Alcohol Stove Fuel, Which is Best? Six Alcohol Fuels Directly Compared.

hello this is Steve from firebox stove comm hey we're taking some time out here in the warehouse and we're going to do a comparison video where we're going to test all the different kinds of alcohol that can be used in an alcohol burner and specifically today we're going to be using the Trangia alcohol burner but to do that test as a safety precaution we're going to open up that overhead door behind me so that we have some air ventilating through here because most of these types of alcohol you don't want to really use indoors so we're going to get some air flowing through you're going to be using 99% isopropyl alcohol pure grain alcohol or a guest Everclear denatured alcohol the ISO heat and then the regular yellow bottled heat and then 91% isopropyl you can see we've got these listed with the price per ounce that we paid for them we here at firebox stove calm design and produce these two stoves here this is the 5 inch folding firebox this is the one that made us famous and then we've recently introduced the folding firebox Nano which is a wood-burning stove that also works with the Trangia alcohol burner we're going to be performing our tests today with the folding firebox nano okay so all of our alcohol is brand new it's never been open before so there's no chance that it's been contaminated or that it's absorbed moisture okay and I'm going to start with two ounces of alcohol 2.0 perfect I'm going to go ahead and seal these up while we're feeling these so that it's not evaporating away there we go looks pretty good okay next to our pots what we're going to do to make sure that they're all exactly the same we're just going to use bottles of water so each pot will have a full bottle of water they're all exactly the same brand and this is going to be just a little bit more than two cups and we're going to get these set up we're going to light them all and then at the one-minute mark we're going to put the pots on the stoves with the lids on and then at the five-minute mark we're going to take the lids off so that we can observe the boil and we'll see how these out compare it ok I'm going to go ahead and light these and as soon as they're all lit go ahead and push start okay we're coming up on the one minute mark ha then at the five minute mark we'll take the lids off of the pots so I can see on this red bottle of heat but it's actually leaving behind a lot of soot on the pan you can actually see the pan is actually blackening there okay so that's the I so eat that's the red bottle heat this is the yellow bottle of tea and then this will receive 91% isopropyl alcohol which has kind of a similar flame as the ISO heat but not quite as much flame okay here's the 5-minute mark we'll go ahead and take off all the lids and we'll see where we go from here let me just take a measurement of the temperature here that one's reading 105 124 and 121 let's see if we're getting close here we're at 153 147 150 this is no one is catching up okay this one's getting close 175 165 167 let's call that up 1125 I think that's definitely boiling okay this one is starting to rise see if this thermometer is going to be effective for us 177 it's not a rapid boil like this one was quite yet we'll just give it a minute longer that about it 1152 let's call that one 1152 and it looks like this I so heat is going to be in last place oh yeah pull that off snuff it let's try to snuff it I so he is still trying to get there it's not quite there the bubbles are rising but it's not as all over let's call it 12:30 and we will snuff that one okay okay so let's go ahead and weigh the alcohol left go ahead and take notes for me okay so I'll turn that on will zero that out okay so the 91% has 1.3 ounce left the yellow bottle heat as 0.9 ances left and the red bottle of heat has 0.6 ounces like a I washed all the soot off of the pans and now we'll go ahead and put in a full water bottle into each okay one minute okay there's the 90 this was the 99% isopropyl he's a very yellow flame there this is the ever cleared grain alcohol a little bit of a yellow flame and then this is the denatured alcohol this is actually the only container that actually claims to be a stove fuel is the denatured alcohol okay there's five minutes take the lids off step over here I'll just check these temperatures just just just to see which ones ahead here get one fourteen point nine 126 131 so the 99% alcohol is actually winning the race so far we're just going to go ahead and watch the boil when that looks like it's about the same as what the others were which I think right now so 8/5 at nine let's call it nine I'll go ahead and snuff that nine minutes that's interesting okay then our grain alcohol what do you think I call it about maybe not quite yet and not yet is it getting there I think that's about it okay so 9:30 for the grain alcohol and the denatured alcohol is just taking its own sweet time I don't know if this is just not that great of a brand of denatured alcohol it's different than the other brands I've used in the past what do you think right there and we could yeah 11:30 it's called at 11:30 and I'll go ahead and snuff that one so the 99% 1.4 ounces left the Everclear 1.4 ounces left and the denatured alcohol is one point three ounces left okay so this will be our final test and these three types of alcohol were the ones that got the highest or the fastest boil times from the first two tests and they're actually in order so this one was the fastest the second two fastest and the third in line so we'll go ahead and like these and push start okay there's our one minute mark there's the 99% isopropyl there's the Everclear and there's the yellow heat yellow bottle of heat let's see which is ahead 123 for the 99% 117 we never cleared and 147 so as much as we've tried to have everything be the same something is still making a difference I'll go with the wind just a little bit of breeze that's got a little bit of breeze since it's coming off on an angle might be affecting one still more than others yeah ok the yellow heat looks like it's going to win this time we're at 178 so it's right there around 180 so we're going to call it a boil here pretty quickly ok are you watching that tell me what you think it's about the same as the others getting really close I think this is about where we called it about right there let's call it 8/10 so I'll snuff that one out okay the 99% isopropyl is really close I would say about not quite yet it looks good about right there let's do it nine ten okay the Everclear is almost there we're going to call it at nine I think yet almost 955 we call it 955 now on a slower - okay so for some reason probably the airflow coming through our warehouse here caused the first set of tests to be a little bit slower than the second set what I've done is I've lined these up in order of the very fastest time so the yellow heat got the very fastest time out of all the testing the 99% is in second and then third fourth fifth and sixth place so let's review how much it costs to boil that a little bit over 2 cups of water for each one of these so we have the yellow heat 16 cents the 99% isopropyl is 14 cents the Everclear is 49 cents the denatured alcohol 16 cents the 91% isopropyl six and a half cents six and a half cents okay and then the red heat and that 23 cents 23 cents did you want to read the best some of the best costs that because the yellow is actually ten point three second test ten point three so that so which one is the cheapest to boil the two gallons of water two cups the two cups 91 percent the ninety one / the ninety one percent the cheapest to get it done and then what's what's the next well maybe that doesn't the best prices it would be the yellow heat the yellow heat so that so that was the fastest and the second cheapest yeah based on our last test and based on what it cost which is as fourteen point seven five cents per ounce so it's fairly inexpensive to buy it in the first place and it performs well so this this might be our winner I mean everybody can kind of take the data and do with it what they will it didn't leave soot on the pan like the others it was fairly inexpensive it's and it's fairly fast you know I think that's probably our clear winner out of all these you know other than if you're going to be trying to use something indoors then you want to use the ever clear even though it is so dang expensive but it's about your only option if you are indoors so anyway that's our video thank you all for watching and I hope that hope you were able to get something out of this we had a we had a good time putting it together

Channel: Firebox Stove

Views: 671,444

Rating: 4.8654656 out of 5

Keywords: Alcohol Fuel, Alcohol stove, alcohol burner, HEET, iso HEET, Isopropyl Alcohol, grain alcohol, everclear, denatured alcohol, trangia alcohol spirit burner, Folding firebox Nano, ultra-light stove, ultra-light, Folding firebox stove, stove, camping, camp stove, twig stove, stick stove, hobo cooker, Camp cooking, outdoor cooking, campstove, survival, Prepper, emergency preparedness, food storage, hiking, backpacking, disaster readiness, hobo stove, brazier, wood burning, Bushcraft

Id: Mt69fbNhCgs

Length: 17min 43sec (1063 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 19 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/userrtl]

It's the yellow one (fastest, second cheapest).

91% was cheapest, but second slowest.

Just saved you 17 minutes.

Edit: Trimmed 17 minutes off your day**

[u/merkaba8]

Read as "alcohol fueled shootout". Was disappointed.

[u/raleel]

You can get 99% far cheaper than that. Isopropyl Alcohol Grade 99% Anhydrous - 4 Gallon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KK014F4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_58rgzbPWD5Y59 this is less than 7¢ an ounce. And probably enough for your entire backpacking career ;)

[u/[deleted]]

Does the video discuss the hazards of methanol (heet)? That shit is severely toxic. Don't get it on your skin! I will stick with grain alcohol. Safe and dual purpose!

[u/miasmic]

I've always used n-hexane and fuelite in preference to alcohols

[u/[deleted]]

As an FYI.... don't use IR "thermometers" for doing tests like this, if anyone is a DIY'er =)

You need a better black body target and neither water nor shiny metal is very goot for it.

Use a cheapo meat thermometer if ya really need to verify stuff and can't buy an immersion RTD and a meter. You can 2 point cal-check it in ice water and boiling water. If it has the range that is and you happen to be that anal.