Which liquid fuel?

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Which liquid fuel?

Postby fortunegrey » Sun 17 Apr, 2022 9:31 am

Which liquid fuel do you take out hiking?

Thanks for your patience if there's a thread devoted to this already, I couldn't find it on a quick search. I've just picked up a little alcohol stove and trying to decide best fuel to use.
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Re: Which liquid fuel?

Postby Franco » Sun 17 Apr, 2022 10:20 am

If you have an alcohol stove the fuel to use , here in Australia, is the standard "metho", that is Methylated Spirit.(95% Ethanol)
If yours was designed in the USA , try adding a drop or two of water because those stoves are usualy calibrated to use a 50/50 or so mix of Methanol and Ethanol so using Ethanol only can cause them to burn too hot.
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Re: Which liquid fuel?

Postby Moondog55 » Sun 17 Apr, 2022 11:16 am

I thought that Methyl burnt hotter than Ethyl?
Ve are too soon old und too late schmart
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Re: Which liquid fuel?

Postby Orion » Sun 17 Apr, 2022 11:46 am

Moondog55 wrote:I thought that Methyl burnt hotter than Ethyl?

Heat of combustion per unit weight of methanol is lower than that of ethanol. Flame temp of methanol is similar (slightly lower).

Almost all bushwalking fuels are liquids. There are a few solids like wood and hexamine tablets. But if you have an alcohol stove it sort of makes sense to use the fuel it was designed for, as Franco detailed.
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Re: Which liquid fuel?

Postby Gadgetgeek » Sun 17 Apr, 2022 8:33 pm

For a standard trangia burner, with normal "digger's" metho, a little water (up to 1:10) will help it soot up less, without any real reduction in heat output. It's not as common to find just straight ethanol/ methanol in a lot of other places, so we are pretty lucky here on that score, and it generally works really well in most of the aussie conditions.
From my looking almost all of the fuel alcohol in Australia is basically the same, I've bought it in up to 20L cube jugs, but the 1 and 4 liter jugs from your local hardware store will be a good balance. They are probably from the same plant. They do contain a bitterant, so if the fuel leaks out into a pan the residue can leave a flavor, but it's almost no methanol, so it's not particularly toxic (apart from what >90% alcohol generally is) and once it evaporates there is nothing particularly toxic left.

Give it a run with the fuel you can get, and make sure you have a good handle on how your particular stove primes, including putting the stove and fuel in the fridge for a bit, as some designs are more sensitive to the total thermal situation. Trangia burners are less sensitive to this due to how conductive brass is. Feel free to ask any questions as you experiment, as not everyone has the same plans and uses with their burners.
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Re: Which liquid fuel?

Postby Franco » Mon 18 Apr, 2022 9:00 am

To avoid using the typical Yellow Heat type fuel (mostly Methanol) some in the US use Everclear alcohol (Ethanol)
That comes in 120/151/189/190. That corresponds to 60% /75.5%/94.5 and 95% pure alcohol.
So those using Everclear 120 are using a fuel that has a 40% water content.
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Re: Which liquid fuel?

Postby fortunegrey » Mon 18 Apr, 2022 1:53 pm

Franco wrote:To avoid using the typical Yellow Heat type fuel (mostly Methanol) some in the US use Everclear alcohol (Ethanol)
That comes in 120/151/189/190. That corresponds to 60% /75.5%/94.5 and 95% pure alcohol.
So those using Everclear 120 are using a fuel that has a 40% water content.


all the message board posts from the states include cheeky nips of everclear at night
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