Alcohol stove, info needed

[ale]

Hi,

in 47 days I will leave for my tour in Iceland.

In the past tours in Iceland I have always used a normal gas stove so using gas cartriges. My stove works with campingaz.

Now I am discovering the alcohol stoves, I post a link just to give the idea of the stove:

http://zenstoves.net/Stoves.htm

Since I never used this stove in real life but just made some test on the balcony of my house I would like to know if anyone uses this kind of stove and has experience.

can I assume to be able to find alcohol easily in Iceland? In every shop/gas station/supermarket?

Thanks,
Ale

[guefz]

Hi,

I don't think that the stoves shown on that website will perform better than your camping-gas stove. It's the same open construction and you'll need a good windshield.

I'm using a Trangia stove which is also working with alcohol but has an integrated windshield. This is still not enough when the wind is really strong. Under normal conditions it's working fine, I used it at altitudes up to 2400m asl.

Günter

[Olaf]

We've discussed "Alcohol stoves" ("Spiritus Kocher") a couple of times. Seems to be widely available at gas stations and a photo of the bottles can be found here: http://www.islandreise.info/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3052

[ale]

Hi,

Thanks for the answers! I will have a look in the forum.

@guefz: I saw official alcohol stoves, I was wandering why they are not so common.

I also had a look into some sailing forum where the comment was positive but pointing out that alcohol gives less heat compared to buthane...

Ale

[Blacky]

I use a home-made alcohol stove (Pepsi-Can-Stove, a little bit similar to yours).
The advantages: They are cheap, wonderful light, the fuel isn't very expensive, It's easy to get and it's not so heavy like gas cartriges.

The disadvantages: You need a wind-screen (Well, for gas you need it, too). I've got a light one made out of about 3 layers of tin foil.
In comparison to gas you need more time for cooking. You can't regulate the heat, so a Zenstove is nothing if you like to cook more complicated things beyond soup and noodles. And you can't stop easily the fire, so you've got to have some experience to know how much fuel you have to put inside the cooker.