Take a Hike!
Alcohol Fuel Test
Take a Hike!
Alcohol Fuel Test
I have been playing with fuel sources for my Trangia Alcohol stove, and it's been an eye opener. Since Coleman Fuel is typically sold by the ounce, or at worst by the pint, all along the Appalachian Trail, I am at a slight disadvantage when it comes to my Trangia stove. The likely fuel sources are 100 Proof Ethanol (Moonshine), Methelated Spirits (wood alcohol), Denatured Alcohol (Ethanol with Methyl Alcohol added to make it poisonous), and Isopropyl Alcohol.
Interesting sources of these fuels exist along the trail. Moonshine is probably available in the southern mountains, however I don't plan to go hunting for a still... North of the Mason-Dixon line (the PA/MD border), Isopropyl and Methyl alcohol are both available in gas line dryer additives from the local gas station. Be careful though - some of these products are petroleum based and you don't want to fire those off in your stove.
In any hardware store along the way, Denature Alcohol is available as shellac thinner. Be careful to buy a product without additives. Many add acetone, and this burns with a noxious odor. It's probably not too good to inhale this either.
The following brand name fuels were tested in a fairly unscientific manner, bringing two cups of very cold tap water to a boil, in my kitchen, after a few glasses of wine. The boil test was a roiling boil, usually noticed when the steam pushed the lid of the pot aside and vented. In all cases, the boil time was probably faster than recorded. It's all relative anyway.
| Fuel | Time to Boil | Soot Deposited | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denatured Alcohol (Walmart brand shellac thinner) | 8:05 | none | Second pot boiled in 5:05 |
| Drygas (Isopropyl gas line additive) | 8:30 | lots | Dirty flame, licked the sides of the pot |
| Ice-o-dry (Isopropyl gas line additive) | 7:09 | more than lots | Some kind of additive here I think, very dirty flame |
| Iso-Heat (Isopropyl gas line additive) | 8:10 | lots | Dirty flame, similar to Drygas |
| Heet (Methyl gas line additive) | 8:00 | none | Very clean |
| Tech2000 (Methanol gas line additive) | 7:45 | none | Seemed hotter than others |
| UniGard (Methyl gas line additive) | 8:30 | none | Got off to a slow start |
Observations: The Isopropyl products produced a very large amount of soot, and their flames were generally out of control. They licked up the side of the pot, blackening it and teasing the rubber coating on the handles. I definitely would not use these as my first choice.
The second pot of water boiled in about 2/3 of the time of the first pot, whenever we did a two pot boil test. It seems that the alcohol stove really gets going once the stove itself heats up and the fuel boils - causing the fuel to come out the jets as a high speed gas. The way this little stove works still amazes me. I can wait 8 minutes to boil water, when my stove has no moving parts to break down along the trail.