Best cold weather/winter alcohol stove

[surfnturk]

What is considered the best, most efficient alcohol stove for cold weather? I plan on a 5-6 day hike from Springer sometime in febuary.
Thanks

[Monkeywrench]

Alcohol is the wrong fuel for cold weather. If it's cold enough you can snuff out matches in alcohol. Try a white gas stove.

[Rifleman]

What is considered the best, most efficient alcohol stove for cold weather? I plan on a 5-6 day hike from Springer sometime in febuary.
Thanks

I have had and used my mini-Trangia for many years now and am very happy with it.
The Trangia alcohol stove works very well in northern Europe (made and used in Sweden and other cold climes). Stick both stove and butane lighter in your jacket pocket (or sleep with them in you sleeping bag) a few minutes before you want to light the stove and both will work quite well.

[Another Kevin]

Alcohol isn't a great choice for winter. If you must use alcohol, try a Penny Stove, with a priming pan in place so that (1) the stove is elevated, (2) you can prime it, because it's not self-priming in a Northern winter. (Its designer is a Californian with a different idea from mine of what constitutes "winter".) The priming pan instructions are on the original Penny Stove page, but you can't get the Heineken keg-cans to make the original any more. And keep the fuel bottle inside your jacket. If you do both of those, the Penny works adequately, but not terrifically. If it's being really cantankerous, try a wisp of toilet paper in the top dish and another in the priming pan to serve as wicks for lighting it.

A Trangia can also work well if you figure out a way to keep the base of the stove insulated from the cold ground.

If you're melting snow for water, you really need a naphtha-fueled stove. The Svea 123R and the MSR WhisperLite are perennial favourites.

[russb]

I have used a number of alcohol stoves in the winter. The "best" most efficient one at the extreme temps is the Zelph designed Fancee Feest stove. I have used it at MINUS 22*F, without doing anything special with the stove or fuel. The alcohol was sitting out all night too.

[CarlZ993]

I have used a number of alcohol stoves in the winter. The "best" most efficient one at the extreme temps is the Zelph designed Fancee Feest stove. I have used it at MINUS 22*F, without doing anything special with the stove or fuel. The alcohol was sitting out all night too.

Wow! That's impressive. I picked one up a few weeks back. I hope I don't have to test your statement on the trail.

[Franco]

At this point usually someone will post that mushers use alcohol to heat the food for their dogs.And they do except that those are huge stoves and weight is not all that important however reliability is (no fiddling with fuel lines and all of that)
Generally alcohol is not such a good choice in below freezing temps because you need more than twice twice as much in weight as you do for naphtha (white gas /Coleman fuel) and it is a lot slower
but providing that you do keep the bottom of the burner insulated (some use a piece of plywood (composite/engineered wood)) it will light up and stay alight.
Down to around 20f canister stoves are easy enough , much below that I would also suggest Coleman fuel stoves particularly if melting snow.
(have a 1.3l better still 1.5/2 L pot and a good windscreen)
You really need to practice with all of these stoves first , particularly the white gas types (know how to take them apart and clean)
BTW, an easy way to light alcohol below freezing is to have some cotton impregnated with petroleum jelly (Vaseline) pick a strand from it put half in the fuel and the other half sticking out , light the bit sticking out.
That will warm up and light the fuel inside the stove.

[Slo-go'en]

The best results are obtained by insulating the stove from the ground and air.

I made a combo pot stand and stove holder from a slightly larger tin can. The stove is set into some fiberglass insulation inside the tin can. 1/4 inch holes are drilled all around the top of the can to let the stove flames out, along with a few large holes lower down to let air in.

To light, simply spill some alcohol on the fiberglass and light. I just tested it to -2F tonight as shown below:
SANY0183.JPG

[surfnturk]

Thanks for tips and to everyone who actually answered my question. I dont plan on melting snow so not a factor, and I'm not a thru hiker so weight isn't as important. I have a Zelphs Starlite and cabbage head stove and they work well at 31-33 degrees. I'll try the fancee feast next.

[swjohnsey]

Zelphs Super Venon also works O.K. in sub-freezing temps.

[staehpj1]

Generally alcohol is not such a good choice in below freezing temps because you need more than twice twice as much in weight as you do for naphtha (white gas /Coleman fuel)

Just to clarify, which combined fuel/stove is heavier is dependent on the length of the trip and how much fuel you are consuming. With short trips (or frequent restocking) and low consumption alcohol can be a lot lighter. Longer time between restocking and higher consumption favors coleman fuel or canisters. If melting snow for water alcohol pretty quickly becomes heavier.

[Franco]

BTW, I use a Caldera Cone burning alcohol except for in winter on snow....

[QiWiz]

BTW, I use a Caldera Cone burning alcohol except for in winter on snow....

I have used alcohol stoves including Caldera Cones in winter, in snow, down to 5 below with no trouble. To light the stove, it will help if stove and fuel are warmed in your pocket, OR you use a priming pan OR priming fiberglass wick OR dip a twig in alcohol, light the twig, and hold burning twig in or near stove to warm the fuel and stove enough to get it going, OR use a burning cotton ball with vaseline dab in it next to stove to get it going.

On snow, place some fairly straight twigs that are 1.5-2 feet long down to serve as a base for the cone and stove. A stove "snowshoe" if you will. The whole thing will sink an inch or two as you are cooking, but it will work fine.

[dla]

Yellow bottle HEET works best for me. And I prefer to use a Trangia burner in the cold, mainly because it is fiddle-free and holds an abundance of fuel. I've also used a Whitebox stove, and it works, but it does require a little more fiddling. I really don't like to fiddle when it is cold. I've been using a chunk of silicone pot holder for an insulator - seems to work pretty good although I would prefer something more rigid for on-snow use. I just boil water for freezer-bag cooking and coffee.

If you are needing to melt snow for drinking water then I would suggest you use a white-gas stove.

[cabbagehead]

In general you just need to put insulation between the stove and the ground. This could be done with twigs or an empty, upside down cat food can.

[Wise Old Owl]

Alcohol is the wrong fuel for cold weather. If it's cold enough you can snuff out matches in alcohol. Try a white gas stove.

Well that statement appears really off. - I wish I could find a picture of the 50 cases of Heet used in the Iditarod to heat 3 gallons of snow for water and heat dog and human food in Alaska. There are few "absolutes" in Backpacking.

[surfnturk]

Apparently many think that when you ask a specific question you don't have any experience at all with stoves, etc. I've used alcohol stoves in very cold weather, just wanted to know what is considered the most efficient. I'm a camper, sometimes hiker, lifetime outdoorsman. If I wanted a white gas stove, guess what, I'd get one. Fact is, I dont.
Once again, thanks for all the info and tips.

[Franco]

OK, I was a bit premature with my post N7 but I knew that I could count on someone making that comments.

[Franco]

Since the point is not obvious to the wise one, the often repeated comment "alcohol stoves don't work in winter" is just a convenient shortcut to "yes you can use an alcohol stove in winter, however be prepared to fill your puny backpacking stove two or three times just to melt a couple of liters of water. That will take you the best part of an hour and of course you should wait between refills (just to give your stove time to cool down while the pot is also cooling down...) or use two burners.After you do that for a few meals you will beg for some hot water from your mate that is using white gas"But of course most don't bother with the long explanation...


The Iditarod burners are big multi gallon drums that burn one or two (usually two ) bottles of Heet at a time.
That is 24 oz of fuel at a time...
Neither the size of the burner nor the quantity of fuel used is relevant to this discussion.

musher's stove.jpg

[surfnturk]

I think that on this site it is assumed that you are a thru hiker and that you will be melting snow. Neither applies to me. 5-6 days out for me. If it snows, i dont care, I'll have water with me. Weight for me is considered but not near as important as to a thru hiker or someone hiking in snow regularly. If water becomes an issue, I go home. Fact is, i dont want to deal with the mechanics of a canister or white gas stove. I like the simplicity of an alcohol stove. I use white gas stove when I car camp with the wife and that enough.