Majorly disappointed with alcohol stove

[JAK]

"privately" can can most emphatic

I think alcohol stoves have their challenges, but also their merits. I think some folks get into trouble trying to achieve both efficiency and performance at the same time. They are not entirely mutually exclusive, but your primary focus should be on one or the other.

[IceAge]

I'm not concerned about the amount of time, since there is plenty of time while hiking, but using 2oz of alcohol for every meal would be annoying.

Might just need practice, or a different stove.

[10-K]

I know the CC is tuned to a specific stove. I was using:

a) Caldera cone with gram cracker esbit stove as sold by AGG

b) Bud light aluminininininum bottle stove by itself with a windscreen in near perfect conditions I would say..... Around 50*, no wind, still had a windscreen.

[Montana]

It sounds, to me, that your alcohol stove may have been starved of oxygen. I had this same problem, that was fixed by taking a hole punch to the wind screen. I could, of course, be completely wrong here... If you can, post some pictures of the setup that you used, we might be able to better help diagnose the problem.

[10-K]

It sounds, to me, that your alcohol stove may have been starved of oxygen. I had this same problem, that was fixed by taking a hole punch to the wind screen. I could, of course, be completely wrong here... If you can, post some pictures of the setup that you used, we might be able to better help diagnose the problem.

Uh oh... you mean operator error??

[moytoy]

I just now at 4:55 lit my stove to cook my dinner ( a pasta Fazool bean soup) it takes about 15 min to prepair because the beans and veg. need to hydrate. I have 1 oz of fuel in my penny stove with a caldera style wind screen. I'll report back here when it's done.

[moytoy]

at 5:01 I put on a simmer ring.. that allows the stove to continue to cook but not use so much fuel.

[moytoy]

temp here is pretty warm. about 70 I would guess. I'm in the shade at a trail head on the Fl trail. posting from laptop with aircard. I'm 11 min. into the cook.

[Mountain Wildman]

Titusville, I used to live there, in 1982, has it changed? :-)

[moytoy]

I just added some ramon noodles ... I always wait to the end to add them because they only need three min to cook. The fazool is a complete dinner but the romon noodles add a little more bulk. I'm 15 min. into the cook..going to check and see if it's about done.

[moytoy]

soup is done at 5:13,,, I just killed the flame with a snuffer I made for the purpose. I'll let it cool... I could have saved fuel if I had use my cosy. but I'm at a base camp of sorts and no need to be so frugal. I'm sitting in my car as I type this. There is some fuel left but probably not much..I get about 18-20 min cook time with 1 oz of fuel.

[moytoy]

Titusville, I used to live there, in 1982, has it changed? :-)

LOL..not much... I moved here in 1975 from Tn and NC. Although I've left here a couple of times since then I never sold the house. So I'm back here to stay now. Actually I'm in the Ocala National Forest at the moment. Titusville may never change. One of those places that just stands still.

[Roland]

I was delivering a boat from Maine to Key Largo and spent a night in Titusville, at the municipal marina. I met Walter Cronkite that evening, in the slip next to mine, and was invited aboard for a drink.

That's my only recollection of Titusville.

[moytoy]

So 10-K the point in all that was to show it can be efficient but it takes practice. And you have to use all the heat from the flame for the cookpot. no waste. like Montana posted ..show some pics of your setup.
There are lots of people here that can help you with cooking on a alcohol stove. I have cooked with it so much I am more comfortable than cooking on a kitchen stove.

[moytoy]

I was delivering a boat from Maine to Key Largo and spent a night in Titusville, at the municipal marina. I met Walter Cronkite that evening, in the slip next to mine, and was invited aboard for a drink.

That's my only recollection of Titusville.

I lived on a boat in that Marina from 1975-1977. Back in those days we could see people from the news rooms in restaurants all the time.. My wife has several sigs from celebs from those years. Never saw Walter though.

[moytoy]

Actually I lived at Westland marina which is next door to the municipal.

[climber2377]

depending on my stove, one boils in about 6 min and the other takes about 11. 2 cups of water and 1 oz. of fuel. i like them both. one is a modified penny stove and the other a crumb catcher. never tried the bud bottle one, but i thought about it. never had the scenario you are talking about. wonder what caused the challenge?

[moytoy]

wonder what caused the challenge?

No real challenge. I was sitting here reading about 10-K's dissatisfaction with the alcohol stove and it was time to fix my dinner. It's been a long time since I actually timed cooking on the penny stove so I just kinda challenged myself and If I can help 10-k .... well so be it. BTW the soup was gooooood!

[Mountain Wildman]

I was delivering a boat from Maine to Key Largo and spent a night in Titusville, at the municipal marina. I met Walter Cronkite that evening, in the slip next to mine, and was invited aboard for a drink.

That's my only recollection of Titusville.

That's awesome Roland. My time there was fairly un-eventful.
Though I did feel the ground shaking when they launched the Shuttle that year and watched it disappear into the sky, I don't think Cronkite was there at that time. :-)

[mister krabs]

10k, what kind of bud lite bottle stove? whitebox style? superstove style? pressurized? wick?