alcohol stoves

[cabbagehead]

I did a three month AT stroll last summer under the name Protein Powder. After the trip I decided that when I went on my next trip, I would bring a lighter stove. I did some research, and found out that commercial stoves are often heavy, or have problems with priming. I looked up some DIY stove designs and did some experimenting. I ended up making a stove I liked with a variety of power tools, and home made jigs. Its made from thick aluminum Budweiser beer bottles and doesn't require a stand. Since I enjoy making things, and already have the jigs and tools, I decided to mass produce stoves. Check out my website.


Bottlestoves.com

[Kookork]

It looks like a solid design to me. Inverting lid makes it very sturdy. The price is fair. I have no problem with the color on them ,as you said it makes them look cool. wish you the best.

[cabbagehead]

Thanks for the good P.R.

I added some youtube videos on my site (how it's made, and a demonstration).

[swjohnsey]

The stove you are sellin' is the White Box stove. I used on for awhile until I discoved the Super Venom, much move efficient.

[cabbagehead]

efficiency would depend on cooking habits

[Tramp]

Burn time on 1oz of fuel? How long does it take to boil 2 cups of water ? How do you put it out once you light it, water?

[Nitrojoe]

Backpackinglite.com just did a field test with stoves that are used in cold weather conditions. Check it out. You will find the results very interesting.

[cabbagehead]

You could put out an alcohol stove with an extinguisher made by cutting the top off an aluminum can. You could also let it burn out.

[Franco]

"Burn time on 1oz of fuel? How long does it take to boil 2 cups of water ? How do you put it out once you light it, water? "

Depends what you use. With the Caldera Cone/ 550ml pot I get a boil in 6:30 to 7:30 min at around 65/75f water temp.
That is with about 1/2 oz of Ethanol.
And this is the way I use it :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX9j7pF38Tw&list=UU0PuLUKvG7Fxxex5BMVK4vw&index=15&feature=plcp
( so in effect I put more fuel than I need but only use what I need. Hot for coffee/soup, boiling for meals)
Franco

[cabbagehead]

My parents have a cat, and they buy small (85 g) cans of Fancy Feast cat food. I just discovered that you can make a good snuffer that fits compactly over my stove out of one of these.

- Open the can with a can opener (even though it has a tab).
- Clean it.
- After you're done cooking, quickly put the can over the stove.
- Pour water over the can.
- Take the can off once the stove is cool.
- You should now be able to recover the fuel that you didn't use.

[cabbagehead]

You have to use a can opener with a rotating blade for this.

[russb]

or just use the fancy feast can as your burner. Either the Jim Wood designed Supercat (excellent in 3 seasons, wicked easy to make) or the zelph designed Fancee Feest (excellent in all seasons, slightly more difficult to make).

IMO Alcohol burners require experience with the specific stove. It doesn't take long to know exactly how much fuel one needs so there is rarely (for me, never) a need to snuff out a stove and recapture fuel. The aforementioned fancee feest stove uses 15mL of denatured alc to boil. I don't time it.

The question of efficiency was also raised, one must define efficiency in this context. Some use time to boil as their measure, others refer to fuel use to boil as their measure. Neither is wrong, they are just two different things. I personally use fuel to boil.

[cabbagehead]

The stoves you mentioned are probably better for instant foods. My stoves might not make sense for "Mountain House" eaters. When I'm cooking cabbage, I want something that won't get too hot and will cook for a long time.

[russb]

I don't do MH. yeach! The fancee feest stove is not an instant food stove like all the jetted stoves out there. Works great for real cooking. Doesn't get super hot and with some knowhow is easily simmered. Of course if all you want is hot water it does that too.

[cabbagehead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t9HxmrNFSNo

[cabbagehead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PVVHcolnn5w

[cabbagehead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zIo5m1sd-g&feature=player_embedded

[LadybugPicnic]

Cabbagehead was kind enough to give me one of his bottle stoves to review. I had been waiting for a chance to get on the trail these last couple of weeks, but alas, work had other plans for me, so I did my review on my back patio. Hey, I live in the desert, and it is windy all the time here, so I figure it counts! Anyway, I compared the Bottlestove with an alcohol stove made from a Red Bull can that my partner made a couple of years ago.

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The crew - a Heineken cooking pot, Bottlestove, my homemade alcohol stove, and an REI titanium cooking pot.

I started on my patio, with winds whipping from 15-20 mph and temps in the low 60s, with the Bottlestove, 1.5 oz of fuel, and the REI titanium pot. I soon discovered that my windscreen was somewhat lacking...

18267

Okay, maybe a bit more lacking...but I pressed on, figuring it was a good experiment. In about 1 min 45 secs, the stove was primed and 2 cups of water was boiling in 10 minutes.

So then I decided to make a better windscreen and see how it performed.

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There now, much better! This time the 2 cups of water boiled in 8 minutes.

I then took it inside the house to see how it would perform in non-windy conditions.

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Ooohhhh, pretty! It boiled in 5 mins 45 seconds.

As I mentioned earlier, I used 1.5 oz of alcohol each time and each time, there was alcohol left over - on average, I would say it used about an ounce of alcohol to boil the water.

Okay, so then I decided to put my homemade Red Bull alcohol stove to the test. I started outdoors, using the good windscreen.

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I used the same amount of fuel, 1.5 oz, and it primed in about 2 mins 15 secs and boiled 2 cups of water in 11 minutes.

I then brought it inside to test it.

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Again, very pretty! Two cups of water boiled in 8 mins 6 secs.

Of course, since this stove took longer to boil, it used more fuel, so there was barely any left in the stove.

So, Bottlestove is a winner for me! It is also much sturdier than my other alcohol stove and the Heineken pot fits very well right on top of it. It boils more quickly than my stove and uses less alcohol. Bueno!

I am going to try to take the Bottlestove up San Jacinto Peak, over 10,000', here in So Cal so as to try it out in colder conditions (yes, it really does get cold here!), but that all depends upon work schedule. When I do, I will be sure to post up on how it goes.

Thanks, Cabbagehead, for the opportunity to review such a great product!

[zelph]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PVVHcolnn5w

I like this review.

[LadybugPicnic]

I am not surprised.

[Hill Ape]

giggity goo

[CarlZ993]

I like this review.
I bet she has a lot of subscribers on YouTube. :)

[Altarboy]

I bought a bottlestove a while back and I really like it. It's 8 bucks and out performs my $29 Vargo titanium joke by a long shot.

[zelph]

I bought a bottlestove a while back and I really like it. It's 8 bucks and out performs my $29 Vargo titanium joke by a long shot.

Yes but, she got three stoves for free:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVVHcolnn5w&list=UL

[zelph]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t9HxmrNFSNo


Nice demonstration video. You made it look easy so I tried my hand at making some and they turned out well. I made some jigs and fixtures and found it was easy to mass produce some. There were other videos also that showed how to make stoves similar to this so I was able to increase my knowledge there. tinny at minibulldesign also has a good instructional video. I named the stove in your honor "cabbagehead" Thanks for the inspiration!

The Spirit of Christmas Giving has inspired me so I gave some stoves away this past week:

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?90630-Cabbage-Head-Stove

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