Alcohol Stoves: What do you use?

[Brian Johns]

I'm curious. I generally use a caldera cone. but for short trips, the alky technology is so fun, it's nice to bring along other stoves, even if they take a minute or two longer to get a boil going.

So I'm wondering, in addition to or instead of a Caldera Cone setup, what do you use? What is the best alcohol stove design, penny stove, cat can, sideburner, carbon felt?

To get the ball rolling, I'll have to admit that I really like using Zelph's StarLyte and Super Venom stoves. They both hold their own with my cone setups under the right conditions.

[Steven McAllister]

Out of about 10 stoves I've used, the Zelph Super Stove has been the most efficient, most reliable and safest.

I had a Super Stove get knocked over in a freak accident that could have been a disaster, but it didn't spill a drop and was able to keep on cooking.

[Kenneth Jacobs]

I use either my Ti Appalachian Combo Clikstand w/ Trangia burner or my own wickitized double-wall pop can stove (I've dubbed the FeatherLite QS…blooms in 12-14 seconds) in combo with a Vargo Al folding windscreen.

[Richard Cullip]

I use Zelph's Fancee Feest stove with a custom (homemade) Ti cone sized to fit inside my Evernew Ti Ultralight 900ml wide pot. So far I'm very pleased with the efficiency of the setup. I only cook in the evening and all I need the stove to do is bring a cup to cup and a half of water to a boil. It does it's job with ~ 1/2 fl oz of alcohol. This stove does the job for me.

[Rob Daly]

I use a homemade Pepsi can stove with a homemade pot stand/windscreen. Both pieces together weigh an ounce. :)

[Steve Meier]

Hey Richard, do you happen to have any pictures of your setup?

[Remington Roth]

It's a little less known, but it's performed admirably for me.

[M B]

currently use a modified tealight with a windscreen. 0.65 oz. With my zelphs flat bottom 2 cup pot, the stove, windscreen, and pot w/lid weigh 1.75 oz.

Pot is supported by 2 ti stakes stuck thru the windscreen.

boils 2 cups on 15 ml (0.4 oz wt) alcohol, 7.5 min reliably.

[Richard Cullip]

Steve

here you go, I hope

everything neatly tucked away inside the pot, including a 4 fl oz plastic bottle for fuel. The cone wraps around fuel bottle and tucks into the stove

pot and cone with stove inside, ready for action

pot sitting on Fancee Feest stove, cone removed to show stove

Hope this helps.

(edited for spelling and grammer)

[James Marco]

There are many I have tried and many I continue to use.

White Box stoves, Brasslite stoves, Trail Designs stoves (Caldera Cone,) Tin Mans side burner, Trangia stoves, and several homemade stoves (penny stoves, cat can stoves, chimney stoves, wick stoves, etc.)

Mostly, I use the 12/10 from trail designs when solo or the side burner with wind screen from Tin Man for two. Both are quite lite, but I don't thing either is 1oz, the 1.8L pot weighs about 5.25oz alone, and, the solo 1L pot weighs about 3oz.

[Brian Johns]

Great home made cone. Lots of replies. It's amazing the variety of alcohol stoves. If the question had been cannister stoves, it would have gone Jet Boil, Jet Boil, Jet Boil, Pocket Rocket, Jet Boil, or something similar. I think I'm going to order another stove now, maybe that mini bull designs blue mini. Looks interesting. This is part of the fun of alcohol systems, fool proof designs and so much variety.

[Angus A.]

This has been my go-to system for the past few trips. A DIY cone and a starlyte knockoff stove

[Aubrey Biscoe]

Absolutely love my whitebox

[David Maxwell]

It sure isn't the lightest, but I use zelphs Super Stove. I owned a starlite for awhile till my son lost it. … I also don't take a wind screen. I use rocks to put around and block the wind. On my weekend hikes I'm not worried about having to use a little more fuel if I need a rolling boil. Which I don't think I ever had to do. I usually just need my water hot. And if its really windy out I have used my ccf pad for a wind block.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

I use zelph's starlyte. With the wicking material, it lights easy in the deep cold and when I combine it with a cone and ditch the pot support, I can keep my fuel stored inside via a lid. Simple, awesome.

[Kimberly Wersal]

White Box. Simple. Bulletproof.

[Rakesh Malik]

I'm partial to Zelph's Green Machine, which is a bit like a light version of a Trangia spirit burner with a carbon felt wick inside. I'm also partial to the Backcountry Boiler though I haven't tried that with the Green Machine. The Green Machine works quite nicely inside a Vargo Hexagon, and Zelph says it ought to work pretty well with a BCB, I just haven't had a chance to try that combo out.

[Zorg Zumo]

I use a Whitebox in good weather and a Trangia setup in bad. I much prefer the Trangia though as it will simmer, is self-storing and it doesn't need any babysitting. Here is my Trangia setup http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHYLXp562-Y

[Corbin McFarlane]

Potted meat product: $0.35 (better off finding a cat and buying cat food).
Hole punch: $0.97 x2 (first broke halfway through).

I went super cat and never looked back.

[Terry G]

Richard, you made that cone at home? That is incredibly professional looking. Can you give us some details on how you did this and what material you used?

[Angus A.]

Here you go…

[Richard Cullip]

Terry

Credit should really go to Kevin Beeden as I used his Postscript program which creates a paper template. I just gave a few critical dimensions and then created a paper template. I tried out the template on some cheap Al Flashing and tweeked the design just a bit before making the final cone out of Ti Foil (from Ti Goat). I used some sharp kitchen shears to cut the Ti foil and a regular paper punch to punch the holes. My paper punch bit the dust just as I finished the last few holes. I guess it wasn't designed to punch a lot of holes in Ti foil.

[John Donewar]

Brian,

Here it is in a test burn.

I've made two versions, full size and mini.

I use the mini at present with the 1 cup generic cook pot from Zelph's with a bail added to negate the need for a pot lifter.

My windscreen at present is the "tooling foil" type of soft aluminum.

What follows is the link on how I got to this point. Included in the thread are materials used, detailed pictures, weights and boil times.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=66158

BTW I also currently have a Whitebox Solo, pop can stoves, different versions of cat can stoves, Esbit style solid fuel stoves, Ikea wood stove, Iso-Clean 2.0 and one of Huzefa's remote canister stoves in addition to what you see pictured here.

Be careful where you tread young man. Once you become a "Stovie" you're hooked! There is no cure because there is always another stove, ALWAYS! ;-) L O L

Party On,

Newton

[Bob Gross]

I managed to make an alcohol burner that weighs in at a hefty 1.9 grams. Then it has a separate pot support that is an additional 1.9 grams.

–B.G.–

[Terry Trimble]

I use my good old Trangia stove with my Snow Peak 600ml cup and lid. For the wind screen I use a 4" diameter by 3 3/4" tall clothes dryer duct pipe. With 3 vents cut at the bottom and 1 1/2" from the top holes for two titanium tent stakes to skewer through the vent pipe for the cup support.

I burn Heet in the stove I get a 7 minute boil at sea level and 12 minute boil at above 10,000 feet above sea level.

The snow peak cup nestles in side the dry vent pipe for storage. The Trangia stove is not light weight but it proven for decades in the field and is not as fragile as aluminum can stove.
Terry

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