Stoves, Tents and Carbon Monoxide – Deadly or not? Part 4: Measurements on Alcohol Stoves

Buy a small stove these days and it is likely to come covered in dire warnings about the risk of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning and that you must not use the stove in any sort of confined space. And yet walkers have been using small stoves inside their tent vestibules in bad weather for many, many years with very few instances of trouble. What is the risk, why are all those warnings there, and how seriously should we take them?

Part 4 of this article series covers the laboratory testing of a range of alcohol stoves. This article seeks to find if carbon monoxide emissions are more problematic with alcohol stoves than with other stove types and specifically to discover the design elements that influence carbon monoxide emission in alcohol stoves.

ARTICLE OUTLINE

• Introduction
• Recapitulation from Part 1
• Recapitulation from Part 2
• Outline and Scope of Part 4
• Health and Safety Guidelines
  • Carbon Monoxide Levels
  • ASHRAE: American Society of Heating and Residential Air-conditioning Engineers
  • Personal Safety
• Alcohols as Fuels
  • Methyl Alcohol
  • Ethyl Alcohol
  • Iso-Propyl Alcohol
• Measurement Overview
  • Stove classes
    • Cat food can, or 'Open Jet'
    • Pre-mix burners, or 'Open Flame'
    • Pressurised burners, or 'Closed Jet'
    • Priming of Stoves
  • Pots used
  • Stove Testing Details
• Stove Performances
  • Fuel/Oxygen Limitations for all Stoves
  • Short Guide
• Analysis and Comments
  • Heating Rate vs CO Emission
    • Sgt Rock Ion Stove
      16 g /0.56 oz
    • Vargo Triad
      28 g /1.0 oz
    • Gossamer Gear Firefly
      25 g /0.88 oz
    • Trangia 25
      2.3/3.9 oz
    • Caldera Cone
      82 g / 2.9 oz
    • Brasslite Turbo II-F
      39 g /1.4 oz
    • Minibull Designs Elite
      6 g /0.21 oz
    • White Box stove
      28 g /1.0 oz
    • Minibull Designs Sketti
      20 g /0.71 oz
    • Vargo Triad XE (modified)
      48 g /1.7 oz

# WORDS: 7360
# PHOTOS: 37
# TABLES: 2