What is the purpose of the perlite in the stove?

hi Hiram here on my video canteen shop grill top stove Stan sterno can refilled with pearlite bluegrass bushcraft ask me this may be a stupid question but what is the purpose of perlite in the stove I think this is a pretty good question so I thought maybe I'd do a little video want to hear today pearlite is a type of volcanic glass that does like this I don't know if we'd be able to see it there but it's just a volcanic glass that gardeners add to soil to help make the soil better and people that are into hydroponics use it as a medium to put the seeds and stuff in so it's something that's cheap and you can get it at garden centers and stuff all over even your big box stores like Lowe's and all in all of those you can buy it there that I say it's cheap to meit own OOP I kind of partially answered the question saying that it's a wicking material you might use like you would carbon fiber felt or felt fiber whichever way you say it what I've got here I like to use first carbon felt if I doing a wick for a stove then I use perlite I don't like to use this stuff that everybody else uses this fiberglass insulation if I put this into a stove and the alcohol burns down most of the time this stuff kind of fuses and burns so after maybe six or seven burns with it it just isn't good and you end up having to take it out fluff it up and all that kind of stuff I really don't like using this but her like well it depends on the stove you're using if it's something or the burner rather it would something like this that's just a an open-top pan you can use it in there notices I like these these are cans that I got from a dollar store sometime back they were unscented candles that came in this nice tin a nice little supply of wax they were a buck each I bought all of them that they had in the store and then they stopped carrying it so I've only got a couple of these left but these make an interesting little burner because you can also put like a ranger band on it to hold it close and keep some of the alcohol in it I wouldn't carry it with a lot of alcohol in it but this is just like a Ruffus burner that you can get so if you have it in a can just like that open or if you have it in an open top burner like this you don't have to worry so much it's a safety thing the alcohol isn't just going to burnt you'll roll out all over your tent and stuff if I was to tip this right out there it would start rolling out but I can tip this just as much if not more and the alcohol doesn't come out because the perlite is holding it in place so not only does that act as a wick but it's also a safety type safety issue type thing let's see oh also both of these have about the same amount of alcohol in it but on this one without the perlite or any kind of a wick in it it's only about this high so when I like this the flames will be down in the can and you can see on this one how the edge is somewhat burned because the flame was on the inside of the can this one's burned been burned as many times and it's can is still unburned so to speak it keeps the heat on the top of the perlite that's Ted of down in the can also by this being wicking the perlite wicking it is pulling it up on the bottom of the can and the flames will be up here being boy it's a little too warm in here it'll make for a nicer flame which I hope to be able to show you here so let's turn down the light can like that now this you got a comic there we go now hoping you'll be able to see on this camera you get a nice pointed flame here this one's just kind of helter skelter all over the place plus the flame is down in the burner itself so the pearlite in this case helps bring it up to the surface the alcohol fumes up to the surface let's try it getting a temperature reading here already this can without the pearlite is up to about 125 degrees with the pearlite it's running at about 94 degrees so it's a little bit cooler and there I think you can see this flame is just kind of flopping all over the place and this one gives you a nice cone for hitting your eye just move that around with my hand but it gives you a nice little flame pattern so that's one of the reasons now another thing pearlite in my case pearlite over carbon felt if you had a can something like this where it's a smaller opening and you have all this area that you still want to put some sort of wicking in this makes it real easy to just pour pearlite in this rather than trying to roll up and stuff this with carbon felt also the pearlite will be a whole lot cheaper than carbon filled okay I guess that was about it was there anything else no that's about it safety wicking cheapness plus it doesn't fuse or burn like the fiberglass insulation does so I hope this helps bluegrass bushcraft with the question about what's the purpose of pearlite I thank mate Onew pike for his comment you know trying to answer a bluegrass bushcraft but it's a hard name bluegrass bluegrass bushcraft anyway good name anyway thank you both I thank you for watching I look forward to your input questions remarks helpful suggestions and as always watch for my buddy max by now

Channel: Hiram Cook

Views: 205,906

Keywords: alcohol stove burner, wick, perlite, carbon felt fiber, fiberglass insulation, MatoNupai, BluegrassBushcraft, Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com, music

Id: QNywkptCd-Q

Length: 7min 17sec (437 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 01 2014