Seriously cold weather and Alcohol stoves!

[The Solemates]

This is a great, well written scientifically conducted post that the engineer in me really appreciates. thanks!

This is precisely why I do not use an alcohol stove, cold weather. People always say they can use an alky stove on the trail just fine, but I have always questioned their true winter experience since I have yet to a) get one to work in the cold, and b) have never seen anyone use on in the cold.

By the way, "cold" to me is below 15F. (It was -1 here this morning with the windchill, and 11 without).

[Gumbi]

This is a great, well written scientifically conducted post that the engineer in me really appreciates. thanks!

This is precisely why I do not use an alcohol stove, cold weather. People always say they can use an alky stove on the trail just fine, but I have always questioned their true winter experience since I have yet to a) get one to work in the cold, and b) have never seen anyone use on in the cold.

By the way, "cold" to me is below 15F. (It was -1 here this morning with the windchill, and 11 without).

I am not opposed to using an alchy stove in cold weather. I believe my failure to produce boiling water was due to a stove design that was not made for this kind of weather.

I think, with a few modifications, I can have a stove that will reliably work in cold weather. Time will tell.

For sure, you will use alot more fuel to get the water boiling, but I would still rather trust an alcohol stove than a liquid fuel stove at these temps. Just think, the smallest bit of water in a gas stove could cause the fuel line to freeze up, rendering it inoperable... Maybe there are tricks to get around this problem, but the simplicity and lack of parts to break in the alcohol stove is definitely a plus when you HAVE to get your stove running.

But this is all just my perspective. Until I can reliably get an alcohol stove to work in sub zero F temps, I really can't argue with you

[Homer&Marje]

This is a great, well written scientifically conducted post that the engineer in me really appreciates. thanks!

This is precisely why I do not use an alcohol stove, cold weather. People always say they can use an alky stove on the trail just fine, but I have always questioned their true winter experience since I have yet to a) get one to work in the cold, and b) have never seen anyone use on in the cold.

By the way, "cold" to me is below 15F. (It was -1 here this morning with the windchill, and 11 without).

They use alcohol stoves and heet on the Iditorod Trail every year in Alaska. and 15* to them is summer time

I plan on doing a little testing of my stoves as well. I feel a lot of preparation will lead to very little effort. If your going on an overnight or two, first keep your cook set somewhere insulated in the middle of your pack. Take things out prior to cooking and put them inside your jacket to warm them up if necessary.

You could get crazy and go as far as taking a set of hand warmers, use one at a time and put it inside your cookset as your hiking. They stay warm for 6 hours, and would give you a warm start. If you leave most things in sub zero temperatures it's not gonna work well. Not just Alky stoves.

Off the ground, don't rush the process, and always carry matches and a lighter.

[buckwheat]

They use alcohol stoves and heet on the Iditorod Trail every year in Alaska. and 15* to them is summer time

No, they don't use the typical type of alcohol stove you'll find in a hiker's pack - or the "Pepsi-can" stove, as they are known.

Sledders in the Iditarod use huge amounts of alcohol fuel in very large stoves that are packed on dog sleds. Such stoves are not practical to hike with, and are in no way comparable to a typical alcohol stove carried by a hiker.

Sledders carry these large alcohol stoves because alcohol fuel is not as explosive as alternatives; they do it for the safety reasons, at the sacrifice of the much, much better BTU potential of white gas stoves.

They do not do it because alcohol stoves are better at melting snow, for example.

[Dances with Mice]

Sledders carry these large alcohol stoves because alcohol fuel is not as explosive as alternatives; they do it for the safety reasons, at the sacrifice of the much, much better BTU potential of white gas stoves. They do not do it because alcohol stoves are better at melting snow, for example.

That's not exactly what Jeff King is reported to have said:

Ten years have passed since Jeff King last poured white gas over his two-burner stove and set it on fire to make it functional. Like other mushers competing in the Iditarod Trail sled dog race, King has taken advantage of the new technology that has emerged in the three decades since the first Iditarod.

King, a three-time Iditarod champion and 1989 Yukon Quest winner, remembers using a two-burner Coleman stove to heat water for his dogs in the early days of his racing career. During extreme cold weather, he sometimes needed to preheat the stove's components by setting the stove ablaze, then moving back in to light the burners after the inferno died down.

" It was heavy and cumbersome and tremendous trouble," King said recently from his home in Denali Park. "Once the alcohol cooker came on the scene in the early 90s, the white gas stove was obsolete in 12 months," King said.

Since the article was written, Jeff won again making him a 4X Iditarod champ.

[Dances with Mice]

That's not exactly what Jeff King is reported to have said:

Oops. Source.