Ethanol Chaffing fuel and Sterno (same thing) are notoriously difficult and time consuming to get to water to a rolling boil and for cooking, but the fuel is relatively cheap to purchase and is reasonably safe to store and use for home use inside.

So time for boiling time test of 500 ml (2 cups) of cold water using the following stove and kettle.

Stove - Wild Woodgas stove.
http://wildstoves.co.uk/wood-cooking-stoves/wood-gas-camping-stoves/wild-wood-gas-stove/

Kettle - Vango PowerEx Kettle
http://www.outdoormegastore.co.uk/vango-powerex-kettle.html

Fuel - Genheat 200gm Ethanol Chafing Fuel

Time to boil = 13 minutes for a full rolling boil. Not too bad considering typical time using a typical sterno stove is 20+ minutes

My preference is any of several varieties of alcohol and a Trangia stove. there are numerous alternative stoves available, some of which are cheaper, lighter, and faster. My Trangia will bring 500 ml of water to a boil in somewhere around 4 to 5 minutes.

Even faster are any of a growing number of cartridge stoves, typically burning some type of isobutane. Boil times are usually four minutes or less. The gas containers store safely with minimal precautions.

A little update on the fuel efficiency of the Genheat/Sterno fuel used with the Vango Kettle and Wild Wood gas stove. Boiling 500ml consumed just over 20 grams, which would allow a total of 4.5 Litres of water to boil for a single 200 gram can. So efficiency is pretty good especially where other commercial Sterno stoves may take 25-30 minutes and burn 45-50 grams of fuel for the same result.

Typically a can of the Genheat 200gm Ethanol Chafing Fuel will cost £0.75 in the UK, which will cost around half to one third the price of methylated spirits for the Trangia stove (I have also tried a Trangia and it works well but the Genheat seems to burn somewhat cleaner in the Wild Woodgas Stove). The Trangia is certainly quicker though. There is not really any weight penalty using the Genheat fuel over the Trangia burner along with the Wild Woodgas Stove.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prN0gspTIPA

Using the Genheat/sterno inside a home or residence will have the advantage of greater safety over liquid alcohol stoves.

With a gas cartridge stove once the fuel runs out, it becomes useless, this is where the Wild wood gas stove begins to shine, especially if you have some Sterno, Methylated Spirits, Hexamine, Firedragon, Fatwood or even Zip Fuel blocks lying around.

Is 12-13 minutes to much of an inconvenience to wait to boil half a litre of cold water?

Is 12-13 minutes to much of an inconvenience to wait to boil half a litre of cold water?


All too often, yes. If I need to go to a wood fire, which does happen occasionally, I have always been able to boil water over an open campfire - cost and weight essentially nothing. This does presume conditions which prevail in western North America. I could believe that the situation is different on your side of the Pond.

the tapered shape of the cup with the Swiss Ranger stove helps to transfer heat... but as AFLM commented, the heat content of the jellied alcohol doesn't match that of denatured methanol burning in a Trangia... I chose the Sterno, however, for its ease of transport when looking for an inexpensive water heater for my remain overnight bag... you can still use it with it's intended twig fuel source if necessary...the price for a pair of the new old surplus stoves was about $20



the Trangia can be lowered with a wire, the Sterno won't fit from the top

I'll bet if you use TWO cans of sterno the water would boil even quicker

since you're using a "wood gas" stove , wood pellets are even cheaper (10 times) ... and the stoves are easy to improvise

If safety and cost are concerns, one should consider Esbit fuel tabs. They are hot and safe - cost may vary from one place to another. In emergency situations, or even relatively moderate recreational use, fuel cost is a fairly trivial item in the overall scheme of things.

Incidentally, look around your house carefully - there are all sorts of things that will burn very capably. My favorite is alcohol based hand sanitizer - Purell is 62% ethanol. It burns much hotter than Sterno.

What I like about Esbit tabs is shelf life (infinite?) ease of use, compactness, and they can be used as a sole source of cooking fire or to start a fire if you have fuel wood. They're hard to beat for BOB use.

I really love ESBIT! But to be fair I use if as a firestarter more often than as a stove fuel.