Everclear not burning clean

EverClear 190 or 151?  It’s limited to different proofs in different states.

190 Proof. I’m in Colorado.

I don’t think it burns as well as denatured alcohol, so I rarely use it anymore, other than for a backcountry cocktail. I have heard some claim that adding a few drops of water to your stove will help.

Ben C: “I don’t think it burns as well as denatured alcohol.”

After reading some of the old BPL articles and posts, I think I’ll avoid denatured alcohol for the same health and safety concerns as Heet.

I switched to Everclear 190 for the same reasons.  I think I’ve only used my Starlyte stove since I made the switch so I don’t have a comparison point to “pre-Everclear”.  Do you have another alky stove that you can try with the Everclear at home?  I wonder if it was the jets.

Kevin, no this is my only alky stove. I wondered if the jets got clogged, but I couldn’t figure out why now. It worked fine with Heet and the problem started when I switched fuels. So, your stove does fine with Everclear 190?

“It was stored in a tightly-capped nalgene bottle for 2 years.”

Could the alcohol be interacting with the plastic of the nalgene and thus degrading?

Likely something to do with the higher boiling point of the Everclear compared to the HEET

Could the alcohol be interacting with the plastic of the nalgene
Chemically extremely unlikely.

But what American companies are permitted to put into alcohol is rather distressing: there are no limits that i know of.

Cheers

@rcaffin

I’d bet on your answer.

“But what American companies are permitted to put into alcohol is rather distressing: there are no limits that i know of”

All denatured alcohol means in the States, is that it is denatured. Content depends on brand, and is a blend of a wide variety of alcohols, including methanol (Heet).

This from the Jasco Denatured Alcohol SAFETY DATA SHEET, marketed as a “clean” burning fuel with 95% renewable sources.

Ethyl alcohol = 42.5 -46.5 %
Methanol =  52.5 -55.0 %

I have also seen acids and ammonia and other chemicals listed. To be sure, you would not want to drink the stuff (which is what ATF is trying to prevent), but some of the by-products when you burn the stuff can be very toxic.

The methyl and ethyl alcohols in the Jasco stuff are OK, but what else is there? Does the MSDS say?

Cheers

But the problem is with the Everclear, not a no name brand of denatured alcohol. Propanol (isopropyl alcohol) causes similar problems when burned in stoves that run fine on ethanol. If your stove is optimized to run on methanol based fuel switching to an alcohol with an additional carbon atom in the chain is likely to cause a similar problem

Chris R,

You got me interested in the question of recommended fuel for this stove. I found this on the ThermoJet website: “The ThermoJet MicroLite can use a variety of alcohol fuels: denatured alcohol, methanol based gas line antifreeze, grain alcohol, 91% isopropyl (rubbing alcohol), and even 151 proof rum.”  So, Everclear/grain alcohol should work. But as others suggested earlier, maybe 150 Everclear would work better (like 151 rum) than 190 Everclear.

I do have some denatured alcohol with my painting supplies. While I won’t use it as fuel on a trip, I will do a test with it. Maybe I can isolate whether it is the fuel or the stove that is causing the problem. I’ll report my results as soon as I can get to it.

Thanks all.

Another issue may be temperature. If the stove is set on a cold surface it can affect performance. I think this is more of a problem with stoves that don’t have some form of felt or other wicking material but enough that I’ve seen suggestions to use something to insulate the base of the stove from the ground.

Chris R, I doubt temperature was the problem. I’ve used this stove (with Heet) in a wider range of temps. I’ve never used more than a few layers of tin foil. On this last trip, I used the stove in temps from mid-30s to mid-60s and observed the same result throughout.

I wrote ThermoJet with this question. I’ll let you know if they respond and when I get a chance to test another fuel.

Old problem, old solution.  High percentages of ethanol can cause soot.  Evernew 151 burns fine, 190 can create soot.  The solution? Water down your 190 proof.  Reduce it to about 175 proof and it should be fine.  You may need to tweak the ratio for your stove.  My 2 cents.

I’m still reading all the great replies so I apologise if this info was already covered but I like this explaination of alcohol combustion.

Regarding purity i learned from this…

Actually, this was a common problem years ago. Contact Hikin’ Jim. I believe he had a solution. U used a standard penny stove with no problems back when…

eh, not quite.  Combustion is dependent on the stove design as well as the pot/mug/stove interface.  In the last 2 cases (ethanol / isopropyl), demonstrate that the fuels are running to rich for an incomplete combustion.  A properly designed cooking system will not generate soot.  My 2 cents.

Did you try adding a little water?

OK! I got an answer. Adding a little water to my 190 Everclear works fine as does denatured alcohol. It’s just using straight 190 Everclear that is the problem.

@jonfong. “A properly designed cooking system will not generate soot.” I would say the problem is not with the stove design per se. Or maybe the “cooking system” includes the right fuel as well as stove and stove-pot interface. I was not using the fuel the stove was designed for. With the right fuel, it works properly.

I’m back to being happy with my alky stove now. Thanks all.

Keep in mind that not all denatured alcohol is the same.  I purchase some Crown DA that had 85% ethanol and the balance being basically methanol.  They have since changed the MSDS.  Klean Strip on the other hand has ethanol that can vary between 30% to 60%.

My understanding is that in the UK, they are not allowed to add methanol to Denature Alcohol.   When in doubt, try to look up the MSDS.  My 2 cents.

I used get my denatured alcohol from Humco. Now links to another company. No methanol, but you will pay a price.

https://shop.fagron.us/en-us/product/item_000085/alcohol-denatured-190-proof.aspx