These guys have made a test video for some of the most common types of alcohol fuel used in pack stoves. Watch and find out which will boil water the fastest, use the least amount, and have the cleanest burning flame.
The alcohol stove fuels used in the test are: ISO – Heat Antifreeze Yellow and Red bottles, Denatured alcohol, Everclear, Rubbing alcohol in 91% and 99% by volume. All of these fuels can be found in you local grocery stores and places like Wallymart.
Each type of alcohol stove fuel was tested for the time it took to get 16oz of water to a rolling boil. After the cook they checked the amount of fuel left to calculate product costs per use of each fuel.
Some of the cheapest to use fuels also burned the cleanest. That is a big plus. Less soot to breath in and less black stuff to wash off your cooking pots after your done. They also created a much smaller but concentrated flame that cuts down on burning the hair off your forearms.
Near the end the top three were retested against each other to make certain of the results. Check out the full result of the alcohol stove fuel test in the video below.
You can find small alcohol stoves similar to the ones used in the video here.
That was a great stove fuel test. I always wondered if that Heat stuff was worth the money, The big surprise to me was how well the 91% rubbing alcohol did. I have found 95% bottles cheap at the dollar store before. I might give that a try next.
Ok so you know places that give away those little bottles of GermX hand sanitizer with 63% Ethyl Alcohol. Could you put that on something to make it useful for a cooking stove in the woods say camping.
It will burn, just not very hot. You could use it to warm a drink.