Thank you very much for the replies - much appreciated. That's great news because I am going to be buying some fuels at the weekend. I had the stove bug a few years ago and she's back again! Mark
Confused about ethanol. I just learned that the SLX from the big box store is over 50% methanol. Sure it burns nice, but I don't want to breathe it or have my spills run on my skin. Any easy places to get 95% ethanol fuel? I am gravitating more and more to my Trangia 27 cookset. Should cost less than $16 a gallon.
Once its burned its harmless. On the skin the amount absorbed if its only occasionally wont hurt you. If your not wasking your hands in the stuff every day I cant see anything wrong with it.
It would appear that buying the 95% ethanol denatured alcohol is not as easy as it once was. Some brands, like Sunnyside, have switched to 50% methanol. I can't find the Crown Next at any stores, hardware, Lowes, or Home Depot here in NC in the USA. Home Depot does carry the KleenStrip Green, but in the quart size at $8, or $32 a gallon! Expensive! On Amazon I did find a 5 gallon pail of the 95% ethanol for $99. Wow! Who wants to split it with me? That's more than a life time supply for me. I decided that for outdoor uses I will stick with the common 50% methanol stuff at $16 a gallon. I will buy the expensive $8 a quart stuff at Home Depot for my Origo stove on my sailboat, where it is basically burned indoors, even with a port light open for venting.
Just noticed that my local Wally World stopped selling gallon cans of Coleman fuel and replaced it with Crown Camp fuel for almost $5 less than it was a month ago. At just under $8/gal(US) (~3.7 L) it is still twice what it should be given current gasoline prices. Still, that is better than the $12-13 is was not long ago.
I also checked at a local WW yesterday in response to the Coleman Fuel thread, which also indicated this switch to Crown. They were out, but said more was coming in. It looks, indeed, like WW may be starting to market Crown at a $7+ standard price. This would be good news. I have seen Crown fuel from time to time over the years, but never cheaper than Coleman before. Whatever the price of pump gasoline, I think that $7-8 for a gallon of stove fuel is a very fair price. It was when Coleman started to get well over 11 bucks that the situation became ridiculous.
Here near Raleigh today I bought 2 gallons of the Crown gas for $7.64 each at Walmart. This was the first camp fuel I have seen at WW other than the expensive quarts. Do you think the fuel degrades over time in an unopened can?
In New Bern NC at Mitchell's Hardware I just bought Kleenstrip denatured alcohol for $9.99 US for one gallon.
Random (US) sources: Most Ace and True Value stores have very good, clear, clean K-1 for about $8.50/Gallon. If you go to their websites, you can have it "shipped to store" (your local store) for free any time of year. I like to buy it in 5 gallon lots, which come in two fairly handy 2.5 gallon jugs. The big box stores like Lowes and Home Despot have it during the heating season, but it becomes hit-or-miss in the spring and summer. The airports locally are pretty good about selling Jet-A (not every small airport has it) for $4.50 - $5.00/gal if you bring an appropriate container. This does not mean a liter Sigg bottle, but a hefty jug with a wide mouth. Most hardware stores also have naptha in their painting supply section, in quarts, pints or gallons. That's the basic ingredient in Coleman fuel, Shellite, Isosol, etc. Obviously, they also usually have denatured alcohol. We don't have much of a problem with people cooking speed around here -- the locals prefer organic products, so sales are hassle-free. Many liquor stores have "Everclear" brand ethyl alcohol. Costly, but you can give a shot to the stove and have one for yourself, with plenty of mixer. Be aware, there are two grades of Everclear, depending on tax jurisdiction. One is 70% ethanol, and does not burn as well. The other is 90%, and is "the right stuff." I have a few alcohol-burning "penny stoves" as well as a Trangia burner. I've successfully run these off of the yellow bottle of "Heet" gas-line antifreeze. It's methanol, and therefore toxic. It must be handled with some care. Obviously, it it outdoors-only stuff. It burns very hot for alky, with no soot or smoke. A local store had a generic of it for $1/350 ml some time ago, which worked as well. There is a red bottle of "Heet" which is isopropanol. Avoid it. It's sooty and generally miserable stuff. The advantage of "Heet" is that practically every small convenience store carries it, at least around here. Also good for priming your kero burners. I will only burn pump gasoline or diesel in dire circumstances. My 1972 marine engine likes good, sooty high-sulfur red "off-road" diesel. Stoves do not. Never burn Aviation low-lead (100LL). It's only low-lead in comparison to Aviation high-lead, which is over-saturated with tetra-ethyl lead. 100LL still has plenty enough lead in it to land you on the short bus -- several orders of magnitude over what leaded auto gas used to have. I have a Coleman 533 that is supposed to be for Coleman fuel or unleaded gas. I've quite happily run it on that, as well as hardware-store naptha, mineral ("evil") spirits, AKA "paint thinner", and K-1. It just takes a touch of pre-heating to chug along cheerfully on K-1. It's essentially the same as the OLD (Korean conflict) military field stove, which was surplussed when the US military went to a one-fuel policy. I suppose no one in R&D would make a living otherwise. I've poured gas from Jerry cans into the wing of my 1952 Cessna on floats. We used an old felt hat in a tractor funnel to strain off the bugs and twigs. My lawyers tell me I should have been dead long ago.
I use Coleman Fuel (white gasoline). Klean-Heat (kerosene) and Bio Ethanol (alcohol) exclusively. The sulfur and aromatic hydrocarbons have been removed from Coleman fuel and Klean-Heat so they burn clean and odorless. Bio Ethanol has higher heat output than methanol. Ben
I've just bought another 10liters of my fav panel wipe (wasbenzine) for €22.96. Can't complain. B R, Wim
I don't really recommend methanol except in a pinch. It's toxic, (as little as 30 ml can be fatal) and you really wouldn't want any of it to leak on your food bag. It also has significantly less energy than ethanol, as Ben noted. It has a lower flash point and a much higher vapor pressure than ethanol, which may be the reason that it appears to work better in some "penny stoves" than ethanol However, when you're supplying at a little convenience store out in the boonies and a bottle of "Heet" is all that's available, it will work for boiling your tea and instant noodles. I usually carry a Trangia burner as a back-up. I find it odd, however, that many ultralight hikers insist alky's the best stuff. Ethanol has only 60% of the energy density of kero, (methanol is about half) and weighs almost the same (11 grams less per liter.) You have to carry 40% more fuel to do the same job! Modern (MSR, Primus etc) multi-fuel stoves weigh in a little over or under pound (454 grams), and will burn practically any liquid combustible. A Trangia burner weighs about 4 ounces (113.5 grams). You can get a very light titanium model (expensive) that weighs a quarter of that. Still, the alcohol burner only puts out about 1000 BTU. The multi-fuel burner puts out eight to ten times that, and will boil a liter of water in a third the time that it takes the alcohol burner to boil 350 ml. When out on 1-2 week trips, the ex-wife and I would typically take the multi-fuel and a liter of kero. We usually returned with plenty in the bottle.
@Canuman you obviously know your fuels. I don't backpack or use much fuel so weight and cost aren't really factors for me. I use ethanol because its increased heat output is useful when pre-heating stoves or when cooking on an alcohol stove. I use Coleman and Klean-heat because they burn cleanly resulting in less sooting and jet clogging. If high proof Everclear were available in California I'd use that. Priming myself and the stove out of the same bottle appeals to me. Ben
Thank you Wim ! I think it is like the "essence C" or "essence F", here. I wasn't able to find a logical equivalent on Google. The best I found was " white spirit "... It burns well, for sure, but it isn't the same thing !
