[at-l] alcohol stoves -- quick corrections to some ongoing myths

[sloetoe@yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

ALCOHOL STOVES IN THE COLD~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) Alcohol stoves work fine in the cold (0*F) -- better, in
fact, than my gasoline stove.

2) ANY stove needs to be insulated from heat-sapping cold to
operate correctly. Don't expect satisfactory performance
otherwise.

3) Continuous use (large parties (4+) or sneaux melting) favors
gasoline stoves because of their fuel tanks. (A fully loaded
alcohol stove can boil water for 3 persons just fine.)

4) I have never had to melt sneaux on the AT yet -- but have
easily budgeted use of moving water sources and holes kicked in
ice.

ALCOHOL STOVES' DURABILITY~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5) Alcohol stoves have been used for repeat throughhikes.

6) Alcohol stoves have been crushed and reused.

7) Anywho, Alcohol stoves weigh an ounce: take two.

ALCOHOL STOVES' DESIGN vis PERFORMANCE
7) All alcohol stove designs are not alike. In particular, the
Scott Henderson/TinCanStoveMan design is easy lighting, hot
burning, but short heating. The Don "Photon" Johnston design is
*slighty* tricky to light (without preheater/base), *slightly*
slower to reach thermonuclear glow, but longer lasting burn, for
same fuel at start. (And even using a less-than-100% Photon
configuration, I've occasionally had to pick my pot off the
stove early, cause it was heating faster than I could stir/add
ingrediants.) 

8)Construction details matter, as do [as Chainsaw noted] field
use details.

Sorbontoe

=====
Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.

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