DIY alcohol stoves

We are going to do some experimenting next week with making our own alcohol stoves.

Alcohol stoves are great because they will burn a variety of fuels that are readily available at several different type of stores. Everclear works well but denatured alchohol, rubbing alchohol and the stuff called dry gas for cars can be used. Grain alchohol is something that could be made and is also supposedly not that difficult, but i would assume flammable and also illegal

They are also supposedly easy to make and could be replaced with commonly found trash items in a survival type situation.

I used to have a lightweight Trangia backpacking stove and i loved it, it was super lightweight and the whole thing including the pots fit together and weighed around 1.5 lbs.

But they are pricey and not really much different than the better stoves made with various soda, cat food, tuna and Heineken cans.

So has anyone actually made one of these things, do they really work well and are they as simple as they seem?
Any tips?

Google tuna can stove, homemade backpacking stoves etc.. I have made a couple and they work great, I can bring 8 oz. of water to boil in 3-5 minutes, another cool thing is you can cook indoors with ventilation and theres not a ton of smoke actually theres none. I have 6-7 bottles of rubbing alcohol in my supplies. Very cheap source of fuel.

I have googled...thats part of the problem
there are so many different versions

There is one that uses a Penny that looks interesting

And the ones that use Heineken cans for the base seem like they would be sturdier

I guess we will just have to make a few and see what works best

In my opinion the easiest is the tuna can one, I bought a larger can of chicken breast and the smaller can of tuna. The smaller jet style ones that use a coke can are more tricky to fine tune, the tuna can one just spits out a big ole flame.

Hi Gluetrap, I have made a few alcohol stoves and the best so far is one made from an aerosol can, the metal is far thicker than coke cans and is bullit proof. (well almost).

This one is inside a wood burner that i have made. Best of luck and be careful when using these as they can be overfilled or be knocked over with startling results.

That is a very nice setup!
I that a braided bit of hemp or something similar around the base of your burner? or is it some sort of liquid weld..i cant tell from the picture.
I also found a stove made an altoids tin which burned with perlite soaked in alcohol, looked interesting and the built in lid on the tin would keep the perlite in place when not using it.

I was concerned as well with the flimsiness of soda cans, it seems like your burner could be easily crushed by not that much weight.
I think I will try the one that uses a penny as a sort of stopper and the top of the can as a primer pan with the main part of the unit made out of a heinekin can.
I used my previous alcohol stove a lot, 1 pint of held enough fuel to cook breakfast and dinner for 4 girls on a 8 day thru hike in college.
Thats a lot of boiling water for not a lot of weight or fuel storage

At least spilled alcohol evaporates quickly and wont make you smell like a gas station for weeks. Caution should always be used around flames or cooking devices..indoors or out!!

A simple stove using an empty can filled with alchohol will work, but its not efficient and wont burn as hotly as one made with an actual burner type set up with the smaller holes and that provides some pressure

[edit on 27-1-2008 by gluetrap]

reply to post by gluetrap

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The cloth thing'y that you can see is a one inch wide strip for sealing boilers and the like. If i soak it in meths then it preheats the stove and it is at full burn in about 30 seconds.

Jon

It would work as a nice backup, but until your main unit breaks or whatever, why not use the real deal like Coleman?

For an emergency, I keep cans of styro. They are there and there is nothing to worry about.

Do you people live in big cities where you can't burn wood? I would think a wood stove would be a very good backup to have. Not only can you cook food, heat water but it also will keep your house warm if needed.

Well its an option for people who live in the woods and or small towns.

Coleman stoves are heavy and large and require you to have those metal canisters of propane.

We have a gas stove so even if the power goes out we can generally cook.

Cooking over fire is always a possibility or even having a woodburning stove..which we dont have room for.

These little stoves are compact, easy to make from readily available materials and will burn just about any form of high proof type ethanol or even methanol.

We do lots of back country camping and backpacking as well thinking about bigger survival issues so these fill both needs.

They also will boil water faster and with less fuel than a coleman.

i also have made a few different types of alcohol stoves. from soda cans to pearlite tuna cans. my favorite is the soda can they are much stronger than they look due to the baffling in them. they are also space friendly you can use an empty nasal sprayer to hold enough fuel for about three or four burns. the problem i have with them is their short burn times. but they are excellent for a small size kit.