alcohol stove question

I don't like the idea of cooking with poison, so I planned on using everclear for fuel in my new Superstove. I went to the liquor store and Everclear is now only 151 proof. Will this work well? Thanks for your help.

Premise of question is dubious. A campfire (presumed alternative) produces poisonous gas, as does, perhaps, Everclear when burned.

Drinking a liter of Everclear, I suppose, could be fatal. Eating firewood in any amount is inadvisable.

What happened to the 190 proof version? Did someone tell you it is no longer in production? Do you live in California? The 190 has been banned there. Supposedly to keep it out the hands of college kids.

BTW, I have been burning denatured alcohol in my cat stove for years and I still have all my finger and toes.

When I mention "paranoia" in threads like this I immediately lose Brownie points (I wonder why...) but that is what it is.
You are much more likely to breathe in 'lethal" fumes from cars everyday than cooking on alcohol at a campsite...
In my view people that worry about burning alcohol, getting poisoned from aluminium or drinking from Nalgene bottles will most likely shorten their lives by worrying about things like that than from what they ingest.
Our brain is a chemical factory, just as you can use it to amuse yourself you can also poison yourself .
BTW, never have a banknote analysed, you will be very surprised at just how many germs you come into contact everyday just handling that...

Franco

http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9924412

I'd rather be exposed to ethanol, given the choice. Turns out 151 is the highest proof legal to sell in Florida.

If I understand it correctly, Everclear 151 is 75.5 % pure alcohol (Ethanol) so I would guess the rest is water.
Using 95% Ethanol I get a better burn by adding about 10% water*. At 20% it starts to go the other way so at around 25% will be a bit less efficient than the usual methanol/ethanol mix (SLX) you get over there but probably not by much.
Franco
Almost no yellow/red, just a blue flame. (= hotter)
No idea of why...
(possibly because the stove I used for the tests was made to burn Methanol and had similar results with my versions of the Cat stove)

If you buy denatured alcohol at a paint store it is about 90% ethanol with other ingredients added, including methanol, to make it undrinkable (sickening) not poisonous in quantities normally drunk for recreation. It is used as shellac thinner and is sold without restrictions. Also, please bear in mind that ethanol itself is poisonous as are methanol,ISO-propynol, Sterno, Esbit, white gas and propane/butane: no stove fuel is without some risk. In my opinion, stove fuel in general is a low risk part of backpacking and minor differences in fuel toxicity are not one of my major concerns. The risks involved in driving to the trail-head, the risk of hypo/hyperthermia, Lyme disease, bee and hornet sting allergies, stream crossings: all of these and others as well are far more of a risk than using stove fuel with a small amount of methanol in it.

You can buy 180 proof Everclear here in Arizona; 750 ml (about 25 fl. oz.) costs about $20 compared with about $7 a quart for denatured ethanol. To me as a non-drinker, that is a recipe for some pretty expensive cooking. Personally, I use the denatured ethanol but hey, HYOH.

http://www.wmbarr.com/ProductFiles/rCSL26.pdf

http://www.shellac.net/alcohol.html

Woohoo! Thanks Sir.

Alcohol is already a poison - seriously, it is poisonous to the body. That doesn't keep us from drinking it however. Too much water is also poisonous, however, it is very difficult to intentionally drink too much water....

I don't worry about poisoning from burning denatured alcohol. I do worry about teflon poisoning at home. It's far more likely to be poisonous to me than burning some chemicals out in the open air.

You are welcome. Now good luck in finding that.
I just go to my local supermarket to get 95% Ethanol (about $3.50 per quart) but you need to be in Australia for that.
If you come here and go North, it will be next to the orange juice.

Over there I used SLX but I don't plan to live past 120 or so.
Franco

I disagree about relative risks of stove fuel.
On average, a backpacker carrying Everclear is more likely to die of acute alcohol poisoning than of hypothermia, bee stings & other perceived risks of sleeping and walking around while carrying stuff.

Only if he drinks the stuff.

I wouldn't touch it. And I have been known to start threads about flasks. I'm much more likely to die of an exploding head reading threads in forums where trolls are frequent...

I'd be tempted. However, I was speaking of statistical, average risk to a large population rather than to a particular individual.

That being said, I've sometimes wondered if one could build an ultralight backpacking still and create stove fuel (& evening cocktails) from vegetation encountered en route.

Depends on the vegetation! I was just reading an interesting blog on poison oak....