 Hi I use a Caldera cone and MSR Titan pot, with the associated Antigravity Gear pepsican stove and pot cosy. I am extremely pleased with this set-up - it is a little bit bulky, but very light and very efficient. However I am not very enthusiatic about using methylated spirits (what our colonial cousins call "denatured alcohol") for two reasons: - it is a pollutant, with toxic components. - it is quite heavy for its energy content. Does anyone have any suggestions about what might work better? Anyone tried surgical spirits? Any other ideas? Zen Stoves says that you can burn an Esbit table on the supplied stove turned upside down. Anyone tried this? Of course Esbit tablets are more toxic than meths, if anything, but I believe that there are safer gel type alternatives available
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 By Esbit tablets I take it you mean a type of the Hexamine blocks as used in the British Army folding hexi-stove cookers there Jerry? That is what I reckon you mean anyroads!  Horrible stuff useful only as a backup cooker really! It takes bloody ages to get a brew to the boil, and you must use it in well ventilated areas too, as the hexamine fumes are indeed poisonous to breathe in, as you say!
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I just got myself some of the gel stuff you mention, made by Greenheat. The smaller units-that fit into the burner units of a Trangia stove type of setup (as they fit some of the non-brand Trangia stove Far-East/China copies too). On offer for a quid off each unit right now in the sale at Field and Trek no less! A very good little deal at only £2.99 each for a 2 pack right now; especially if you use the free postage offer code that I put up on a thread on OM just the other day when you buy them too-to save yourself the £3.95 postal costs as well!
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Snap there mcn, great minds think alike it seems! That is the animal I was indeed just mentioning there too! But a better price right now at Feld and Trek, with a free postal cost money off code too! It cannot be beaten right now on the value front! Indeed though a bit dearer than the old meths is though, but I like it, and no spillage problems to think about too-plus kinder I am assured to the environment taboot!
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| Edited: 10/03/08 14:52 |
Not sure about burning a tablet on the upturned meths stove but caldera do an esbit kit, like a little wire stand, for the tablet. Yes, hear they're meant to be slow but for cooking on thin aluminium/titanium, which tends to burn easily, that could be an advantage. I think there is a clear 'pharmaceutical' version of meths which might be less toxic but don't recall the name - though think it's been mentioned on here before so someone may be along with the right answer in a mo. If not I'll give a shout if I remember it. Have a vague notion that the blue colour in meths is an addition to put folk off drinking it? - though as per 'Withnail and I' I try not to mix my drinks!!'
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I did ask on another thread indeed if anyone had tried burning surgical spirits or even coff-medicine with an alcohol base, but no one took me up on admitting to have tried out those less usual fuels. Do you have a multi-fuel stove there at all then Jerry perchance? Those most useful items are a great bit of kit, allowing one to source something or other for usable fuel almost anywhere in the world you might indeed find yourself now! They certainly increase the possibles for fuel burn consideration dramatically in some places of the globe, where some fuels indeed are a bit harder to come by! 
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| Edited: 10/03/08 14:57 |
Greenheat also make a good Gel cooker of their own that you can get too! I got mine for under twenty quid from Tamarack Outdoors http://www.tamarackoutdoors.co.uk/dispprod.pl?filtera=Outdoor%20Equipment&filterb=Green%20Heat&filterc=Green%20Heat The smaller Backpack Cooker version is an ok option too, but not really that much faster at cooking than the Hexamine option oftentimes I did find! I used to use an older Survival Aids gel cooker version of that one in the TA in the early nineties! Ever considered buying yourself an extremely eco friendly Kelly Kettle at all there? http://www.kellykettle.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=39 A good bit of economically sound ecologically acceptable cooking option for the outdoors! It is though a bit more of a big investment of monies as you really want the larger of the two Kelly Kettle units, and the accessories of the cook kit and the pot-stand, to make best use of the cooking capabilities of the Kelly Kettle more fully there-unless of course you are especially good at jury-rigging your own bits up, stove-wise, like our Frum and a good few others on OM forum here are too!
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| Edited: 10/03/08 15:10 |
http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/forummessages.asp?dt=&UTN=21070&last=1&V=8&SP= Just thought it might be good to link into the earlier white gas fuel thread of about a month or so ago here on OM, as much of the good advice from the OM Heroes-which is what I like to call the best of the best of the regulars on the forum here-is very much pertinent here to this thread discussion I do feel! Especially good there is that list of fuels and the different international names there posted by one of the OM Heroes back there and then!
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Trialled the Greenheat fuel cell with my DOE groups. Much preferrred it to Meths. 1 cell lasted 1 night for 4 people (just). Warning does not fit all cheap Trangia lookalikes.
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 surgical spirit, in their wisdom, contains castor oil. nasty sticky 'orrible stuff. i noticed in spain that their surgical spirit doesn't contain it. isopropyl alcohol (dirt cheap as tatooists use it) doesn't burn very well in a normal stove. you need one designed to burn the stuff.
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There is also of course that outdoors lamp fuel stuff too I suppose! Most hardware stores seem to sell that-I got my last bottle a few years ago from Robert Dyas for lamp use-as do many garden centres too I noticed. The bottle I still have here, which I have just been and checked for details, says that it is a low odour, clean burning fuel; and is produced from a high quality N-Parrafin. The bottle though bears the orange and black irritant label! So it is not something you want to maybe be ever getting on your skin or be breathing in the fumes from necessarily!
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| Edited: 10/03/08 18:51 |
As for the Surgical Spirit stuff, I do not know anybody myself that has ever used that in an outdoors stove of any sort. I do though know of people that have rubbed it into the soles of their feet, to toughen them up for walking on! It used to be a thing in days of old that footsoldiers between the wars apparently did to toughen up their feet, as too also the case with policeman and too nurses pounding the wards; I did hear tell of in the seventies, when I was growing up! Both my gran and my mum are familiar with the idea being a real old time use of the Surgical Spirit as well! I keep meaning to try that out for myself, and even bought some of the Surgical Spirit from Boots for that exact purpose, but just do not yet seem to have quite got round to trying it out, somehow just yet!
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| Edited: 10/03/08 18:58 |
 Isnt lamp fuel oil based and therefore not suitable for a coke can stylee stove? I think you could burn it in a multifuel stove like an MSR dragonfly for instance.
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You mean it has to be internally contained within a stove/or fuel reservoir body, for safety reasons during combustion as an improvised fuel, I assume there Bigbananafeet? I think you could well be right there, and I should indeed have said that myself, sorry! 
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| Edited: 10/03/08 19:03 |
 Some lamp oil is refined paraffin, some is alcohol based. Check the labels!
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No Trev, the paraffin/oil will stink, give of lots of soot and I dont think it would work well if even at all in a coke can alcohol stove. I didnt realise you got lamp oil that is alchohol based so I couldnt comment on how it would perform. When I first started experimenting with making my own stoves I made the mistake of trying white spirits instead of meth . All I succeded in was making a mess and stinking out the kitchen. All subsequent experiments were banished to the garden
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So Chris T in particular. Any experience of burning fuels other than meths in the AGG stove? I notice its a system you rate highly. I've ordered the Tri Ti (titanium) version from Trail Designs to get the added flexibility to burn wood as well as meths and esbit. Sure it won't be as effective as a wood burner as the 'state of the art' Bushbuddy, but a lot more versatile in the current weather when I wouldn't want to be completely reliant on finding a dry wood source! My French isn't great and last Spring I bought some clear fuel in a hardwear store in the South of France that looked like something to light barbies with - for a White Box stove I'd taken with me. Still couldn't tell you with any certainty what it was and lit it VERY gingerly the first time but eureka - it worked a treat!
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I've used alcool à bruler with a Trangia in the Pyrenees, which worked fine. That's probably what you got in France. The locals use it for fondues. I've also used rod spirit with the Trangia in Norway and Sweden. I haven't used anything except meths with the Caldera Cone or the AGG stove but I can't see why other versions of alcohol shouldn't work okay, some may be better.
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Ever considered buying yourself an extremely eco friendly Kelly Kettle at all there? http://www.kellykettle.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=39 A good bit of economically sound ecologically acceptable cooking option for the outdoors! [how do I stop it quoting ??] The kelly kettle looks like a nice piece of kit but too heavy for me. Double without fuel what my kit weighs including a week's fuel. The Bush Buddy looks a better bet tho a bit pricy and what if it's all wet out? thanks for all other answers, this is a good Forum. I shall now give up on white spirit and lamp oil...
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| Edited: 10/03/08 22:47 |
