Need Help choosing a alcohol stove

[jalbright79]

I been looking around for a really good ultralight alcohol stove. I made one out of a few pepsi cans they work but i feel they could be better. So I decided to just search the web and see what I could find. I been seriously debating on rather or not to purchase the AntiGravityGear Katahdin Stove Set.... I linked the address below for more info.

http://www.antigravitygear.com/antig...stove.-sethtml

I will be useing this for 5 to 10 day hikes. So would this be a good choice? If you know of other websites with similar stoves feel free to post the address. thanks

[HiKen2011]

Gram weenie if you just want to boil water, e2e website.

[Sarcasm the elf]

Coincidently I built my first supercat stove tonight. It was fun, cheap and worked fairly well, but I really think that a light canister stove would be comparable to an alcohol stove for short trips.

In my burn test the alcohol stove took a lot more work and a little more time to boil water compared to the MSR pocket rocket I usually use, it was acceptable, but the liquid fuel weight adds up and I don't know if it would be worth the extra effort on shorter trips.

From what I can tell the big advantages alcohol stoves have over canisters are the price of the stove and availability of the fuel (hard to find canisters sometimes). If you have time to tinker around, then click on the supercat link above and give it a try, but if you're just looking for a light and efficient stove for trips that are less than a couple of weeks, consider a light canister setup.

[Odd Man Out]

Supercat is supereasy and superpopular.

http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/index.html

[benjaninja]

i built one and it works GREAT! it took me a few makes to get it working the way it should but after the third one i pretty much have it down to a science!

[chancey]

mini bull
tinnies stoves are great

[russb]

Supercat or Fancee Feest.

Run away from over-engineered alcohol burners which only serve to lighten your wallet.

[4eyedbuzzard]

Zelph's Starlyte is pretty good.

[4eyedbuzzard]

Zelph's Starlyte is pretty good.

http://www.woodgaz-stove.com/starlyte-stove.php

[ken209]

Potted meat can, 2 inch tube from bud alum bottle, 4X8 in piece of fiberglass cloth, will make a knotty stove.

[lemon b]

I am going to try out using alcohol some time this season. Saw a few stoves on line can not figure out what to buy. Saw a few more on the trail last year. Am trying to get my kid to make me one. Might just buy one off another hiker since alot of people seem to say they are eazy to make. Just one of those things I hesitate to purchase because I could see myself having a couple and then just always bringing the whisperlite or pocketrocket.

[rusty bumper]

I "built" a Supercat and couldn't be happier with it's performance.

[Lyle]

I've been using Tin Man's stove for years now. Have tried a few others, but found nothing better so far. It was selling for $12 for the bare stove back when I bought it. I bought it in the Mamma's Kitchen package. Still use the 3 cup pot, good combination and just a few oz.

[MuddyWaters]

I played with a lot of alcohol stoves, made a bunch too, so this is my .02.

The performance of an alchohol stove depends on the pot, windscreen, and stove . The best stove depends on your pot really. The overall performance mostly depends on how well you shield it from wind. For best results, have a close fitting aluminum windscreen, and still wrap a CCF sleeping pad around most of it too to provide extra shielding.


The FASTER a stove is, the worse the efficiency usually. Wider pots work better than narrower, there is more bottom area to heat.

A supercat may be fast, but it is NOT real efficient, requiring you to haul more fuel.

However, I would say that most are overly complicated , with little to no benefit. Any stove that requires "priming" is a pain. And all those little flames dont work better than a single big one.

The advantage of a supercat is 1) any idiot can make one 2) its the pot support too so any idiot has that covered as well. 3) it works OK for 2 cups water, (but generally will run out of fuel before being able to boil 4)

With other stoves, your really want to adjust the distance between flame and bottom of pot to heat the whole bottom, but not lose flames up the sides. This takes trial and error for your setup to determine the optimum height of a pot stand.

If you have to buy a commercial alcohol stove, you are really not gaining much for your money despite the hype

[Spokes]

$34 for an alchy stove? Yikes!

It costs less than a buck to make a Supercat stove....... And in general all alcohol stoves boil water between 6-8 minutes. Efficiency isnt a big factor. You'll waste more fuel by just sloshing it into the stove rather than measuring it out every time. A 35 mm plastic film container is exactly 1 oz. (throw one in your cook kit). Before long you'll know exactly how much fuel you need depending on what your cooking.

Cheers,

[jalbright79]

I'm not really looking to cooking any fourcourse meals. I just wanting to be able to boil water, for Idohoian potatos, heat some premixxed meal, and maybe some hot chocolate. I really just lookng for an efficient light weight stove. Building a supercat right now we will see how it goes. thanks for all the input

[Chaco Taco]

Used a Starlyte for a long time Ga-Me and even still use it as a backup. Made my own stand for it out of bike spokes.
The fancy feast is my new favorite. Ill be carrying it on the Long Trail this summer.
I have used an Etowah. Its pretty good as well.
I say for the price and the quality, anything Zelph makes has my vote.

I would also add that I have only bought one pot and it goes really well with zelph's stoves, MSR Titan Kettle. I don't think Ill ever have to buy another.

[vamelungeon]

I love my Trangia. They aren't terribly expensive, they are reliable and rugged.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9330 using Tapatalk

[jalbright79]

Just got through building my supercat and after testing it out I think it is going to be perfect. Came to a roaring boil right at the 4 minute mark and actually boiled an additional 4 minutes on 3 tlbs of alcohol. I used just a small but heavy kitchen pot, so I predict after I get a diffrent pot the boil time will change.

[Odd Man Out]

...A supercat may be fast, but it is NOT real efficient, requiring you to haul more fuel....
Any stove that requires "priming" is a pain....
The advantage of a supercat is ... 3) it works OK for 2 cups water, (but generally will run out of fuel before being able to boil 4)

I prefer the Simmercat, which is the Supercat with one row of holes. It addresses many of these issues:
It is more efficient because it heats a little slower. With one row of holes, it can hold a lot more fuel and burn for longer and have more total heat output.
Also, if you cut some paper clips in half, and drape them over the edge of the stove so that they hole to pot about a mm above the rim of the stove, they simmer cat burns a little hotter (more than a simmer), but not as hot as the Supercat, plus, it doesn't need priming. You can put the pot on the stove right after lighting.