View Full Version : Pepsi Can Stoves
The Trail Slug
05-13-2003, 16:17
HI all,
Just to let everybody know if you want a stove I have a new e-mail address it's
[email protected] I am still making,testing, and shipping for free and still having fun doing it.
Happy Hiking
Lloyd ( The Trail Slug ):p
I thought I would test out my homemade alcohol stove today. So, I set it outside on a cold brick at 11 degrees. Wouldn't even light.
Alcohol may be fine for warm weather, but certainly not suitable for cold weather without doing something to keep it warm.
a couple possibilities for lighting alcohol in the cold:
1.) use a match and actually touch the flame gently to the surface of the alcohol
2.) warm the alcohol up by holding the stove over a lighter for about 15 seconds
3.) keep a small bottle of alcohol warm in your pocket
I thought I would test out my homemade alcohol stove today. So, I set it outside on a cold brick at 11 degrees. Wouldn't even light.
Alcohol may be fine for warm weather, but certainly not suitable for cold weather without doing something to keep it warm.
It's 19 deg here in East Tennessee tonight and I thought I'd try my Braslite IId to see if it would burn. I set the stove and fuel (de-natured al) outside and waited about 30 minutes. Poored in the fuel and added a little outside the stove in the catch-pan. After lighting the fuel on the outside of the stove, the whole thing was enveloped in flame for a few seconds, then the usual nice blue flame stabilized in the middle.
I know this is the "home-made" gear forum and the Braslite is commercially made but I suppose soda-can users could place a little fuel on the ground reflector if you have one and accomplish the same thing. I also have a Optimist Nova white gas stove but I like the Braslite much better. No noise, not nearly as many parts to break or stop working, and much lighter.
I just finished making 14 stoves tonight (for a weekly total of 34), and I test each one. I had about 1\6oz of denatured alcohol in each, and it was shockingly easy to light them. The fuel was approx 33-36deg F, and it only took about 2 secs worth of contact with flame to start the stoves. THis is on a concrete floor (in my garage). I would have thought it would be harder than that. Otherwise, I would just hold my lighter underneath the stove to heat up the alcohol.
Brian
Future Thru Hiker 2013
Miss Janet
01-11-2004, 08:17
I am such a pyro that making stoves has become a fav hobby of mine. I am now down to the smallest and most simple design I have ever made and it is great. It is self priming for cold temps and it your pot stand! So, any of you high tech gurus want to challenge me. And NO, it is not true that I caught my kitchen on fire during "stove shop" one day... it was just the tablecloth... it burned well too but you couldn't cook on it!
Youngblood
01-11-2004, 09:22
It's 19 deg here in East Tennessee tonight and I thought I'd try my Braslite IId to see if it would burn. I set the stove and fuel (de-natured al) outside and waited about 30 minutes. Poored in the fuel and added a little outside the stove in the catch-pan. After lighting the fuel on the outside of the stove, the whole thing was enveloped in flame for a few seconds, then the usual nice blue flame stabilized in the middle.
I know this is the "home-made" gear forum and the Braslite is commercially made but I suppose soda-can users could place a little fuel on the ground reflector if you have one and accomplish the same thing. I also have a Optimist Nova white gas stove but I like the Braslite much better. No noise, not nearly as many parts to break or stop working, and much lighter.
You are right about the ground reflector making it very easy to lite alcohol stoves. I refer to mine as a ground reflector/preheat pan and always use it to lite my stove. For reference, Trangia's full featured alcohol stoves have a preheat pan as an option.
Youngblood
And NO, it is not true that I caught my kitchen on fire during "stove shop" one day... it was just the tablecloth... it burned well too but you couldn't cook on it!
<<making note>> When stopping at Miss Janet's house on my section hike, be sure it's not on 'stove shop' day........ :eek:
Now that it has warmed up a little, I have tried the pepsi can stove again.
At 21 degrees, the alcohol would not vaporize.
At 32 degrees, the alcohol did vaporize just enough. The first match was put out in the alcohol. The second match lit it. Heated 2 cups of water from 40 degrees to boiling in about 5 minutes.
So, without pre heating, looks like alcohol works down to freezing for typical backpacker cooking.
Footslogger
01-12-2004, 19:08
Went the entire distance in 2003 using denatured alcohol (or HEET, when I could find it) and never had a problem getting it to light or burn. Maybe it's a function of how I stored my fuel or the type of stove I used ?? I carried my fuel in a 10oz plastic booze flask and it was never fully exposed to the weather. My stove was the Trangia and with about 3 oz or so in the sump of that little brass stove I had it burning on the first match.
Dances with Mice
01-12-2004, 22:38
Now that it has warmed up a little, I have tried the pepsi can stove again.
<snip>
So, without pre heating, looks like alcohol works down to freezing for typical backpacker cooking.
Funny, then, that the Iditarod mushers, who can choose any stove they wish to carry across the frozen trails in Alaska, and to whom making a fire is a life-or-death situation for them and their dog teams, have all switched to alcohol stoves.
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF16/1634.html
Peaks, Living in the Atlanta area, I frequently hike the GA section of the trail during the winter months and have never had a problem with my stove other than longer cooking times with colder weather!!
I've used a homemade soda can stove burning denatured alcohol in 13F temps with little problems. I have a small windscreen made from an oven liner which seems to serve more as a heat reflector than a true wind screen. For real wind protection, I use my sleeping pad making a large cylinder with the stove in the center. Cold weather does require me to use a little more fuel to get the water to boil, maybe 1/4 tbsp more..
:banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana