alcohol stove variations

[trail_monkey]

I made a can stove from an old Guinness beer can a year ago that has burner holes from a thumb tack around the circumfrence. It works pretty well. I am experimenting and I just stumbled onto this design http://andrewskurka.com/2011/how-to-make-a-fancy-feast-alcohol-stove/

Has anyone tried this design with the cat food can? If it works so dang well why would anyone go to all the extra work to make a fancy one like the one in the picture?

[trail_monkey]

How about I re word my original post like this......Please share your experiences of various can stove designs. I want to build a different design that is more effective at boiling water in my Stanley camp pot for simple things like ramen noodles etc.

[Yagi]

I made one of the Fancy Feast stoves a while back.  I love it.  Also, because of the wicking action the felt provides, it's much easier to light in the colder temps.  I have a bunch of the other pop can stoves, too, but the FF stove is the one I carry now.

[bmike-vt]

I've made a bunch. This was one of the most refined. I now use an MSR Windburner. Happy with the alky stove in the summer, but shoulder seasons or wind make them harder to use.


the one by Mike, on Flickr

[trail_monkey]

I sure can't get the results everyone else seems to get. After over 10 minutes, I still haven't gotten a rolling boil with 18 ounces of water. It is very hot, granted, but still how in the heck does everyone boil 2 cups of water in 6 and one half minutes like they claim?

[bumbler]

Here's one I made, using a heavier-wall Bud/Bud Light aluminum bottle. Just crimped repeatedly around the edge with a pair of needle-nose pliers until I got the opening to the size I wanted.

I never seriously tested its efficiency, but it seems to work about as well as other designs, particularly on smaller diameter pots because the flame is concentrated in the center rather than around the stove's circumference (e.g. like a top burner stove). Use it with a separate pot stand, obviously.

[vermont]

"I sure can't get the results everyone else seems to get. After over 10 minutes, I still haven't gotten a rolling boil with 18 ounces of water. It is very hot, granted, but still how in the heck does everyone boil 2 cups of water in 6 and one half minutes like they claim?"
Are you using perfect conditions in a warm kitchen with warm water?  That's probably your problem.  I've made a couple and have ended up with my Trangia.  My personal take on alky stoves (and I used one on most my AT hike) is that its about slowing down and enjoying yourself.  You are in the outdoors to slow down and relax, so relax and let the stove do its thing.  You will probably save much more time by pre-soaking your meal than improving your stove.
A design I have seen but never tried is using three tea light tins at once.
A kinda funny story is that once I got inventive and happened upon a unique design using a crab meat can.  I called it a crab stove and made a how to guide to be published.  I was about to publish it and found the newly created link you listed above to the cat food stove.  It is the same dang thing with a different can.  I was ALMOST internet famous.

[trail_monkey]

I was using water out of my outside spicket (cold) and testing this in my garage with the door open on a nice 70 degree day. Wind was blowing in garage some but I was using my windscreen. A day later I ran more tests using cold tap water from indoors (room temp). I figured something out that day. I raised my pot a little higher above my stove inside my windscreen so the flames had time to form before making contact with the base. This prevented the flames from rising up along the sides of the pot so much. It made a difference. I put ramen noodles in the pot with 2 cups of water cold and got a rolling boil in around 7 minutes or so and my ramen immediately started to boil over so I had to lift the pot lol. I am starting to figure out these stoves and it helps to know what to expect and not expect more than they are capable of.

[werkinit]

After messing around with a number of pop can alcohol stoves this is a winner for me.

Mainly because it works in cooler temperatures with no issue. Bonus is that it doesn't turn my pot into a filthy black mess and I lost some fiddley bits
as the pot holder is integrated into the stove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6vms2YXVO0

[trail_monkey]

I have done my homework but that is one design I have not seen yet. Thanks for sharing.

[werkinit]

After messing around with a number of pop can alcohol stoves this is a winner for me.

Mainly because it works in cooler temperatures with no issue. Bonus is that it doesn't turn my pot into a filthy black mess and I lost some fiddley bits
as the pot holder is integrated into the stove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6vms2YXVO0

FYI, the tomato paste can on the inside, aka the pot holder, can be adjusted to work with different shaped pot bottoms by cutting it longer or shorter.
I use mine with a Stanley adventure series cook set and had to raise the can up to hit the bottom properly. The lower cut version as seen in the video works well with wider flat bottom pots.

[trail_monkey]

That's similar to what I learned. I was trying to test these on my Stanley cook pot and it is a smaller diameter than what some may be using for a cook pot. I found that by using a Pepsi can stove (built from a Coors can lol) and by placing everything inside a wind screen constructed from a 29 ounce fruit can, and by having my pot supported about 3-4 inches above the stove inside the windscreen, I got the best results. The can, besides shielding the flames from the wind, helps concentrate the flames upward like a wind tunnel so to speak and having the pot several inches above lets the flames hit it more directly on the bottom rather than travel up the sides. I continuously was able to boil COLD water to a rolling boil in 7-8 minutes with a shot glass of fuel.