Specific Stove question Bud lite bottle and Isopropyl 99%

Best tip if you want to burn isopropyl alcohol:
Increase your life insurance policy.
Some of the combustion products are toxic.

Cheers

Thanks for the constructive advice. I know now not to dare to attempt such a foolish endeavor.

Isopropyl gives off toxic fumes when burned. But,so does denatured Ethanol and pure Methanol .The key is proper ventaltion.

Really,NO side jet stoves work worth a damn with Ispropyl alcohol.It produces soot which clogs the jets and soots the heck out of your pot. Iso is also tough to light in cold weather.

Go ahead and make the Bud botle stoves,just use the proper fuel- Yellow Bottle HEET or Denatured Alcohol in them.

I keep seeing vague but dire warnings posted about the dangers of using isopropanol in alcohol stoves. The MSDS for isopropanol lists carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and "unidentified organic compounds" as the combustion products (as well as water). Pretty much anything you burn will emit the same products. .No, they are not good for you, but neither are any of these things acutely toxic. Use some sense and some ventilation and you will be fine. It is not absorbed readily through the skin, and is not highly toxic if ingested.

Red HEET may well have other compounds in it that are not so benign, so you should be especially sure to provide good ventilation if you use it.

The better reasons not to use isopropanol are that it will not ignite below 53F, and that it leaves soot (the unidentified organic compounds) on your pot. Not ideal, but not a tragedy if you cannot obtain methanol or ethanol. Wood fires are far more toxic.

Thank you.
Let me restart this.
I know that isopropyl is not the best fuel. I usually use yellow heet in a Trangia and a fancy feast can.
Working in Canada this winter had me going cabin fever and wanted to get out. Forgetting my Heet back at the room as I pulled into a little village I started looking for some or denatured alcohol . No Luck. I did find some 90% isopropyl at the pharmacy.
Neither stove cared for it and yes it was a sooty mess.
So, the soot tells me incomplete combustion. I want to learn which type of stove may work best with isopropyl if I may want to cobble one together in the future.

The stove is for the available fuel. Not the fuel for the stove. Besides, I have a near full bottle to use up now.

With all the research done by guys like Sgt Rock, Zelph, Hiram, & Tinny, with a lot of others I would figure somebody had looked into this. With "it" supposedly carrying more btu than other fuels used in similar stoves, it seems possible.

Currently thinking on maybe a force fed air supply to help the combustion. Still in "drinking about it" stage though.

I'm trying to work my way through it but due to the hard work of emptying enough BudLite aluminum bottles for research and prototype purposes, I can't seem to concentrate well before results have been confirmed!

I’m sure BPL member Jon Fong from FLAT CAT GEAR could answer your questions, if he doesn’t see this thread you could try PMing him or contact him through his website

This is a link to a stove claimed to burn isopropyl :
http://www.flatcatgear.com/iso-clean-lynx-stoves-emergency-kitchens/

my flat cat link gives the same stoves

Rolex,

I have used just about every alcohol stove design made in shop testing. I've cooked at least one meal a day for the last 2 years plus on some form of Alky stove and burned up several Quarts of Isopro in tbe process. I have also reviewed a lot of research by others (including Jon Fong) into making Isopro work without soot.

The key to burning Isopropyl without soot production is first getting the pot height the currect distance from the burner- right at 1/2 inch.

The second is getting plenty of oxygen to the fuel without blowing out the flame.

This would be my recomendation for a good DIY Iso setup.

1) Use 70% Iso.

2) Burner -Supercat stove-32 hole, with a 1/2" tall cross bar pot support OR a pot stand that will get the pot exactly 1/2" above the burner.

3) A good windscreen that has at least 3/4" of gap around the pot and plenty of airholes around the bottom.

If you can't make that work,then buy an Iso Clean stove from Mr Fong..;)

Take note to what Roger said.

Burning Iso smells worse than Esbit IMHO when it's blown out, even worse.

First of all, alcohol is available in many common forms. I have tested and used in the field hand sanitizer which is 70% ethanol. It is easy to find and works pretty well (but a bit slower). Everclear will work but you may need to dilute the 190 proof stuff down a notch to reduce the soot.

Isopropyl alcohol stoves takes a lot of tinkering to work efficiently. Generically, keeping the stove to pot distance about 1/2" should work. I find that steel containers control the thermal runaway better than aluminum. Secondly, I think that you will find that the time to boil will be long.

Best regards,

Jon

> I would figure somebody had looked into this.
All you have to do is search on BPL. See for instance:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/alcohol_fuels_part_one.html

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/alcohol_fuels_part_two.html

Cheers

Link,
Yes your post came up as I was looking up the info (on Google) and posting…

Thank you Roger. A quote from that first link:

Isopropanol

Isopropanol, (isopropyl alcohol, C_3 H_7 OH, or IPA) is readily available in the US as 'Iso-HEET Premium water remover and fuel system anti-freeze' in a red bottle. Iso-HEET is not available in Australia, but IPA is available domestically in small quantities as a cleaner for plastics, etc. It is expensive in Australia, but possibly cheaper in America. The IPA used in these tests is 99.9% pure Ajax Finechem Laboratory Analytical Reagent Grade.

While IPA can be used as a stove fuel, it is a very smoky and dirty fuel and often makes an unpleasant acrid smell. In Tony's words: "IPA produced an acrid smelling black smoke that coated the base and sides of the pot with soot, which made it hard to handle without getting hands dirty. Actually, a list of by-products seen from IPA included a number of quite nasty chemicals you should definitely avoid.

Tony noted that after two lengthy sessions making measurements on IPA as a fuel, he had a bad headache, and he was unwell for most of the following day each time. What you choose to use as a fuel for your stove is your choice, but Backpacking Light does not recommend using IPA

If you have a well designed stove, you can burn isopropyl cleanly without creating soot. While burning, it has an odor that is probably stronger than the smell of burning Esbit. ALL stoves smell when they burn and of course, you should be using them in a well ventilated area. I am not a big fan of burning fuel under a tent vestibule but to each his own.

Best wishes on your DIY project.

Jon is ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.

If the stove setup is correct, there simply IS no soot with Iso propyl and the fumes in that case are no more toxic than many brands of denatured alcohol blends. And thats from a LOT of actual shop time on my part to verifify it. Burned correctly, Iso is cleaner than Esbit most of the time when used in the correct stove. Isopropyl's only real downfall is cold weather starts and fuel consumption/ boil times.

In terms of safety, nobody here (including the OP) is advocating using Isoprypl in just any alcohol stove design or burning it in an enclosed area. Burning Iso in a proper stove probably produces no more toxic gases than say a presurized gas stove burning petroleum based fuels.

Especially in a tent;)

This is the only correct stove setup that will burn ISO. Watch Hiram Cooks video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&v=OjgEqG74y5w&x-yt-ts=1421914688

Stoves other than wick type take forever to get up to ideal temperatures and are finicky to the max. A slight breeze will make them go out. Cold weather lighting is almost impossible. Suggestions are made to add water to ISO to get it to work properly. You'll become a slave to your stove unless it's a wick style stove.

And I also have to say "And thats from a LOT of actual shop time on my part to verifify it"