What is the reason for using alcohol or “meths” for preheating lanterns and stoves instead of just using the fuel that the device runs on? Is it because it burns cleaner/no sooty residue? Enlighten me! Thanks - Steve
Ethanol is preferable to Methanol. Ethanol is a two carbon alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. Methanol is a one carbon alcohol commonly referred to as "wood alcohol" which is poisonous. Ben
With stoves and lanterns using kerosene it might get tricky to light the stove fuel in the cup without a wick. So in addition to previous answers alcohol is more volatile and easier to ignite than kero or diesel. To be honest I haven't tried to preheat anything with plain kero if the quicklighters don't count. Still there are incidents when I've had burning kero in my preheat cups due to insufficient preheat with alcohol and the kero doesn't seem to help the preheat much.
And don't forget in the past small pieces of Meta tablet were sometimes used, and tubes of priming paste were sold by Optimus and others...
I appreciate the replies. All of my stoves and lanterns are white gas, no kero/paraffin. Years ago I used the priming paste backpacking on my Optimus 80. It did leave a buildup of residue on the tank over time but burned clean. Now I just keep a small piece of tube in my kit and use a little fuel from the stove to pre-heat. Didn’t see the need to carry a separate bottle of alcohol. At home I guess not an issue.
@TSPORT Petrol / gasoline can be used with stoves like the optimus 8R and Svea 123 that are designed for that fuel. That saves carrying separate priming fuels, but will soot up the burner as has already been stated. I've never gone down the route of using a wick in the priming cup because paraffin burns very dirtily and covers everything in soot until you get it hot enough to burn with a blue flame. In my experience, without a wick, paraffin / kerosene doesn't work in stoves such as the primus 210, optimus 00 or the larger type 1 or type 5s because it won't light unless you pre-heat the pre-heating fuel. In either case ethanol / methanol burn much cleaner and they normally ignite instantly. On colder days it might need to be warmed up by holding a match under the priming cup. I was brought up using meta tablet pieces because they were safer than meths because the risk of spillage is removed but the tablets also produced soot. Regards John
well , go ahead and preheat using the regular fuel in the stove. after, let's say 10 of these preheats and 10 cleanups ,you'll use ONLY denaturated alcoohol. or don't fire up the stove at all... that's where I'm at now...
The manufacturer Monitor devised a pre-heater for their ‘Regal’ stove to burn kerosene to prime the burner relatively cleanly. It has a wick in the priming cup and a pierced and contoured sleeve to aerate the burn. A syringe mounted in the fuel filler cap is used to transfer fuel from the tank to the priming cup. If the syringe method is bypassed by simply pressurising the tank slightly to trickle fuel out of the jet into the priming cup the burner gets coated in soot during the priming, defeating the intention to create a clean prime. Burner ignition from the last gasp of the priming fuel burn.
I've got to chuckle a bit. I've had a Svea 123 since 1969. I've used it hundreds of times and have never primed with anything except white gas. The soot on the burner burns off in a minute with the regular use of the stove. Maybe the stove is a bit dirtier than it would be if I primed with alcohol. (I haven't done the experiment and so have no way of knowing.) But I always clean the stove when I get home, and it isn't a problem. It's a different story with kerosene. The first time I fired up my Optimus 00 (my first kero stove), I made a wick of twisted toilet paper and put it and kerosene into the priming cup. That was a smoky mess and an inefficient prime that I had to repeat to get the stove to light. Since then, I've always used denatured alcohol to prime kerosene stoves. By the way, a wick in the priming cup just provides a better prime (my opinion). It doesn't flare as much so the flame (and presumably the heat) is more concentrated around the riser tube. "Doesn't flare as much" is also a big advantage if you need to start the stove in an enclosed space, like a tent. (Not a recommended procedure, but is sometimes dictated by weather.) ....Arch
Great action photos! Already a design over 20 years old when adopted by Monitor, but never a popular option compared to the simple meths cup. It's a feature seen to be used by a few manufacturers in an attempt to give their products an edge in an already crowded market....
I'm talking about stoves that use gasoline or diesel fuel from any gas station. although british army no.12 is a different breed from what I've read here. I use a Shmel-2 and burn only gasolne in it. lowest octane and cheapest I can find... Also never had a Svea 123 either ,so don't know its behavior either... But denaturated alcohol does such a good job ,it's hard to cook without it...
Priming with white gas doesnt cause flare ups in itself. It's the liquid fuel sitting in the generator that boils and sputters. If one refrains from using the pressure in the tank and cracking the valve in order to get fuel into the primimg cup, and instead use a syringe or eyedropper, priming is usually smooth and uneventful.
