Hey Climberslacker,

For a good comparison of alcohol stoves and a good review comparing them to other stoves I recommend you check out Colin Flectcher's "the complete walker book IV" from the library and read this alcohol stove review from Art Simon.

I switched to an alcohol stove after one bad experience where a bottle of white gas leaked down one side of my pack. The stench ruined a meal, stuck to my clothes and I hate the smell of gasoline to this day . I always had an irrational fear of the white gas stoves exploding on me anyway. Currently I use a clikstand setup with a Trangia burner as recommended by Art in his review above. And also apparently by Dweste.

As Ironraven mentioned there are limitations. The top 3 benefits that stand out to me are:

1. Quiet burning (no jet engine in the forest)
2. Safe operation (no worries about explosions)
3. Ease of use (just uncap and ignite)

One of the biggest benefits Trangia stoves offer is storage of fuel. Once you are done using the stove you just blow it out, let it cool and then cap it. The vargo titanium stove on the other hand is a bit unstable with larger pots and I always end up wasting fuel without the option to store fuel in the burner. You have to aliquot out your fuel each time which can be tricky. If you are going for a long trip of a week or more the others are right about the weight of the alcohol fuel, and I would recommend the white gas. I use the alcohol stove because most of my trips are about 3 days and I'm not usually in a hurry to get my water to boil 1 or 2 minutes faster.

Cheers,
L

P.s. Hey Ironraven, if you use enough cooking oil you can make a decent pancake on an alcohol stove . In fact with the extra oil you don't even miss the butter .