What is your favorite stove alcohol brand?

[Gary Dunckel]

I am almost out of alcohol for my stoves, and it’s time to buy another gallon (it’s much cheaper that way). I would like to poll the people to glean what is thought to be the best brand. I’m looking for best overall performance–best heat output, minimal residue on the pot, things like that.

I have checked the MSDS info for the commonly found brands of denatured alcohol (and a couple that aren’t actually denatured at all), and here’s what I came up with as far as their chemical compositions:

Crown denatured alcohol (sold at REI by the quart, and by the gallon at Lowe’s):

65-75% ethanol

20-30% methanol

< 10% Isopropanol (why is this in there, anyway?)

< 10% methyl isobutyl ketone (what IS this stuff?)

Sunnyside denatured alcohol

94.5% ethanol

3.6% methanol

1-4% methyl isobutyl ketone

Klean-Strip Green

90-92% ethanol

< 5% methanol

< 3% methyl isobutyl ketone

Klean-Strip regular (SLX?)

45-50% ethanol

45-50% methanol

1-4% methyl isobutyl ketone

Then we have two “non-denatured” alcohols, Everclear and yellow Heet.

Everclear

95% ethanol

5% water

Yellow Heet

100% methanol

[Gary Dunckel]

Well, that was too goofy–my post was somehow submitted even though I hadn’t hit the “submit” button. Also, I can’t edit that first post. It’s a mystery…

So, please post your opinions as to which of these alcohols you prefer to use, and why. There are other products out there, so feel free to add them to the list (please provide the % of the ingredients too). And no, Doug–you can’t list a single malt scotch as your favorite alcohol!

[Bob Moulder]

I’ve been using Klean Strip (which also says “Clean Burning Fuel” on the label) with no complaints for quite some time.

And it actually does burn cleanly. Virtually zero residue with any alcohol stove I’ve used it with… currently Zelph’s Fancee Feest (the perimeter wick stove) which can easily boil 3 cups of water with 30ml of fuel.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Gary,

I prefer Klean Strip (SLX) as it is pretty easy to find: it also use to be labelled as a marine fuel)    I have found that high percentages of Ethanol (like Sunnyside, >90%) tend to stink and generate soot.  I think that this will be the same for Everclear (190 proof).

One category that you left off is racing fuel (~100% methanol) as it can be pretty cheap.

Some people prefer to use the lowest % methanol they can find due to health concerns.

My 2 cents.

[Gary Dunckel]

Bob, is that version of Klean-Strip the same as what they sold as “SLX?” Or do you know, Jon? I know that Klean-Strip also makes/sells their “Green” version, which has a much greater percentage of ethanol in it. The claim that it is biodegradable, but so are all the others. After all, they all have the same three chemicals in them, just different percentages.

What I am about to run out of is my last gallon, which was Klean-Strip SLX. I bought it at Home Depot a few years ago, but they don’t carry in now. I rather liked the way it performed. I know what you mean about very high ethanol content, Jon. I knew there was some reason why I didn’t buy any more Sunnyside, but I now forget just why. Must have been the sooty deposits. It seems like there were issues with Crown as well. My limited testing of the expensive Everclear was OK, but not totally impressive.

Jose Beltran was offering a PIF of 2 gallons of 200 proof ethanol this morning for anyone in the SF area. I wonder how THAT would perform. Maybe the lack of that 5% water would eliminate the sooty problem? Don’t you live near there, Jon? You ought to contact him to see if you can score one. I think Debbie (DK) claimed them, but maybe Jose could give one to each of you.

So I’m wondering if Klean-Strip recently dropped the name “SLX” and now simply call it “Denatured Alcohol.” Oh yeah, and they label it as “Clean Burning.”

Yes, racing fuel, Jon. I had forgotten about that. That’s what yellow Heet is, of course, but buying in bulk as racing fuel would be cheaper. I’m not much of a fan of Heet though, as it seems to not burn quite as hot as ethanol. Also the medical concerns. Maybe a 50-50 mixture of ET-OH and ME-OH (like SLX was) would be the sweet combination?

Thanks, both of you.

[Katherine .]

i haven’t had any noticeable soot w/Everclear. (using in a starlyte w/sidewinder)

[Dean F.]

Methanol is clean-burning but (relatively) low energy.  Isopropanol is sooty-burning but high energy.  I consider ethanol to be a sort of happy medium between methanol and isopropanol, so I prefer ethanol.  Drinking ethanol is heavily taxed, so I use denatured to keep it cheap.  I also suspect that it’s less toxic than the other two (certainly less so than methanol!).

In summation, Kleen Strip Green is cheap and easily available to me so I prefer it solely for that reason, but any denatured ethanol is adequate.

[James Marco]

Dean, there are differences in denatured alcohols. Most are relatively clean burning, but some have a lot of petroleum byproducts and burn yellow and sooty. Some use raw gasoline (a mix of several chemicals) and will not burn cleanly, it always leaves a soot. Some has a bit of benzene. SLX was pretty good at 50/50 methanol/ethanol. 190proof Everclear has always burned cleanly for me and is my preferred fuel, even though the taxes drive the price a bit high. Methanol(HEET) burns very fast, it has about 9500BTU/lb. It works well when available on the trail, whereas Everclear may not be. Ethanol(everclear) has about 12000BTU/lb…Roughly a third more heat for what you carry.  The actual flame temp changes slightly, but it is only about 50C in ~2000C with ethanol burning hotter.  But, ethanol is a little harder to burn when it gets real cold.

Anhydrous Ethanol is alcohol without water in it. (Could be from a petroleum process or by using anhydrous calcium as I remember.) It tends to suck in water out of the air till it gets to about 96%. If any container labeled 100% is opened, it will be contaminated. It will also dry out your skin rather badly. DO NOT let it get on your fingers/hands.

While not strictly correct, I think of longer chains (like iso-propyl alky) as not burning as well because they require some sort of mixer for a bit more oxygen. That is why they are sooty. It also produces large amounts of CO while burning in open air. At least one of the carbons is inside the molecule and takes some mixing to burn it. I wouldn’t use it unless I was stuck, out of fuel and that was all I had. Most of the extra energy available is lost in the soot and CO production, so, it doesn’t really save much if anything.

 

[Gary Dunckel]

I happened across a different brand of denatured alcohol, one that I’d not heard of before. It’s called Startex. The ingredients are as follows:

65-75% ethanol

15-25% methanol

0-5% ethyl acetate

0-1% heptane

I bought a quart to see how it would work out. It was the cheapest of all at just $6/quart. The tests were interesting. First, it seemed to bring the water to a boil faster than SLX or Klean-Strip Green. It also burned up pretty fast, with flame-out happening about 10% sooner than the others. I wonder if that pinch of heptane made it burn hotter and quicker…? Like the other two, it didn’t deposit significant soot.

So far, I am most impressed with Dean’s choice–the Klean-Strip Green. I like the fact that it has a lot of ethanol in it, but not so much that it creates a sooty pot. I am waiting for my Home Depot to re-stock the K-S “clean burning” Denatured Alcohol that Bob uses, and do comparative tests with a new can of that. None of the stores know anything about SLX. W. M. Barr, inc. (maker of the Klean-Strip line) won’t reply to my e-mails (they get an F in customer service!). I want to know if their “clean burning” denatured alcohol is actually a repackaged version of the SLX that they used to sell. These companies are pretty close to the vest about the exact composition of their denatured alcohol (trade secrets, they say).

At the end of the day, if we run out of alcohol, we can probably just burn some elk dung.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

[disclosure, yes I designed and sell an isopropyl alcohol stove].

It still amazes me that people do not realize that isopropyl alcohol can burn cleanly (as in not soot or smoke).  Isopropyl  (rubbing alcohol) is one of the easiest and cheapest types of alcohol that you can buy.  Additionally, if you rank alcohols by safety (IMO) the order would be Isopropyl, ethanol, methanol.  In my experience, Iso does have a higher energy density, but to burn soot free tends to be slower than DA.  There are a number of people who make Iso stove including myself, Dan and a few other stove makers.  For “fair weather” backpacking isopropyl stoves are not a bad option.  My 2 cents.

[Dean F.]

James- I was trying not to write a manifesto, so I kept it short.  Clearly, that was a mistake.  My point was that Kleen Strip Green is cheap, it is available to me, and it doesn’t have any particularly nasty adulterants.  (Acetone and Methylethylketone are the most significant IIRC, in addition to methanol and a few others of course.)  I would think that it would be obvious that one should avoid burning gasoline or benzene.

Jon- you see that black stuff on the bottom of the Fosters can?  Well, you won’t see that if you’re burning methanol.  You do “realize” that, right?  That’s what I was talking about- not some smoky, sooty flame but slow accumulation of soot on the pot.  It is certainly theoretically correct that isopropanol could be burned cleanly- you just have to do something to ensure total combustion- but that would be very difficult with a tiny camping alcohol stove.  You won’t get good enough air mixing.  That being said, yes, most attempts are sooty messes and yours is doing much better.

I also wasn’t saying that isopropanol is an absolute smoky, sooty mess- just that it is more so than methanol or ethanol.  It was a relative judgement, not an absolute one.  It’s still a pretty damned clean fuel, and does benefit from a higher energy density.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Dean,

Properly designedstoves can burn Isopropyl and leave no soot or generate smoke.  It has taken a few years to get the air fuel mixture correct, but it can be done.  Don’t believe it?  Here is a review of our Multi-Fuel (then called ISO-Clean) by Hiram Cook

It has also been reviewed by MinibullDesigns

It is a fair weather stove as it is more difficult to light below 35 F and the stove output (with isopropyl) drops off above 5,000 to 6,000 feet.  BTW, it will also burn DA, gelled alcohol and Sterno.

 

[Full disclosure: yes, I designed and sell the Multi-Fuel or ISO-Clean stove]

If you don’t believe me, buy one and if you don’t like it, I’ll give you a full refund and you can report your results here on Backpackinglight.

I just added a Special Deal for Backpackinglight Readers here.

 

Jon

 

[Dean F.]

Ok, so under perfect indoor conditions, with zero wind, and with very close supervision including removing the pot before the fuel is completely consumed, you get little soot.  Your reviewer even says that in wind it produces soot.

Is that really what we’re talking about, here?  Because I’m sort of talking about realistic field conditions.  Heck, look at the picture of the stove in the first video- there’s soot on the potstands.

And, again, I’m saying that this sootiness is relative, not absolute.  Your stove seems incredibly clean for an isopropanol stove.  I’ll grant you that.  Producing a nice clean blue flame took a lot of tinkering, I’m sure.  (And damned good of you to offer a BPL deal.)  I’m not even saying it’s much of an issue; hell, I use a wood stove now and then- talk about a dirty pot!  But methanol is cleaner, generally speaking, than isopropanol, though less energy dense.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

Dean,

• I stand by my position that I believe that Isopropyl has been given a bad reputations because 1) there are only a few stoves designed to burn iso and 2) people don’t follow the directions on how to use them.  BTW, that is not soot on the pot stand but dis-colorization due to the heating of stainless steel; the same thing happens to your SS BBQ grill.
• All stoves have pros and cons, the key advantages to an Isopropyl stove are 1) eliminating the health concerns regarding the handling of methanol and 2) iso is probably the most readily available form of alcohol world wide.  This is a HYOH issue, works for some and not for others.
• I myself have used this stove on Catalina Island (where there are strict regulations on fuel transport by boat) and in French Polynesia (International travel).  The Multi-Fuel stove is also my most popular stove for the Zombie Apocalypse crowd (combination of the low cost of isopropyl, being able to use rubbing alcohol for wound care and the ability to buy rubbing alcohol almost anywhere).

My product philosophy is pretty simple: under promise and over deliver: I think that the Multi-Fuel stove works really well.  The purpose of offering the discount to backpackinglight members was to enlighten and educate people on the use of isoproyl alcohol stoves.  I have a pretty straight forward product guarantee: if you don’t like it – send it back for a full refund.  We could continue to discuss this but I would rather see you try one out in the real world and get your feedback and insights.

Best regards

[DAN-Y/FANCEE FEEST]

In the real world Isopropyl will cause soot as soon a the slightest air movement interrupts the flame pattern.  These reviews of FREE stoves by Hiram and other youtube stove junkies are worthless. FREE Stoves given to them in return for a review make their reviews worthless or to be taken with a grain of salt. The reviewers want hits to their sites….subscriptions etc.

Isopropyl stinks when it burns, worse than burning esbit. It smells ok in the bottle but burn it and your nose and eyes will tell you something is wrong.

Zombie Apocalypse crowds don’t know their arss from a hole in the ground. They’ll buy anything and put it in storage hoping some day they might use it.

People that buy something and find it doesn’t work well will think it’s their fault and not return it for a refund. They wouldn’t say crapp if they had a mouth full.

Iso will leave water at the bottom of your stove. If there is a carbon felt wick, water from the Iso will accumulate in it and cause lighting problems when you least expect it.

Iso as a fuel sucks big time.

 

[Dean F.]

Jon,

You’re right of course- we could continue debating minutiae, but it seems that our outlooks are not really that divergent.  We’re just emphasizing different points.

In my defense, I never said that isopropanol was a bad choice.  Just that it was a choice, and that there are differences between alcohols, with none a clearly superior option.  They all have pros and cons.  (With which you seem to agree, so I’m not sure what we’re arguing about anymore.)  I’ll conceded that isopropanol is widely available worldwide in the form of rubbing alcohol, though having it diluted with water does remove any benefit from energy density.  Red HEET may be a better choice- I think it’s more pure.  But at the very least I would hope that you would conceded that burning isopropanol relatively cleanly is more of a challenge than with methanol.

And thanks- sincerely- but I have enough alcohol stoves.  :)  And since I’m almost entirely a North American hiker denatured ethanol is a fine choice for me.

And why don’t we both just ignore Dan Y?  That was a bit confrontational of him…

[Bob Moulder]

Red HEET is Isopropanol and IME burns a little sooty. Not awful, OK in a pinch. But then what isn’t?

I just use Klean-strip marine in a well-ventilated setup and never worry about it. I automatically assume it isn’t a good idea to breathe in the post-combustion byproducts of any of them…

Winter is canister with iso/N-butane and the same policy applies. No worries.

My default go-to 3-season alky setup — after a fair amount of testing with different stoves — is a Fancee Feest with Klean strip.

 

 

 

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