Not a good idea because of the fact that alcohol corrodes aluminium. Fuel bottles made of aluminium aren’t intended to contain alcohol fuel. Here’s what Optimus print on their fuel bottle. Alcohol’s not listed. I’d be wary too of the effect of alcohol on O-ring seals not intended to handle it.
I read that an inside lacquered fuel bottle, like Primus's, can stand more against alcohol, is true? Yes, that's what I'm worried more about. Maybe, replacing the O-ring seals with hard rubber seals will solve the issue? Best IM
I doubt that the lacquer is formulated with alcohol in mind, and it won’t be something I’ll be testing. O-rings need to have some elasticity or they won’t seal. Some grades of viton have good resistance to some types of alcohol. Difficulty is making sure your seals are compatible. It’s more certain that kerosene and white gasoline won’t degrade seals intended for those fuels. If alcohol’s got to be the fuel, or partly, I’d be checking the pump and stove seals (and fuel bottle) regularly.
I've used an Omnifuel and Omnilite as my adventure stoves backpacking, packrafting, and mountaineering in Alaska for the last 10 years or so. I love the stove and have not experienced any issues with trying to balance flame control and the low or high end. I do use a silent cap for the stove, so that might help. If you really need the ability to burn all fuel types, I think the Omnifuel/Omnilite are as good as it gets. The Omnilite doesn't like silent caps when burning Kerosene in my experience. It works, but takes a more preheating and gently bringing the burner up to max. It is important to realize that all the flexibility comes with more break points. There are more orings, adapters, and such that need to be replaced to keep the stoves running well. You really need to make sure you need all the multifuel capabilities vs. the added complexity. The Omnifuel TI is my choice for winter expeditions. I do carry a maintenance kit and spare pump. The same stuff I'd carry with an MSR stove, but I have flame control. The most bombproof stove I own is my Svea123 - if it melted snow as fast as my Omnifuel at -10 degF If would be my only stove.
With the caveat that the amount of pump strokes needed is definitely proportional to the amount of fuel in the bottle as the headspace I will note that with a mostly full bottle I can start the Omnilite Ti with maybe 10-20 pumps and gradually add more when I need more power. It is mostly on the low, low end of simmering that I find that there needs to be "less" pumping. Usually after startup I will end up adding more pressure when I find fully opening the valve doesn't have enough output for each stove respectively. This is more the case in single valve stoves like the Soto Muka, Stormbreaker and the MSR Whisperlite (Universal) and XGK EX respectively when I want them to simmer. The Omnilite Ti still beats them all for simmer since it has the valve right before the jet.. I think you'd notice excessive pressure in the bottle first before it gets dangerous as it becomes very hard to pump. I've done some decent pressurization for both normal petroleum fuels and alcohol with full bottles before and on the Soto stoves in the instructions you're supposed to pump up the bottle until the indicator pops out and that is a decent amount of pressure (and it isn't as necessary if you just continue to pump it up after doing like 10-20 to get the stove running with a quick start) you'll start to feel on the pump itself. If anything the relatively strong pressurization isn't that necessary unless you absolutely want to try to get as much output from the burner as possible. I have only found that running straight (isopropyl) alcohol tends to need more pressure than other fuels as it needs it for the flow and backpressure on stoves like the Whisperlite Universal.
No, to be specific I had a mixture that had a few cap fulls of 91% isopropyl alcohol (percentage being less than 10%) poured in. That mixture was mostly charcoal lighter fluid, white gas and the splashes of alcohol that was mostly used up. Later I poured a decent volume of kerosene in and before I operated the XGK EX I would shake the bottle up first and begin to pump it. If you want to read about fuel experiments (so you don't have to try them yourself) I leave notes up here: https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/alcohol-in-white-gas-or-kerosene.45976/ For reference only as the sample size of 1 applies here with older Optimus bottles (made in Spain, the newer ones I bought are made in China so big caveat if there's any changes) that I had left alcohol fuel in for years (~before 2014-2015?) and had forgotten about: Isopropyl alcohol @ 80% or so concentration stored with a plastic MSR Duraseal pump was OK, the seal itself turned a little lighter in color but to this day it hasn't cracked or needed to be replaced to this very day. The pump seal is pliable and flexible still and has been in use with the XGK and WLU. Denatured alcohol (ethanol/methanol) stored in an Optimus bottle didn't show any failure of the lacquer but there may or may not be some slight corrosion underneath near the threads where the lacquer transistions to the green paint. The cap spun off easily and seals still. I will have to test this bottle at another time but it was used with a MSR Duraseal pump as well rather than the Primus pumps with an o-ring and I cannot remember if I picked that bottle because the exterior paint was less than perfect due to the chunkiness of it. It lacks the "usage dents" I have on the isopropyl containing bottle so this may have been a bottle I set aside. This is with alcohol only (plus water found in isopropyl/leached from the air), rather than anything like the smaller amounts I used for my kerosene mix tests ("a splash" meaning less than 10%) and in contrast to unleaded which in California and many other states can contain up to 10% ethanol. My understanding is unleaded with 10% is the upper safe limit for vehicles as higher percentages of ethanol are no good for the seals of the fuel system or otherwise need different seals/different materials to mitigate problems. I am fairly certain less stove obsessed users are more than willing to pour regular unleaded gasoline into their bottles and use them frequently without problems beyond the regular nastiness that is running unleaded gasoline through a stove. Big caveat above as I only have the sample size of 1 with two fuels so far. The two bottles look to be intact lacquer wise at the very bottom where the alcohol still sits. I strongly agree on this as even after years of storage, there is some weirdness with the denatured alcohol bottle that I cannot recall was just the way the bottle was or not. The isopropyl bottle I trust but I'd want to prod the lacquer with a soft thing like a cotton swab or such to see if it has started to go bad or not every often.
There’s also the possibility of course that if lacquer is eaten away by the alcohol, even before it has a go at the aluminium the fuel will have bits of lacquer in suspension, clogging any filters downstream. For me, the parcel of concerns adds up to good reason to avoid alcohol fuel for stoves of this type. Trangias, fine! It’s not being boringly conservative or lacking in creative inspiration to avoid the hassle and use the fuel or fuels a particular stove was intended for. I made an exception for a stove that was lethal (subsequently recalled and scrapped by the manufacturer) fuelled on the white gasoline it was intended to use. Coleman 501 butane fuelled.
@Iming Muslimin I have run the 100°F flash point kerosene in many of my multi-fuel stoves with no issues.
Dear @Cookie , @presscall , @Reflector , @907_Nick , thank you for all the responses and information. These have been sightful for me. Finally, the nozzle/jet on my MSR Dragonfly can be unscrewed, thanks to one of the construction workers that eventually still building my house, Mang Njam, a treat of Sampoerna 234 Premium Blend pack has given to him with thanks! Now I will never screw my nozzle/jet like crazy no more. I've tried diesel with MSR Dragonfly, in a condition during medium rain, at night, I don't make a note of the environment temperature and pressure. The priming with spiritus methanol 95-96% on MSR DF was slow. It doesn't take too much time for the white gas though. I clip the recorded video below *LINK EXPIRED* I think diesel is the last option to burn because of the pollution it made, its fume sticks to my clothes and roof. Best, IM ==
If you have to burn diesel, try adding some white gas (25% white gas / 75% diesel) to it as it'll make it easier to vaporize and thus burn a bit cleaner.
@Iming Muslimin Congratulations, that’s good combustion. I see you’ve a Primus fuel bottle (and pump?) connected to the MSR fuel feed with a length of hose and clamps. Is an MSR pump unavailable? John
Congratulations on getting it up and running. As Reflector said...add some gas to it. I would only use diesel as a last resort.
Thank you, I'll do that. Hi John, a friend of mine needed the MSR DF pump urgently, he has the stove but not the pump. He has an outdoor gear rental business going on. I didn't mind trading it for cash. The pump is from BRS or Bulin, it can be serviced easily and also inexpensive.
I think the Nova burns well with Kerosene, probably better than unleaded fuel. Yes there may be very slight yellow tipping but it runs like a bomb on Kerosene. Petrol you don't get that but it runs better on kero with more power. Kero won't taint food either. I use it to toast bread and believe me, if kero, tainted food I would know it. I believe that the Nova burner is pretty well the same as the Polaris but I'm not 100% sure.
I am new to the forum...LOL... I have the Optimus Nova which looks the same as the Polaris wrt to the burner portion and I believe the jet is the same? I have heard that it is. I have only had the Nova for 3 days but I have been running it a lot and switching between unleaded and kerosene. It says in the instructions for the Nova that Kerosene is the 'recommended' fuel... It does seem to work very well. Yes, there are very small bits of yellow in the flame but a tipping and very small at that...not enough to leave soot and I also use it for making toast and no kerosene flavours noted and I have a good sense of taste. /Odd[/QUOTE]
The Soto Muka is a nice stove, fantastic in fact...except for the simmer. But amazingly well built. I sold mine after I figured out the simmer wasn't there but in some ways regret it...just so well made and works super well on unleaded petrol or Shellite (our equivalent of Coleman fuel). It takes a lot of pumping but then no priming either which is handy and amazingly clean to run. I'd almost buy one again
I really like the Soto Muka and Stormbreaker but the demographic that likes indestructible stoves seems lukewarm on the Soto design. If you can't strip EVERYTHING and replace o-rings and any parts needed then it is a no-go for many people. I love the Soto Muka but it doesn't allow for full stripping and replacement. It looks like the pump is a replace only item and the generator is rated for 20L of fuel according to the manual. I have the Optimus Nova as I have no need to use canister gas...and so far it has delivered just fine.
