanol (yellow HEET) as a fuel. Works pretty well. Two possible considerations: For someone who is an ounce or gram counter, ethanol has about 25% more heat content by weight than methanol, so you can carry less ethanol for the same result. For someone who has to cook in his tent or a shelter due to weather considerations, methanol fumes are toxic whereas ethanol fumes are not. High ethanol content denatured alcohol (check the MSDS) will be far less toxic than methanol. HJ
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#230141 - 08/20/11 02:49 PM
Re: What's the Best Alcohol for Stove Fuel?
[Re: Hikin_Jim]
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Veteran
Registered: 07/23/08
Posts: 1502
Loc: Mesa, AZ
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wow. I NEVER use my alcohol stove in my tent. I set it up in vesty or under a covered area. If there's a chance of getting socked in, I'll bring my jetboil.
_________________________
Don't just survive. Thrive.
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