soda can stove

[ckwolf]

hi out there - I watched a you tube on how to make a soda can stove with two can bottoms, a piece of fiberglass batting and a thumbtack to punch holes. Is this the most common design? I was surprised at the fiberglass, how long does that last? What is a good way to carry it? can the denatured alcohol be carried in any old plastic bottle? I am not that interested in cooking on the trail, but hot water for drinks/soup is appealing so figure this is a good stove, but would you recommend it instead of an esbit stove? I have some esbit tablets and a stove from a few years back.

Thanks for your help-
K

[canoehead]

Checkout this site for stove.
http://zenstoves.net/Stoves.htm

[Spokes]

There's so many designs of achy stoves it's hard to say any more. I tend to want to keep it simple and use a Super Cat stove since no pot stand is needed.

[schnikel]

That is a popular style of alcohol stove. You can burn denatured alcohol or "heet" in it. The fiberglass helps out but not totally needed to use the stove. It will last the lifetime of the stove. The zenstoves site is a good one to look at at learn/refine skills. If you are just heating up water, any stove would work well. The super cat would be the most simple, but maybe not the fastest.
Have fun!
Schnikel

[hikin_jim]

There are thousands of alcohol stove designs out there. Using one made from Coke type cans is very common. I haven't every put fiberglass in any of mine. Seems to work OK without fiberglass.

I generally prefer alcohol over ESBIT for a couple of reasons:
1. Alcohol is generally cheaper
2. Alcohol is generally easier to find

Denatured alcohol works well. You can get denatured from hardware stores, paint stores, industrial supply companies, and home improvement stores. HEET in the yellow bottle is methanol, and that works well. You can get HEET from a lot of gas stations, auto parts stores, Wal-Mart, etc.

ESBIT typically has to be purchased from a specialty type outdoors store.

The best container for alcohol in my experience is a flip top type plastic squeeze bottle. Something like the bottle in the middle of this photo:
P1080559.JPG

HJ

[Another Kevin]

I generally prefer alcohol over ESBIT for a couple of reasons:
1. Alcohol is generally cheaper
2. Alcohol is generally easier to find

3. Esbit stinks. Nearly puts me off my food, even after a day of hiking.

[Tinker]

[/URL]

As far as homemade stoves go, the Supercat is one of the most popular for ease of "manufacture", so to speak, and light weight. It needs no primer pan or pot stand, and, since it needs no stand, requires a shorter (therefore lighter) windscreen. I've made several from old cat food cans using a paper punch to make holes. As impressive as they might look on Youtube, double-walled stoves are usually more difficult to make and have absolutely no performance advantages over the Supercat. I should know- I've made most of them and ended up recycling the aluminum once I made and used a Supercat.

If you aren't hiking alone, a canister stove will get you more bang for your buck because they will heat more water with less fuel - necessary when cooking for two or more, but both the stove and the fuel are more expensive).

The Supercat weighs 6 grams.

[hikin_jim]

I'd agree that the "Super Cat" is a really easy stove to make. I personally haven't found them to be the most efficient although they sure are light and don't need a pot stand which makes them lighter still.

I've made a pretty efficient double wall stove. I can boil two cups 15 ml (0.5 fl. oz) of denatured. I haven't been able to get as good results with a can can type stove. Others say that they've gotten really good results with cat cans. I may be missing something.

Here's my latest creation:


HJ

[hunter121]

Thanks for this post guys I was going through the same thing

[mrclean417]

I like to make an inner liner from a V-8 can and sandwich a wrap of Carbon Fiber mat into the Supercat stove. This makes it non spill for about an ounce of fuel with a nice pot stand in the center holding the pot just about right. Zelph stoves model in essance but with CF mat instead of fiberglass. I think you might be able to recover the fuel from his though. Dump the fuel in the center, tip it to wet the wick, put it flat and level and put your can on top, light the wick. No warm up, no jets shooting past a narrow pot bottom, just a sheet of flame that travels up the inner wall, to the bottom of your pot and up the sides. Couple wraps of aluminum foil crimped to the Feast can and slid up to about 3/8 inch gap will have you simmering.

But they're all pretty much the same. You can only get so many BTU's out of an ounce of alcohol, loosing less to prime/pre-heat makes it last longer.

[hikin_jim]

Interesting! Do you have any photos you can post of your set up?

HJ

[58starter]

before you hike learn how to make a real fire with matches and wood. you will find lots of times when you will want a fire, and can use it to cook or heat water at the same time.