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

[icw39@ncfreedom.net (Clark Wright)]

As to item #1, I am just curious, having never used an alcohol stove -
in cold weather (say, 20 degrees F and a 10-15 mph breeze, how long does
it take a well-designed alcohol stove to boil a quart of water?

thru-thinker

Sloetoe wrote:
> 
> 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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