Alcohol vs. Gas

[Myshkin]

I am starting a thru-hike in July and need the most cost-effective way to cook. Thanks for your time.

[Fiddler]

I prefer alcohol, as do many hikers. Check these links for a lot of good information. A Google search will get even more. These could keep you busy just reading for the rest of the day. Look closely at the ION stove. But be careful if you try to make your own alcohol stove - it is addictive.

Alcohol Stove Links
http://zenstoves.net/
http://wings.interfree.it/index.html
http://www.csun.edu/~mjurey/stove.html
http://hikinghq.net/sgt_stove/ion_stove.html

[Seeker]

I am starting a thru-hike in July and need the most cost-effective way to cook. Thanks for your time.

depends on how much you cook.

denatured alcohol is about $13 a gallon at walmart, but about 90 cents per 12oz if you buy it via bottles of HEET gas treatment. i think that comes out to be a little cheaper 'by thte bottle'. (124oz in a gallon?)

have no idea what white gas runs anymore, but it seems to me it was about $5-6 a gallon.

unleaded gas is $2.87 by me these days.

so gas is cheaper.

however, you need a stove to burn it in...

an alcohol stove (homemade) is, or can be, just about free. so if you cook two meals a day using a 1/2 oz of fuel each, that's 30 oz a month, or about $4, a little less.

if you use a gas stove, that's about $70, plus fuel.

so, for a month out, alcohol is way cheaper overall...

over the long term, only you can decide what's going to be 'cheaper' for you.

[MacGyver2005]

Seeker, 128oz. ;)

Regards,
-MacGyver
GA-->ME

[Ender]

If your primary concern is cost effectiveness, the best option for that is a wood burning stove. Either along the lines of something like the Sierra Zip stove...

http://www.zzstove.com/

or something more basic (and even more cost effective) like the Nimblewill stove...

http://www.thru-hiker.com/workshop.asp?subcat=2&cid=9

Removing the cost of fuel makes these very cost effective. Downsides would be more effort to cook, and much more soot on your pot.

Between alcohol and gas, gas is probably cheaper in the long run? Maybe? Couldn't honestly say, but that's my gut feeling. I prefer alcohol stoves though... light, easy, maintenance free, and quiet.

[stag3]

I went through the same questions? What should I carry for fuel?

I decided on a homemade wood stove from a 1 lb coffee can. This is my primary cooking device. Yes, it smokes and makes the pot dirty, but this is no beauty contest.

I carry an alky stove and 10 oz of ethanol as a backup-just in case there is no dry wood. They all fit together into a neat package. The total stove weight ex alcohol is about 5 oz. The wood ignites and burns well in my stove. I carry some waxed paper for starting the fire.

BTW, the coffee can stove burning wood is allowed in SNP.

[Sly]

Between alcohol and gas, gas is probably cheaper in the long run? Maybe? Couldn't honestly say, but that's my gut feeling.
Not counting the initial investment of a stove, on trail, the cost of alcohol or Heet vs whitegas or coleman fuel are about the same but a gas stove tends to use less. A multifuel stove, such as a Whisperlite Internationale, burning gasoline is cheaper still. $55>$40>$8

Of course, the woodstove is cheapest of all in fuel costs savings (free), but the ease of an alcohol stove appears to make it the most popular.

A ballpark figure for using Esbit or canisters on a thruhike would be $100.

*Figures (roughly) based on a 25 week thruhike.