Alcohol vs Heet

[atmilkman]

I've only used denatured alcohol in my stove and I was wondering if Heet burns any hotter or better in colder weather.

[BlakeGrice]

I thought heet WAS denatured alcohol?

[rotorbrent]

Heet is 90% or more of Methyl Alcohol while the paint stripper "denatured alcohol is 80% Ethanol Alcohol. They both have a octane rating of 108 with Ethanol having a slightly higher BTU rating but not by much. Either will work in your stove.

Yellow Heet is easily found in any big box store with a automotive section along with truck stops,quicky marts, dollar stores ect.

Paint Stripper "denatured alcohol is found in hardware stores,paint stores, home improvement stores.

My local "walley world" has both yellow bottle heet in 12 oz bottles in the auto section and "Denatured Alcohol" in quart metal cans in the paint section which is cheaper.

[4eyedbuzzard]

Yellow HEET is 98% or better pure methanol (and very poisonous if swallowed in any quantity). The remaining stuff is proprietary but is likely a light oil. Denatured alcohol is a mixture of ethanol (the stuff you drink) with a denaturing agent (usually methanol) added to make it poisonous so you won't / can't drink it. Ethanol has about a 10% greater heat output by volume. Isopropol alcohol (red HEET) also burns about as hot as the others, but it smokes more and leaves a residue.

[Wise Old Owl]

To answer the beginning post - Heet is the best product over the counter for the stoves.

[moytoy]

Whether making a cup of hot chocolate, cooking up some soup or any other real world cooking job I simply can not tell the difference in the two fuels. When I made my first stove I bought a gallon of denatured alcohol at Lowes. I repackaged it and used the whole gallon in the stove with good success down to about 32 degrees. Since then I buy 6 pack yellow Heet at wal-mart and get the same good burns. I don't do a lot of backpacking below freezing so I'm not sure how cold I can go with the alky stove.

[MuddyWaters]

Heet is a bit better in cold weather because methanol has a higher vapor pressure, its easier to light,etc. Methanol is also fairly toxic.

The heats of combustion of methanol and ethanol are around 10,000 and 12,500 btu/lb respectively

In practice the denatured alcohol has methanol AND 5-15% water in it, which reduces it to ~11,000 btu/lb range. So not really too much difference like others said.

Biggest difference is other crap. There is often junk in the denatured alcohols that make soot, or gummy residues. Find the cleanest burning one you can . SLX has always been good for me. There are some that are 90% ethanol, but leave a residue on the pot. Who wants that to boil water 1 min faster.?

Everclear is best, but expensive.

[JaxHiker]

I'll have to try Heet again. I have two bottles of yellow and it didn't do remotely as well as alcohol the last time I tested.

[Fiddleback]

Heet too will leave a residue...a white-ish deposit similar in appearance to calcium deposits from hard water (that's the best example I could come up with:)). Over time those deposits can/will clog the holes of (some) soda can stoves.

It's difficult to assess which fuel is best until we decide what parameters we're gonna compare. None the less, and despite the higher cost, I like the convenience of (yellow) Heet.

FB

[orions_knight]

so, in conclusion...to each their own. lol

[Moose2001]

so, in conclusion...to each their own. lol Or whichever you can find!

[Wise Old Owl]

so, in conclusion...to each their own. lol

Uhh hmmm not exactly - I had very poor results with several alcohols lying about the house and some never even got the cup of water to boil... then sometime after switching to Heat my aluminum shield or wind screen melted and it was thicker than the foil so thats an easy 1000 degrees.