Alcohol stove

http://www.surplusandoutdoors.com/images/product/main/SPIRIT-BURNER.jpg

I bought one of these and it works great. Boils a cup of water in under 5 min. But, there is no support with it, one has to hold the pot the entire time of cooking. And it gets the pot sooty black using 91% isopropyl alcohol.

Any help with a rack to hold the pot and is soot part of the alcohol cooking thing?

Switch to denatured alcohol, it has much less water content and thus will reduce the soot level to basically zero.

For a pot stand you can fashion one out of hardware cloth, or an old hanger or just jab some tent pegs into the ground. Some have made more complex types of stands.

You didn't mention a windscreen, you definitely want to use one as well.

“Any help with a rack to hold the pot”

Look in the Make Your Own Gear forum. And Zen stoves have some ideas on pot stands.

“is soot part of the alcohol cooking thing?”

No way. You have the wrong alcy.
Use yellow-bottled HEET. I would say also --- try denatured alcy. Every brand performs a little different but the one at Walmart works well.

-Barry

Thanks!

...and yes forgot the windscreen.

That looks like a Trangia burner to me. The best stand/windscreen I've found is the Ursa Designs Clikstand: www.Clikstand.com. It actually seems to perform better with a little wind. It's designed to wrok with (and store in) the REI Ti Ware .9 or 1.3 Liter pots, but it will work with others.

Scott at Ursa is also a great guy to deal with. Give him a look-see.

If you want to use 91% isopropyl alcohol mix it 50/50 with HEET (yellow bottle). It'll cut the soot to barely if any. I nevered tried the mix using denatured alcohol but I image the effect would be the same.

b.gin

That clickstand is a great idea. Will give the 50/50 mix a try, thanks.

I was told that one should not store alcohol in the MSR alum bottles. Is this true? How do you carry your alcohol?

You should not store alcohol in unlined aluminum bottles. I use a shampoo, pop bottle, or little nalgene.

I've used the Trangia plastic fuel bottle, which is heavy but has a nifty little pouring spout. Mostly, though, I use a .5L Platypus bottle with a push-pull cap; I've never had any problems with it.

If you're using anything other than a "real" fuel bottle, be sure to clearly label it as containing poisonous alcohol - otherwise, an unintended swig from that bottle could be hazardous.

OK, I got the stand and wind shield, some better alcohol and it works good. There was no instruction to the stove, how high should the stove be filled with alcohol?

One thing I found out was to not cork down the storage lid while it was hot. I could not get it back open without pliers as it formed a vacuum. Guess it has to be pretty cool to store.

It's not how high - it's how much. Some stoves it's easier to have a little measuring cup, like the one from the top of a Nyquil bottle. Try an ounce, if it boils there's your sweet spot.

Since the stove appears to be a Trangia knock-off, send me a private message (use the My Stuff tab above) with your email address and I'll send you a PDF with the Trangia instructions.

You're right - let it cool down considerably before you tighten the lid. (You can put the lid on loosely to retard alcohol evaporation, but not until the stove cools enough that the heat won't damage the o-ring in the lid.)

What I usually do is take two pieces of "coat hanger' and form them into a "square "C" design". Then I put them together and wrap something around one end of the two pieces as to create a henge affect. Open it up and sit over your stove. You can easily adjust the height by cutting off the legs a little at a time until you get the desired height. I usually trim mine until it is about two - three inches above the stove.sabre11004....

Is the alcohol supposed to boil?

Yep. It is supposed to boil.
As mentioned above, avoid ISO P , over there Yellow Deet is the easiest (apparently ) to get but look into marine or paint supply stores for denatured alcohol with the highest Ethanol content , failing that the highest Methanol content , whatever name they use for it.
As Glen and others suggested, that is a Trangia copy, it will work in a similar way to the original, so take up Glen's offer.
Trangias are not the lightest but they work, and that is not a bad thing...
Pay particular attention to the bit where the instructions tell you NOT to put the cap back on the stove when it's hot.
Most of us here can testify that those instructions are correct...
You may also want to avoid my version of verifying if the flame is burning or not in sunlight by putting your hand on top of the stove. It works but you may not like how it works.
Franco