Alcohol Stoves

Alcohol stoves for disaster preparedness

Alcohol stoves and their plastic fuel bottles can be incredibly light, making them increasingly popular among backpackers. They also cost a bit less than canister gas and are relatively safe. There's no risk of explosion, and spills evaporate quickly without leaving horrible smells. Grain alcohol and denatured alcohol are among the least toxic of camp stove fuels. The main issue for backpackers is the weight of the alcohol itself if you have to carry a large quantity for a long trip. Since alcohol has roughly half the heating power of canister gas and liquid fuels like white gas, the fuel weight can be twice as heavy. So calculating which stove and fuel combination will be lightest overall, for a certain length of trip, can be tricky to do. If a trip is long enough to use up a whole gas canister, that's a good choice, but for most trips, calculations at ZenStoves.com show that alcohol is a lighter choice.

Of course there are other factors to consider, as well. Canister gas stoves are more convenient -- slightly quicker to get going -- and it's much easier to adjust the flame down to a simmer. Alcohol stoves are better suited to boiling water, which can limit menu choices. For real cooking, a canister stove can't be beat. However, alcohol stoves are so quiet you don't hear them at all, they use renewable fuel that's less toxic than others, and you don't have all those gas containers to recycle -- or to feel guilty about not recycling.

At BackpackingLight.com, the highest rating for overall performance among alcohol stoves goes to the ThermoJet MicroLite stove (*est. $40), which comes with a lifetime warranty. Its 3-ounce weight includes a pot stand, wind screen, fuel bottle, stuff sack and special simmer burner, as well as the main burner. The 4-ounce Nalgene bottle nests inside the stove when packed, and it holds enough fuel for a long weekend. The ThermoJet MicroLite comes in two sizes, one for pots 4.75 to 5.6 inches in diameter and a larger size for pots 5.75 to 6.5 inches in diameter (up to about 1.5 liters).

The BackpackingLight.com tests show the ThermoJet MicroLite took about half an ounce of alcohol to boil a pint of water in calm conditions (in 4.5 minutes), but 0.8 ounces (and 6.75 minutes) to do the job in a 12-mph wind. This still beat other alcohol stoves, some of which couldn't boil water at all (the alcohol would be used up before the water could boil). Note that these times are for just a pint of water; this makes sense for alcohol stoves that perform best with small quantities. It's faster to boil one pint and then another, than to boil a quart at a time. If you allow a full ounce of alcohol per backpacking meal or half an ounce for a cup of tea or coffee, you should have plenty.

The Clikstand S-2 (*est. $55) is the successor to the S-1, which was the favorite in a 2004 comparative review by Art Simon. However, with pot support and wind screen, it weighs 6.10-ounces, more than twice the weight of the ThermoJet set. Many other alcohol stoves are popular, but didn't perform well in the tests. Some, like the oft-recommended Trangia Mini (*Est. $35 including cook set) heated water fast in calm conditions, but performed badly in wind (even though a windscreen was used for all the stoves).