Alcohol burning camp stove

[A&O]

We pickup up our new second hand camper trailer today and we all can’t wait to go camping as a family for the first time since the kiddo’s were born. So the wife has been looking for the bargains to be had on FB & Gumtree then she piped up and said since your going to be making your own alcohol, how about using it for camping then shows me this:

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Has anyone used a alcohol burning camp stove before? I asked my old man about them and he said they used something similar when he was in army cadets 50 year ago, and said it warmed up the ration packs well enough. To be honest I’ve never heard of them before and see it as a great way of using up the unused and ever growing supply of window cleaner

[RC Al]

I've burned plenty of fondue and fingers with the domestic version, so they put out sufficient heat, I would question trying to feed a family on one though, 2 or 3 would cover it though. Heaps of cheaper ones on the auction sites

There's one that looks like a regular camping stove for the alcohol, $250 from Dometic

I'm actually a fan of the canister stoves, couple of hours cooking from $1-2 canister that weighs sfa

[hillzabilly]

Have a snoop at https://www.wayfair.com/outdoor/sb1/bio ... 68940.html use mine in an outdoor heater.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

[woodduck]

Ive never used one of the stoves your talking about there but have often thought about something similar at times.

I have however got a ethanol fire similar to the ones hillz posted and mine may be different but I think it's a waste of time. They look good and burn for a long time but they don't put out much heat at all. They are more of a decoration peice than a heater.

[A&O]

Great to get some real world experience & advice. As when the minister of finance needs a cup of tea in the morning, we will have to have the propane burner, happy wife in the morning makes for a much easier day especially when camping. Down the line, I m gonna get a spirit burner, just for the experience more than anything.

Reading about their history, alcohol stoves were very popular through occupied Europe as liquid fuel of any kind was almost impossible for a civilian to buy, but a lot of people were able to distill alcohol from just about any type of wash. They kept the good tasting stuff for drinking and preserves then the harsh spirits that could not be drunk run the kitchen cooker, cars, tractors, stationary engines, anything really that would run on alcohol.

Good to know we will all have a fuel source if the world goes tits up.

[hillzabilly]

Did ya know that Henry Ford started making tractors that run on alcohol,so as they could produce their own fuel from left over produce ,then the oil boys stepped into look after themselves and used pollies ta push the use of alcohol out with bullshit like it stuffs ya engine blah blah.cheers hillzabilly ;-)

[wynnum1]

They imported some cheap alcohol stoves that where dangerous and they where banned so make sure its not one of them.

[A&O]

No didn’t know that Hillzabilly. It’s a bit like Rudolf Diesel, his prototypes were designed to run on just about any low viscosity oil like vegetable oil, same story, big bucks got in the way. When I first heard about that, I thought I’d put 40l of vegetable oil into my hilux, run superbly. Different exhaust smell, more like a fish & chip joint when their oil is getting old. That was 20 year ago, and that old girl is still the daily driver with 350k on the clock, and when I get free vegetable or palm oil, I still chuck it in.

Wynnum1, yeah I’ll be choosing carefully when I do buy one. I may do some grinding in thongs & boardies, but safety when in the middle o nowhere is paramount. Thanks for the reminder.