Reusing alcohol?

[Craig Burton]

I read something on here a while back about reusing alcohol that is not needed once you are done cooking.

I tried this out last trip, but I could not get the alcohol extinguished… the only method I tried was blowing. Are you supposed to pour water on it? I didn't try that because I was afraid it would dilute the alcohol.

The next trick is getting alcohol out of a can stove and back in to your alcohol container.

I'm pretty sure both of these solutions were posted where I read this; but I can not find the thread.

[Rog Tallbloke]

Try putting a metal cup or small pan over the stove to starve it of oxygen. It works but leaves a whiff of methanol inside your cookware – easily cleaned. Decanting it back into the bottle can be tricky, depends on the stove type. I use a small plastic syringe.

The best method is to only put as much fuel in the stove as you are going to use. Frustrating when the stove burns dry just before the boil though. :-)

[Lynn Tramper]

It depends on the stove. I use the packafeather stove fueling kit and snuffer cap:

http://www.packafeather.com/stove.html
http://www.packafeather.com/fuelbottle.html

This allows me to overfill the stove, creating better fuel efficiency. I am usually able to reteive all but ~ 1 gram of the remaining fuel. Snuffing with your pot wastes more fuel than a tight fitting snuffer cap, but not all stove designs are suited to snuffer caps.

[Craig Burton]

Thanks all. I have tried suffocating the oxygen, but it does not work with the stove that came with my Caldera Cone since it has extra side holes to allow more oxygen intake. These same holes make it difficult to pour my alcohol back in to my container efficiently. I have noticed that the container that came with the system also does not efficiently recover the alcohol the one time I managed to extinguish it — I feel I ended up losing as much out as I retrieved.

Allison, I have never heard of the Packafeather. That looks like a great setup! Do you find it to be as efficient and adjustable as claimed? I doubt I would ever use the adjusting knob; but that may just be the most ideal setup to use in conjunction with my CC. I will look in to it.

[Lynn Tramper]

Craig, the Packafeather works well with the Caldera Cone, and is a great little stove, except the pot stand makes the pot sit a little bit above the cone. This doesn't seem to affect the efficiency much, and you could always just snip the legs a little shorter to fit.. The snuffer cap that came with the Packafeather works perfectly on the CC stove, almost like it was designed for it, and the fuel retrieval nozzle also works perfectly with the CC stove. But it would be silly to carry the Packafeather if you didn't need the simmer function!

[Greg Mihalik]

Chris,
It just takes a little practice to snuff a Caldera stove.

I use a map, or book, or anything handy that is flat and firm, and simply, gently, plop it on the top. That usually does it. The 'incoming' object sort of blows out the flame.
If you are heavy handed you Will fold the stove.

Try it in the garage a couple of times.

The other trick is to make a snuffer out of sturdy aluminum foil. Shape it by forming it over the bottom of a soda can. Trim to height after forming. Open it up, just a little. It will then fit the Caldera cone perfectly. Pack it on the stove, drop it over when you're done cooking, wait a minute or two, remove it, then suck out the remaining fuel.

Using a Packafeather fuel bottle makes it is easy to recover fuel. And then you don't have to be concerned about measuring to fill, or keeping track of that silly little cup.

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