Coffee can/TP/alcohol heater questions

[PKnTX]

Used one while sitting in a pop-up blind back in Jan.
It was pretty cold for around here (in the 'teens)
and I must say it was very much appreciated.

Used a small can (illy brand coffee w/ screw on lid)
which worked great for carrying securely and the
metal lid (upside down) extinquished the flame very well.
Small dia. can also meant the need to pull off near 1/3 of roll of
toilet paper.
Used 91% IPA from off the drugstore shelf.

Problems:
Flamed up much higher than expected.
Did not last as long as expected.
TP began getting scorched/burnt

My 1st thought is that the 91% IPA is a bit much,
maby the lower grades would not burn as hot and
perhaps last longer.

Can anyone give some pointers or suggestions to
increase the heat time and lower the flame up?
Also, any safety tips or warnings?

[kynardsj]

Seems like I used the 70 % in mine and I had no problems. The TP will scorch with all of them after they burn off some of the alcohol.

[pastorp]

My only use of a alcohol stove was aboard a crusier I used to own. The cook stove was alcohol & electric if you had shore power. The height of the alcohol flame was controlled by a sliding damper that covered part of the opening where the flame came through. Based on that why not try covering part of the top of the coffee can with a piece of metal to reduce the flame size. Just a thought......

Regards,

[PKnTX]

Thanks for the replies.

I will try the 70% (or lower) next time.
Can't help but think it would burn a little slower.

I've had some thoughts of some type of "regulator" to
put over the top and even a "grill" of some sort that could
be used to heat a small cup of whatever.  A heavy wire mesh
formed over the top of the can should work.

I was truly impressed with the way this thing heated my blind.
Will for sure be using it again next season.

[mcwoodduck]

Just use a can of Sterno.
No muss.  Just pry off the lid and light.
After you burn one can you can cut holes in the top of the lid to use as a smaller flame with another can.

[teamnelson]

Just use a can of Sterno.
No muss.  Just pry off the lid and light.
After you burn one can you can cut holes in the top of the lid to use as a smaller flame with another can.

Does it get hot enough? I could never get sterno to boil water. And sterno in a confined space makes me nervous; the MSDS on it makes it pretty clear its a HAZMAT.

[mcwoodduck]

Just use a can of Sterno.
No muss.  Just pry off the lid and light.
After you burn one can you can cut holes in the top of the lid to use as a smaller flame with another can.

Does it get hot enough? I could never get sterno to boil water. And sterno in a confined space makes me nervous; the MSDS on it makes it pretty clear its a HAZMAT.

In a blind you are going to have a couple of windows open. 
If you close them the Alchol burner will kill you as quick.
I keep sterno in the camping gear for starting a fire.  Figured the sterno is made to keep a hotel pan full of water hot to just under the boiling point to keep a hotel or half hotel pan loaded with food hot.
In the blind the heat will rise and start to stack and just knock the chill off.  My thinking was to sit the can under you chair and let the heat radiat.
If you want I would go to a garage sale and buy an old cast Iron dutch oven with the three legs and sit the can under it to radiat the heat out.  NO water.  You are not going to be sitting in your fold up chair in shorts and a T-shirt but it will take the chill off.

[teamnelson]

appreciate the advice! I've looked at making some of those little alcohol stoves for minimalist camping, but none of those really heat up a space very well.

[mcwoodduck]

I would look at the little fold up fuel tab stoves rather than having to worry about a liquid fuel.
The tabs are light and the little folding stoves work to heat up canned or dehydrated food.
I am a little leary of Alchol burners as it is hard to see the flame and if you spill you may not see the flames that catch your blind, chair, or the ground on fire.

[PKnTX]

A can of sterno is probably a safer and longer burn and would definately fit a daypack better
but it'd be hard to believe it would put out near as much heat.  Guess it comes down to
the specific use.  I may pick up a pack of the sterno though, just to have that option.

[teamnelson]

I would look at the little fold up fuel tab stoves rather than having to worry about a liquid fuel.
The tabs are light and the little folding stoves work to heat up canned or dehydrated food.
I am a little leary of Alchol burners as it is hard to see the flame and if you spill you may not see the flames that catch your blind, chair, or the ground on fire.

I've got an old heat tab stove I used to take deployed or in the field, but the smell got to me. Plus now we use water activated pouches to heat MREs. Honestly, a box of those would be handy in an emergency to make coffee or heat up foot in a plastic bag. But not a whole lot of space heat from those.

[mcwoodduck]

I would look at the little fold up fuel tab stoves rather than having to worry about a liquid fuel.
The tabs are light and the little folding stoves work to heat up canned or dehydrated food.
I am a little leary of Alchol burners as it is hard to see the flame and if you spill you may not see the flames that catch your blind, chair, or the ground on fire.

I've got an old heat tab stove I used to take deployed or in the field, but the smell got to me. Plus now we use water activated pouches to heat MREs. Honestly, a box of those would be handy in an emergency to make coffee or heat up foot in a plastic bag. But not a whole lot of space heat from those.

No I use mine to heat up stuff in a canteen cup.  it is wide enough to span the stove sides that a can of soup is not. 
The MRE's are cool but I tend to look at them a survival food rather than food.
I am sure thay have gotten a lot better since the fist batch in the late 80'and early 90's that I had.

[snapcrackpop]

http://www.minibulldesign.com/

This site makes great alcohol burners.
The best one uses a wick.

Only use HEET (yellow bottle) or air-brake anitfreeze, as it is pure alcohol and burns clean.

[teamnelson]

The MRE's are cool but I tend to look at them a survival food rather than food.
I am sure thay have gotten a lot better since the fist batch in the late 80'and early 90's that I had.

Honestly think they got worse, but we still had T-rats when I first came in ... I've been around a long time.

[pastorp]

I like & use mres. I usually don't heat but just carry one for lunch while hunting.

Regards,

[powderman]

I bought some sterno and one of their little stove frames for it to burn in, but I've never used any of it yet. How much wt will that little frame take? I don't know if they quit making the stove but walmart doesn't have it any more, at least here. POWDERMAN. 

[torpedoman]

made one to burn twigs out of a big peach can drilled holes around the bottom used some steel rod bent to make legs and it sticks up over the top you can cook on it and it puts out good heat using twigs broke off the lower parts of pines.  directions are on u-tube

[teamnelson]

pman, the thing I see alot is the esbit stove. You can buy a stove and 3 tabs, which'll boil a canteen cup of water, for $5. I've seen ads to sell cases of the tabs online.

tman, sounds like a hobo stove! I'm looking at a double walled version of that idea which burns top down - wood gasifier. Supposedly burns hotter, more efficiently - 100g of wood to boil 1liter of water. Saw one design that you can drop a small alcohol burner into if you don't have wood available.

[Empty Quiver]

A thought about using < grade alcohol. Only the alcohol is burning the rest is simply water, that is 70% alky 30 % water, you will end up with wet TP left over at the end of your burn. The alcy will be floating off of the water so I don't see as it will matter in the end, except for reduced burn time per volume used.

Something I have not gotten around to is testing fibreglass as a wick for alcy burners. Would eliminate the wood smoke problem I would think. I'm imagining the glass cloth rolled up fairly tight stuffed into the can.

One thing about alcy is the invisable flame given off by purest forms, so be careful if you are experimenting. The good part of alcy is water will safely extinguish a fire. ( one reason Indy cars use alcy rather than gasoline )

[snapcrackpop]

For the wick on the alcohol burners you can use a fiberglass wick, or carbon fiber...plumbers cloth, just have to find the right kind.

That minibulldesign web page has pieces of carbon fiber you can purchase.