View Full Version : Narrow Alcohol Stove Suggestions
Turk6177
12-22-2014, 09:31
I have been using a cat can stove for a long time with my GSI Soloist cook pot. I recently purchased a Snow Peak Titanium Mini Solo Cookset. I fear the flame from my current cat can stove will be too wide for this pot. I really don't want to have to use a canister stove. Any suggestions for a DIY or purchased alcohol stove that does not require a pot stand that will fit this smaller diameter pot (4.25")? (I know, I want it all). Thanks in advance for your help with this.
yerbyray
12-22-2014, 10:06
I have been using a cat can stove for a long time with my GSI Soloist cook pot. I recently purchased a Snow Peak Titanium Mini Solo Cookset. I fear the flame from my current cat can stove will be too wide for this pot. I really don't want to have to use a canister stove. Any suggestions for a DIY or purchased alcohol stove that does not require a pot stand that will fit this smaller diameter pot (4.25")? (I know, I want it all). Thanks in advance for your help with this.
I just took advantage of the Christmas sale by Zelp and bought a Venom Stove. I partnered it with a MSR Ti pot (forgot the model) and I have played with it for three days now and really do admire it greatly. I think this is a perfect design for a more narrow bottom pot. It is stable but as with any narrow system you need a good flat...stable...base to work off of.
I'm sure there are plenty of others too.
I think Zelph specializes in matching the flame to the cookware.
I have a GSI Soloist cookpot, with the original Fancee Feest (his design) alcohol stove I like because the fuel will not spill out. The fuel is applied with a tip-over spout container.
His Venom Super Stove has the alcohol fuel added the same way.
His Staryte and the Companion stove can not be made to spill alcohol, the alcohol poured in the top of the alcohol stove.
Zelph is in this forum, as well as having a website and a forum of his own. He may suggest a specific alcohol stove. I think he is a perfectionist, about all backpacking stoves.
If you do not like an alcohol stove, the SOTO OD-1R regulator canister stove has the right flame for the GSI Soloist. I do not know if the SOTO Windmaster regulator canister stove has that height and diameter flame.
The SOTO OD-1R has another "plus" as one of the lightest canister stoves made.
No matter what, I would think you will need a windscreen. It makes the heat get to the cookware more efficiently.
Cuacoatchoo
12-22-2014, 14:44
I was under the impression that by keeping the top of the aluminum windscreen close to the pot you can direct the heat into the pot?
I'd worry that a narrower alcohol can would burn less fuel surface area at a time. Any data on boil times for the suggested alternatives would be interesting.
Tuckahoe
12-22-2014, 14:56
Check out Minibull Design. You might find what you need or even an idea for a DIY, especially among his smaller or wick stoves. https://www.minibulldesign.com/ProductCart/pc/home.asp
The answer is "it depends". If close, there has to be openings like the Caldera Cone.
By the way, there are Caldera Clone instructions available online.
However, those openings they have worked out are important, as is the compatible output, flame height and flame diameter produced by the alcohol stove inside. Their Trail Designs alcohol stove has a priming pan. zelph's stove provided with the Caldera Cone system, as an alternative, requires no priming. In addition, it has a non-spill wick built-in.
It is a modified Starlyte alcohol stove, my favorite alcohol stove.
The zelph original Fancee Feest is, also, my favorite alcohol stove.
In general, a free-standing windscreen needs to be 1/2 to 3/4 inch away from the cookware, because the flame must not be confined. I set my free-standing windscreen up on sliding to adjust height bobby pin "feet" about 1/2 inch off the ground level, to insure adequate air-flow to achieve a steady flame. It is a good feature for the "feet" to have adjustable height.
I really like the Suluk46 titanium windscreens. I think will be my next purchase, reasonably soon.
I made a stove for a GSI out of one of the small cans of soda. It is a smaller diameter than a regular can. I think it was around a 7 oz can. It works well with this pot. I do use a windscreen but not to direct the flames. I never checked to compare boil times with this compared to a normal sized can.
Firefighter503
12-23-2014, 14:03
Check out www.qiwiz.net
eta: He is a member on here also.
(http://www.qiwiz.net)
HooKooDooKu
12-23-2014, 15:24
I have been using a cat can stove for a long time with my GSI Soloist cook pot. I recently purchased a Snow Peak Titanium Mini Solo Cookset. I fear the flame from my current cat can stove will be too wide for this pot. I really don't want to have to use a canister stove. Any suggestions for a DIY or purchased alcohol stove that does not require a pot stand that will fit this smaller diameter pot (4.25")? (I know, I want it all). Thanks in advance for your help with this.
You specify "cat can", but you don't say what size can. I know there are 5.5oz cans and narrower 3oz cans.
But in any case, it should be easy enough for you to simply experiment building low pressure side burner stoves (http://zenstoves.net/LowPressure.htm) with cans of various sizes and find a combination (of stove and hole size/patterns) that suit your needs.
Odd Man Out
12-23-2014, 15:35
I am using a Easy Capillary Hoop Stove. Awesome stove. Easy to make and use. However it does use a pot stand. It seems to me any narrow stove without a pot stand is likely to tip over, at least in my hands it will. I make a DIY pot stand out of hardware cloth that weight very little.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTp5zTOYPHQ
matjbrown
12-23-2014, 20:07
+1 for zelph I use the venom super stove with that same setup and love it. http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/12/23/c8276f6e96edcfbcc7e72729104fee89.jpg. It's the one on the left
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
+1 here also on the venom. If out for lash the small red bull diy works fine at only 3 grams.
I just got a venom the other day from the Xmas sale....
Probably will do a test run of it this week while visiting my folks......
Odd Man Out
12-24-2014, 00:37
I was under the impression that by keeping the top of the aluminum windscreen close to the pot you can direct the heat into the pot?
I'd worry that a narrower alcohol can would burn less fuel surface area at a time. Any data on boil times for the suggested alternatives would be interesting.
I use the Easy Capillary Hoop Stove with an Olicamp XTS pot. This pot has a heat exchanger ring around the perimeter of the bottom so very little heat goes up the side of the pot. My wind screen is a simple cylinder made of aluminum flashing (slightly larger diameter than the pot). Under optimal conditions (my kitchen) I can boil 2 cups of water (starting at 70 deg F) in about 4 minutes using about 14 mL of fuel.
I would just make a 3oz fancy feast stove with the tomato paste center pot stand can and some welding blanket as the wick material. I have made a few and they weigh about 1 oz or less and work good sort of like the venom stove but has a bottom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2fPIvyme9I
White Box http://whiteboxalcoholstoves.com/
Check out www.qiwiz.net (http://www.qiwiz.net)
eta: He is a member on here also.
(http://www.qiwiz.net)
Thanks for the promotion. A burner that is not pressurized will be be a good match. Many options, including my two sizes of DualFuel stoves, several of Zelph's stoves, and others.
CarlZ993
12-24-2014, 15:34
I used Zelph's Fancee Feast stove on my thru-hike. The flame pattern is more vertical rather than outward in a home-made Fancy Feast stove. It might fit your needs. I was pleased w/ my stove for the most part. It wasn't as fast as my Jetboil or Reactor stove. But, both were too heavy for a long hike (IMHO).