Tea Light Stove Question

I made a tealight stove today, but it seems to not last long enough to cook any food on it. Is there something I'm missing to the idea behind it?

Thanks,
Silver

what do you mean by "cooking food on it?"

The idea behind such a stove is that the stove is used for the sole purpose of boiling water for rehydrating instant meals, and making hot drinks.

For such a use, the tea-light cup shines. It doesn't burn very fast, and my setup generally achieves 2-cup boils in around 8-9 minutes. It would not, however, be of much use for actually "cooking" in the traditional sense, as there is no control over heat output.

Check out my "2 ounce kitchen" thread below for more tealight stove insight.

http://www.backpacking.net/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=134176#Post134176

Indeed, even beyond tealite stoves, I'll pick a fight and say it pretty much applies to all alcohol stoves. They're best at boiling water. That's about it.

Yes there are some alcohol stove models that can "cook" and simmer better, but for me they start getting awful fiddly, and the nice simplicity of just using them to get boiling water goes away. If I need to "cook" more than boiling water I switch to a canister or white gas stove.

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Yep.

I love alcohol stoves but to be honest I find the Tea light type very marginal even for boiling water.
(that is why I bought the Caldera Cone)
And boiling water is all I do . If I had to cook or melt snow there are much more efficient choices exactly as Phat outlined.
Franco

Well, that's why I kinda like the looks of TaM's cone - it looks like it *could* add enough effiency to it to get a reliably 2 cup boil with my kinda water (starting pretty darn cold)

It wouldn't bring the water to boil before the fuel ran out. I don't think it lasted more than five minutes. Oh well, I'll give it another test run today. And see how it does.

Also, I chekced out the thread on 2 ounce kitchen the other day. Maybe yesterday I believe. It has some good information.

Thanks,
Silver

Hi, Phat-

I will not fight with you, but will disagree with a blanket statement that all alcohol stoves are good only for boiling water.

My review of one of the Brasslite stoves for Backpack Gear Test is no longer posted, but I cooked stew from scratch (fresh meat and veggies), muffins (steamed), as well as eggs and fish while testing that Brasslite stove. No, I did not have a direct method of adjusting the flame, but did raise the pot or pan, move it about, or add a small amount of water to the burning alcohol (very carefully and at my own risk) to change the amount of heat being applied to the bottom of the pan.

Regards,

CamperMom

The nice thing about the setup I put together, is that the candle cup will hold more than a half ounce (15 ml) of fuel, though most times it only requires about 12-13 ml. If you're taking glacial melt water directly from a high elevation stream, just fill the cup up a few more ml. I really noted zero difference in boil time between tap water at home, and fresh from the spring water on the AT as far as boil times, and that spring water is pretty darn cold.

I was very skeptical of the tea-light stove concept before trying it, but have saved a good deal of weight by giving it a chance. Fiddling with gear a lot at home generally results in me not having to nearly at all on the trail.

A tea light setup is only as good as its' windscreen though, and I really wouldn't trust one without some sort of cone, or very tight fitting screen.

I almost never boil 2 cups with my tea light, usually 10-12 ounces. If it's really windy I may not get a boil, but the water is still hot enough. If I absolutely needed a boil every time I would use something else.

You can find larger tea lights. I have some from Whole Foods that hold around 3/4 oz of alcohol. Someone posted on here a while back about using a metal "wash basin" found at Hobby Lobby in the dollhouse furniture section. I did check that out and it looked like it would work if I needed something to hold more alcohol.

CamperMom,

Phat also said:



And at that, I was also thinking of the Brasslite. It is the only one that I'm aware of that has those type features.

Are there others?

trangia has an adjustable flame as well...and many DIY jobbers have simmer rings to reduce heat output for frying or whatever other lower-heat operations you're undertaking. A simmer ring gives you only a low and high setting though, no further adjustability.

If you're planning on needing adjustable flame, get a canister stove. The weight advantage of alcohol goes out the window with something heavy like a trangia/brasslite.

Sure, even the penny stove design I use has a simmer ring, which actually works quite well, I've used it at home to cook long simmering foods like steel cut oats and brown rice and stuff. However, at least with the simmer ring I've noticed the stove is a lot more suceptible to wind - not to mention that a lot of the food I can 'cook' with a simmer isn't practially a lot different than the food I can cook FBC style. So for me it just ends up being "fiddlier" than I want to deal with in the field. If I end up really *cooking* it tends to either involve some frying as well (fish) or larger meals for a large group, in which case I think about it briefly and end up throwing the little snow peak stove in my pack with a canister, or in the case of a bigger mob out comes the svea from the winter box

all this stove talk makes me want to try and cook some eggs

Your best is a canister or white gas stove.

i wouldn't say its impossible to cook on a alcohol stove but to keep the fuel consumption around 15ml-25ml would defiantly push it.

I was able to cook eggs on my alcohol stove... so I know it's good for breakfast

Silver

I have heard, but not tried, bring water to a boil, then if you need to simmer, replace the tea light stove with a tea light candle. It is said to produce enough heat to simmer. Anyoune here tried this? I bought some tea light candles w/citronella so I can simmer and keep the mosquitos at bay.

I hope the citronella doesn't make your food taste strange

Cook and simmer ?
Here is another one :


http://www.packafeather.com/stove.html
Franco