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

[eisenbud@cs.swarthmore.edu (Daniel Eisenbud)]

I'm not sure about this.  Certainly if you use inferior fuel (half
denatured alcohol and half 70% isopropyl alcohol, say, as I did on my
recent trip when there was no denatured at my resupply point and I only
had half a bottle of good fuel left) it gets noticeably hard to light
when it's cold or windy.  I never had any problem lighting pure
denatured on my thru-hike, but it was never below freezing after I
switched to my alcohol stove.  I was carrying both an alcohol stove as
an experiment and my whisperlite at Roan High Knob, and it was very very
cold there, but I really needed to cook fast and get in my sleeping bag
to stay warm, so I just used the Whisperlite.  I didn't switch to the
soda can stove, which I used for the rest of my thru-hike and which is
still going strong, until Damascus.

-Heavy

On Sat, Jun 01, 2002 at 07:18:17PM -0400, Clark Wright <icw39@ncfreedom.net> wrote:
> 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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-- 
Daniel E. Eisenbud
eisenbud@cs.swarthmore.edu

"We should go forth on the shortest walk perchance, in the spirit of
undying adventure, never to return,--prepared to send back our embalmed
hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms."
					--Henry David Thoreau, "Walking"