material for alky stove windscreen

[Ben C]

I have a cat stove with heiney pot. I made a windscreen with oven liner but it burned thru after 3 Burns. Any suggestions on what I should use?

[Jim Colten]

Titanium foil

Aluminum flashing

or maybe try tinkering with the spacing between the pot and screen … I've yet to burn out an oven liner windscreen and some folks use aluminum foil (one of Skurka's gear lists mentioned getting 10 days use from AL foil screens)

[David Thomas]

I concur that heavy-duty aluminum foil should last many days and is really cheap and light. Maybe your windscreen is too tight and is in the flame itself.

A little stiff and sturdier: I don't know how high you need it, but several beer or soda cans could be seamed together for various diameters up to 4" high. Very, very cheap from the recycle bin.

Next sturdier: go to the hardware story and get aluminum, single-wall, rigid ductwork for clothes dryer vents. Available in 3" and 4" diameter, so you can easily make 3,4,6,7,8,9,10,11" diameters by combining them. Let's say you want 5" tall and 10" diameter. Get a 3" x 24" and a 4" x 24". Cut two 5" lengths of 3", cut one 5" length of 4". Clip them all together (they come with male and female seam joints on each edge). With a little practice, you can snap them apart for packing and snap them back together for use. That a few bicycle spokes or wire coat hanger sections and it could also be your pot stand.

[Ben C]

Thanks for the input. I have used cans with decent success but am trying to keep my efficiency high with a fairly low clearance between screen and pot. I may have been overly ambitious on this. How much space do you think I need? Any thouhts?

[Bob Gross]

"How much space do you think I need?"

It varies with the stove and the pot and the windscreen, but you want enough space to slip your fingers between the pot and the windscreen. That's probably at least a half inch.

–B.G.–

[Adrian MITCHELL]

I fold it so it is double or quadruple thickness, lasts for months!

[Ben C]

The screen is burning near where the flame spills up around the bottom of the pot. I think maybe if I cut a conical section of the aluminum sheet(a la caldera cone), I might put enough distance between screen and heat to avoid the melting. Alternatively, I will try the flashing or titanium. Thanks for the ideas.

[Keith Bassett]

I have had excellent luck with the flashing.

It will get burnt if you over fuel your alky stove, as I have done a couple times. BUT it is way tougher than foil for not much weight penalty.

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