Fuel Availability

[Rhapsodist]

Hey everybody,

I have been looking into a bunch of different stoves for my AT hike. In the past I have always borrowed my friend's whisperlight, but have never had to refuel in town. Looking at stoves on the internet, I have heard that it may be difficult to find certain fuels along the trail. most recently I have been considering a Brasslite Alcohol stove. Would I have problems finding fuel for a stove like this?

[Hooch]

No problem at all. Denatured alcohol and (yellow) HEET are readily available and pretty cheap to boot.

[Jersey Tim]

To save you the trouble of looking up all the other fuel threads: it is extremely unlikely that you'll have a problem finding any of the fuel types most commonly used by thru-hikers. Alcohol is quite easy to come by, as are canisters for stoves like the Pocket Rocket and SP Giga.

[tigerpaw]

Any hardware store, big box home improvement store, or paint store will have denatured alcohol.

[Papa D]

You can get any fuel anywhere - really - canister, white gas, alcohol, etc. ok - here is a funny story from my sobo hike long ago - I was in PA and was out of gas for my svea - not many even know what that is but it burns gas - went to a gas station in the middle of the night and you could lift the hoses and get free residual fuel out of the hoses - plenty to fill a stove. This is where I learned this - I think that I used it several times after this - haven't tried it lately - I'm sure that the electronics of modern gas tanks prevent it but it was super cool