WhiteBlaze Pages 2024
A Complete Appalachian Trail Guidebook.
AVAILABLE NOW. $4 for interactive PDF(smartphone version)
Read more here WhiteBlaze Pages Store

Results 1 to 9 of 9
  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    11-01-2014
    Location
    Anchorage, AK
    Age
    62
    Posts
    2,500

    Default A Fast Fancy Feast Knock-off

    As I was riding my bike to work yesterday looking at all the beer cans along the road and daydreaming about making alcohol stoves, I had an epiphany!

    I love the idea of simple and cheap. It just warms my heart . . . even if my gear room, gear basement, and gear shed, all full of high end gear, are the joke of the family. Regardless, the simplest DIY stoves are high on my daydream list. And, I may have just come up with a beauty.

    This is essentially a Fancy Feast stove with all its attributes of fast (for an alcohol stove), fuel efficient (for an alcohol stove), wind resistant (for an alcohol stove) and a built in pot support. Frankly, my favorite of all the alcohol stoves around.

    BUT, this FFF Knock-off only needs one beverage can (preferable a nice amber or nut brown ale) and a friggin paper napkin . . . and nothing else! And, it can be built with nothing but a pocket knife in less than 3 minutes. After showing it to a colleague yesterday, he suggested I could just throw it away after every use and build a new one for each meal. That way I'd be truly ultra-light!

    Anyway, as I've suggested in the past, paper makes thoroughly acceptable wicking material in Fancy Feast stoves and doesn't burn up as one might think.

    The only down side I've found with this stove is that if you let it burn for a while without the pot on top deflecting the flame outward, you can overheat the relatively thin pot support part of the stove causing it so get soft and bend. So keep the pot on the stove when you're using it.

    Have fun and let me know what you think.

    FFF Knock-off.jpg

    I'm not lost. I'm exploring.

  2. #2
    Registered User
    Join Date
    03-25-2014
    Location
    Westchester County, NY
    Posts
    2,305

    Default

    Ha, good and quick!

    For something with more heat output, try a Groove Stove. I made one of these and it can, when combined with a Sterno Inferno pot, boil 2 cups of water in 4 minutes.

    Groove_Stove.jpg

  3. #3
    Registered User
    Join Date
    03-25-2014
    Location
    Westchester County, NY
    Posts
    2,305

    Default

    One other little observation about your FFF...

    The standard Zelph (and other close copies) need a little vent hole in the inner column so that pressure doesn't build up. For your quick version, the top edge is somewhat ragged so there isn't a close fit between the center column and the bottom of the pot, so you're probably going to get adequate venting there. If the fit were very precise, however, pressure could build up and it might be enough to topple your Ramen.

  4. #4
    Registered User
    Join Date
    11-01-2014
    Location
    Anchorage, AK
    Age
    62
    Posts
    2,500

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by cmoulder View Post
    . . . For your quick version, the top edge is somewhat ragged so there isn't a close fit. . .
    Thanks for the thought.

    I wrote a whole paragraph in the original post explaining the importance of not being too precise and neat for that exact reason. But then I decided to delete it to simplify the post. Of course, if you want to be neat and precise, you would then just have to cut some notches in the central piece. Oh the options. There are just so many. ;-)

    I also didn't belabor the need to try and expand the inner section as tightly as possible, pressing the napkin tightly against the outer section for more controlled and efficient burning. The one in the video is actually pretty sloppy, with associated bigger and yellower flames than my first one. Oh the choices when trying to explain things well enough while not making it daunting.

    I'm still blown away with how well the idea worked and how ridiculously easy it was.

    Now we can wait and see how long it takes someone to overheat the pot support and tell horror stories of their stove collapsing and spilling dinner. It isn't perfect. But, it is strikingly effective if one accepts the caveats.
    I'm not lost. I'm exploring.

  5. #5
    Registered User
    Join Date
    03-25-2014
    Location
    Westchester County, NY
    Posts
    2,305

    Default

    I figured you had considered the vent issue.

    And I appreciate the brevity and understand the frustration of having to do a caveat for this and one for that, of which there are a lot more for stoves/burners. Where there are stoves, horror stories are soon to follow lol.

    Great example, however, of what can be whipped up in a jiff on the trail to get the job done!

  6. #6
    Registered User
    Join Date
    03-11-2015
    Location
    Blairsville ,GA
    Posts
    263

    Default

    I had 5 minutes and a soda can to spare, so I gave it a shot. Wow, so easy! And it worked great. Thanks for the tip.

  7. #7
    GSMNP 900 Miler rmitchell's Avatar
    Join Date
    09-13-2011
    Location
    Knoxville,Tn
    Age
    68
    Posts
    511
    Images
    4

    Default

    Not pretty to look at but a beautiful concept.

    Personally I use Pepsi can stoves, but will keep this idea in mind for backup. As any long distance hiker could benefit from should they have a stove failure.

    A bottle of heet and a found beer can and you're back in business.

  8. #8
    Registered User
    Join Date
    11-01-2014
    Location
    Anchorage, AK
    Age
    62
    Posts
    2,500

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by rmitchell View Post
    . . .Personally I use Pepsi can stoves, but will keep this idea in mind for backup. . .
    Well then, I'd like to challenge you to build one of these FFF Knockoff stoves and compare it to your Pepsi stove for weight (including pot stand), fuel use, and cooking speed. Aside from visual beauty of the stove and beauty of those jets of flame on the Pepsi can stove, I think this one wins out on all fronts. . . okay, and aside from longevity of the pot support.

    And actually, I'd like to take back giving your pepsi stove the upper hand in beauty. I think there is a rustic beauty to raw knife cut edges of aluminum can, kinda like the jagged edges of the Tors of Patagonia or the teeth of the Sawtooth Mountains.
    I'm not lost. I'm exploring.

  9. #9
    Registered User
    Join Date
    06-12-2006
    Location
    northern illinois
    Posts
    4,532
    Images
    2

    Default

    I'm still blown away with how well the idea worked and how ridiculously easy it was.
    It's probably the most widely made DIY stove because of availability of materials to use. Pop cans, beer cans veggie cans and paper towels, TP, cotton balls etc for wicks.

++ New Posts ++

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •