Nick writes “Hikers continue to strive for lighter equipment, and while many times this leads to buying expensive gear, several people are experimenting with making small alcohol stoves out of Soda cans. Running on plain alcohol, they can weigh only tens of grams and heat almost as good as their professional counterparts.” Link.


For those interested, the Zen Stove site has the most complete alcohol stove site I ever seen. Very comperhensive know-hows on stove construction. The construction of the Zen Stove is acturally little easier than the Pepsi Can style. The site has a lot of links to other DIY backpacking stoves, too…
http://zenstoves.net/Stoves.htm
Made two of them alcohol stove myself, but find that you need a lot of patient, especially when cooking a big meal(after a long hike). Very sloow…not something you want when very hungry, and daylight is dwindling. I learned that finding 100% alcohol while you are on the road is not easy, and 100% alcohol cast just the same as gasoline or white gas.
I do have to admit…. alcohol, is a renewable fuel. And… It was fun building them.
Last year I developed a stove based on the designs of this type for my Scouts to produce. The version we made used only one diet pepsi can and no tape at all.
The stove ran on methalated spirts rather than alcohol and boiling a pint of water took anything between 3 and 8 minites.
There is some pictures and some unfinished instructions on my website
http://www.davelodwig.co.uk/projects/spiritstoves/
Ready Made ran an article on how to build a soda can stove.
http://www.readymademag.com/feature_11_gotorch.php
My tip of the day,
If you are looking for a source a cheap gel alcohol source for easy use and storage check out the “anti bacterial” hand soaps at any store, look for the ones with the massive warning on the back about it being HIGHLY FLAMMABLE. The stuff burns very controlled on its own and remains as a gel even while burning for easy cleanup after.
The stuff i had was the “London Drug” clear antibacterial soap for you Canadians out there. I just can’t believe schools are demanding kids bring this to school these days to keep their hands clean… I mean is it just me, or does highly flammable and kids just should not mix.
Great idea, I could see using this when going to the beach to heat up a snack.
nice post amigo!…Busby SEO Challenge
Sadly, this is a dead link, it goes to a very bad search engine style site now.
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