Carrying Denatured Alcohol

I made a Super Cat Stove last night, thanks Jim Wood! This morning I found my denatured alcohol and an old Nalgene squeeze bottle to carry it in.

After I tested it out I started to wonder how I should carry the empty stove, alcohol bottle and tablespoon? It is safe to put them in my drinking cup? Will the chemicals used to make the alcohol undrinkable rest in the bottom of my cup and then in my liver? Would it be best to put the stove and supplies in a separate bag and carry them away from my cooking vessels?

I am using Ace Hardware Denatured Alcohol Pure 11342. It says that it has Methanol and Ketones but it doesn't give the percentages. It also says that it can be used for cooking. I can't find anything online to tell me what percentage of additives it has.

Thanks,

Chad

Use a separate carry bag from your cup to carry the stove gear. You could just toss your cup/pot into your pack in your food storage bag.

Chad-

Many backpackers carry a small medicine measuring cup to measure their stove fuel. That cup can be carried inside several types of alcohol stoves. Both are often carried inside the user's stove while hiking. I rinse my pot with a small amount of water before using it. If your cup is metal, I wouldn;t be too worried about it absorbing any fumes, but plastic could be a different story.

Good luck!

CamperMom

If your cup is plastic, I suppose it could acquire off-putting odors--or dissolve--but if it's metal, no worries. All those chemicals evaporate quite readily.

It's metal. As soon as I started reading your response I was thinking that metal wouldn't retain the chemicals. Thanks for helping relieve my mind.

Chad

Whatever you do, be sure to clearly mark your alcohol container. You know the difference but others may not. Denatured alcohol looks like water.

You can mark the inside of your stove with a pencil and then scratch it in with a nail. Just hold the can steady and place the body of the nail on the side of the can and then turn the can, pressing the nail end to mark it around the inside of the can. This way you won't need any measuring cups.

I put a drop of food dye in my alcohol and works just fine. This way I know how much is in the stove, and alcohol container.

You can wrap the stove with a bandana or Handi wipe and place it in your cook pot. Both items are great for cleaning, as a cozy or hot pot holder...napkin..etc.

I tried the stove last night and it works great.

“I put a drop of food dye in my alcohol and works just fine.”

Neat idea. When I backpacked in Spain a few years ago, I bought denatured alcy there. That alcohol comes as light blue liquid and worked great.
-Barry

Hi all...

Chad_Hahn: Regarding your question, Earthling is right. All denatured alcohols contain toxins that you don't want to ingest, so it's always best to keep anything that might come in contact with those fuels well separated from food, cups or eating utensils.

I also like the idea of adding a bit of food dye to alcohol fuels, as is required by law in many European countries (blue and purple seem to the most popular). Not only does it help distinguish the alcohol from water, but also makes it easier to see when measuring, especially if using scratch marks inside the stove as level indicators. Will add the idea to the next Super Cat article update <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.

I picked up some stuff sacks one time that ended up being too small to do anything with. I think I'll stick the stove and bottle in a sack and keep it away from my cup and pot.

Here in AZ I don't want to waste water getting toxins off my utensils before I cook.

Chad

Yup, best idea I've read in a long while. Clever!

food dye... great idea. So simple that I feel foolish.

No need to feel foolish. There might be a bit of dye left in the stove when all the alcohol burns out. I doubt you could use it as an antiseptic with the dye in it if you have your alcohol do double-duty. But I've been doing this for a few years now and haven't had any problems. The best part is cooking in the dark. You can shine the light in the stove or measuring cup and can see the amount being used.

Can you use denatured for an antiseptic? I wouldn't be concerned with dying my pop can stove, or for that fact my trangia, but wouldn't want to dye my hands purple trying to sanitize. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Or Vodka.

It's not really a good idea. Denatured alcohol is ethyl alcohol, the kind you drink, with something, usually methyl alcohol added to it so you can't drink it. Methyl is absorbed through the skin and turns to nasty stuff in your bloodstream. Just as a sidebar, this is one of the best examples of regulation gone bad. We've taken one of the few non toxic solvent/fuels available and turned it into poison so the feds could collect the liquor tax.

It may indeed be a case of regulation gone bad, but I think you have this backwards. The methyl is added to make it non-drinkable--in other words, specifically to avoid the federal liquor taxes.

Yeah! I thought that the additives in Dnatured Alcy would soak into your skin and into your system. I don't even like to smell the stuff burning or not. If you can smell it it's in the air and getting into your body.

chaz- I got confused with my alcohols. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> Too much holiday for me. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Nothing like a wrong comment to stir everyone up. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> My job here is complete. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I carry my fuel in small 12 oz clear plastic throw away water bottle, often only filling it partially for a few day hike. I never drink outta this and it's smaller than any water bottle I might carry to supplement my carrying capacity, so no confusion. I don't really care if some other fool takes a gulp of my fuel thinking it's water he's stealing! haha. As the bottle deteriorates (after a long time of accidental crunches, etc) I will replace it. So far it's made the entire AT, LT, and hundreds of other trail miles >2 years old, year round cold, etc. conditions.

I carry a SUL clear plastic tiny cough syrup medicine cup to measure my fuel for use: 1/2, full, or several cups based on trial and error for volume of water I'm heating. I work at a hospital. I'm sure any emergency department or nursing home could give you a couple of these free and they'd last forever. It fits right in with my stove and prevents spilling and wasting fuel by over filling the stove, letting in just burn up after my water boils.

I don't carry a measuring cup but I do have my Alky container marked from bottom to top so I can keep up with the alcohol usage. Seems to work very well for me and also, I have been using the "blue" food dye for many many years now and I have never had a mis-hap.

The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there !!!!