A New Design of Alcohol Backpacker Stove boils water faster than a Trangia

Please note: 1. This stove (with 6 lower holes) boils 500ml water 50 seconds faster than a Trangia, as long as an equivalent wind shield is used. 2. The design shown (12 lower holes) burns methanol at a rate of 4 ml per minute, boiling 500 ml of water in 6.5 min (less with ethanol). Fuel capacity is 95 ml, giving a total burn time of 23.75 minutes 3. Although this design shows a tin measuring 11 X 7 cm, the stove can be made with any size can. You just need a minimum of about 6 cm between the top and bottom holes in order to generate the convection pressure (chimney draft) effect. I have made the stove with down to 4 cm separation. It does work but the force of the upper jets is less, and more prone to wind disturbance. The smallest I've made was from an airline coke can. Aluminium is fine with alcohol, but charcoal is too hot for it, and it will melt 4. You don't need a big tin to snuff the stove or retrieve the fuel. A cooking pot, a mug or a cone of aluminium foil will work just as well. 5. Although it looks similar, this stove works very differently from a tuna can, cat can or "super cat" stove. None of these designs have inner flame jets, hence all have a central cold spot 6. Like all alcohol stoves, this design works best with a wind screen when used outside. I bought this one on ebay: www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mini-9-Plates-Cooker-BBQ-Gas-S…, but mainly use one I made, which has never let me down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKuRDdxUmUI&t=5s 7. Do not attempt to refill any alcohol stove until it has been snuffed for at least 15 seconds and the stove has cooled to touch. As a stove burns down, it may look to have gone out as the flame will be invisible. Pouring more fuel in at that point will result in a flare up and flash back into your fill bottle, with serious consequences. Using a squirt nozzle on your fill bottle may reduce the risk of flash-back 8. My latest design uses 12 diagonal overlapping slots 19X4 mm instead of round holes in the upper row. This allows you to light just one upper jet. The other jets then light progressively around the rim. To make the slots I made 12 holes with a thumb-tack just under the rim, then worked the tip of the small blade of my Swiss Army knife into it, angled down about 30 degrees. I then did the same with the larger blade, then the butt of the blade, to create a rectangular hole. It most cases that's all you need, but if you got the angle wrong and the slots don't quite overlap, you can make them longer with a knife with a wider blade. It's really easy to do. The other way to light all top jets at once is to lift the kettle or pot off the stove a couple of centimetres about 45 seconds after lighting the internal flame, then slowly lowering it again. Flame coming out the top of the stove will light the top jets. This is what I normally do out in the field when I've got the windshield around it. 9. Most commercial airlines will not allow you to travel with a stove which has fuel in it (or even had fuel in the past) We have taken this stove on many commercial airline flights with no problem. I would hate to have my 40 year old Trangia confiscated, so never take it on a commercial flight. 10. A few people have queried why the upper jet holes are so close to the rim. Hiram Cook did some videos on the best height and concluded that one inch below the rim was the sweet spot I have tested that with this design and the hole just below the rim boils fastest, as long as the flame doesn't overshoot the edge of the pot After all why have part of the flame not in contact with the pot? With my design, all of the flame contacts the pot, included the magic "one inch away", it just does it horizontally not vertically 11. If I'm planning to use charcoal, I take enough charcoal for the first night or two on a trail, and scrape some coals from our evening campfire to use the next day. At home during winter, I sieve the coals in our wood stove and put them in a steel coffee tin with the lid on, before we go to bed. By the end of winter we have bags and bags of it, to use in the stove and for summer BBQ's A few people have asked me how to reduce the heat output for simmering. For a long, slow simmer I use charcoal in the stove, with all the holes open, as shown at the end of the video. Lump charcoal will last for 30-60 minutes For a short simmer the best way I've found is to reduce the number of open lower air-intake holes, but any fewer than 4 makes the flame unstable and easily blown out. I now make the stove with 6 (not 12) lower holes as standard. Don't reduce the size or number of upper flame holes below 6, or the vapour could back up and come out the lower holes I made a rotating sleeve with which I could select 12, 6, or 4 lower holes that worked well, but it was difficult to make and hard to adjust when hot. I also tried neodymium magnets to cover the holes. Again, very effective until they heated up, lost their magnetism and fell off! I'm now using individual plugs made by rolling some tin around a 5mm drill bit and then crimping at one end

Judging by the fact that there's not a hint of yellow flame anywhere, I have to conclude that the efficiency of this unbelievably simple design is at or near 100%. Kudos! And thank you for sharing. I'll be building one of these asap.

I tried and tried. To prove you wrong and get better sizing and placement but I couldn't you have perfected the alcohol stove. Very Well done 👍

Dude.... I've been making and using alcohol stove for years. This is by far the easiest and best I've made and used! Hats off to you sir!! Thanks for the outstanding video showing what led to your design. Kudos!

4 years later and your design is still very simple and impressive, thanks for sharing.

Hi, Simon. I made an identical stove following your guidance. I'm running it on etanol. It is very economical and boils the water really fast. Thanks for sharing this amazing design with us.

A thru hiker on the AT showed me this in 2000. I sat in the dirt outside a shelter in massachusetts with a can nail and rock and bashed holes in it till the burn tolerated a pot on the top. I ditched the trangia, and have used this ever since - same can for 19 years. Only needs a windscreen.

I thought that the view from above through the glass plate was the most informative I have seen and has help me to understand the method burner far mor than baby other video Many thanks Chris

One of the greatest report in the study and design of alcohol stoves. The data never gets old. Thanks for your service to all.

Thanks for the video! I loved that you used a glass Pyrex container to showcase lighting it.

Around 1980-81, my Scout Troop did a Jamboree in British Columbia; only 40 miles from where I lived. Following an article in a Boys magazine, I had me mum buy a large tin of tomato juice, and she poured her coffee into a Tupperware container. My dad and I drilled regular spaced holes around the tomato juice tin as well as cut a small opening for feeding the stove near the bottom. Along the top, we cut four holes that fit two tent pegs as the cook top. With pegs out, the coffee can 'billy-can nested inside the tomato can, with pegs in, the billy-can rested on to of the pegs, and just inside of the stove tin...the diameter was slightly smaller. I never timed it, but the one litre billy can would boil water very quickly once the stove was going, it would make tea for my patrol of four, or boil enough water for dinners and breakfasts. I kept the whole set-up in a bag made from an old blanket and hung it from my pack, the billy can retained the plastic lid during stowage and inside the can were matches and some tinder, all bone dry.. We made several of these, and they always worked great, the blanket kept the soot off my pack, there was always fuel to be found, and it was safer and lighter than any other stove we used. Our Troop was small, only eight of us in two patrols, but we were hard working, and innovative. We had great gear, an ex Para as a Scout Leader and we did a lot of camping, especially in winter. By our third camp after I brought the stove, each patrol carried two, we never used another stove!

I've been using a stove with your design for a couple of years worth of outdoor cooking. I added a bigger tin (same height, larger radius) around the burner to act as a wind shield and more stable pot stand. I like it a lot, thank you for sharing your work!

After watching this video I immediately made one from my box full of various sized cans I’ve been saving to experiment with for all the stove ideas on the net. This design is my favorite. It boils water very fast. It may use more fuel than some of the other smaller jetted designs but I can sacrifice a tablespoon more fuel for a quicker boil. I am going to try to make one using nothing more than a knife blade to get my holes and see how it works. I can play with the hole sizes by twisting the knife if needed. I’m thinking that, once I’ve proven that it will work, I don’t need to even carry a pre-made stove with me. Just a can of soup. Pour the soup in my pot and poke holes in the can. Great design. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

I do a lot of camping, these days mostly in my pop-up tent trailer but I do manage to get one or two canoe trips under my belt every summer. For those trips, I need super light and compact equipment, the lighter the better. When I first saw this video I had to try it myself so I spent one evening making this, I stuck close to your design and then went out in my back yard to test it out. Absolutely amazing, economical, efficient, and lightweight, hardly takes up any room in my drybag and the fuel sits in a bottle inside the unit. I have spent hundreds of dollars over the years looking for the best solution to cooking outdoors only to discover, the best solution is using stuff I would normally throw out. GREAT video, loved the pyrex demonstration. Yeah, very impressed thank you!

Just watched this for the first time. Litterally 5 min later I had one made and it’s perfect!!! Thank you!!!

After seeing endless stoves, you've come up with a new design. That is remarkable. Sorry that it's 6 years later!

This is very good when using bigger pots. Tried it today outdoors. This also needs a windscreen otherwise the flame can end up burning inches away from where it should. Thanks for the inspiration!

I thought I had seen just about every design for an alcohol stove, then I came across your video. Brilliant! Now I have to make one of these as well to go with my collection. Nice design, keep up the good work!

Wish i knew of this 35 years ago when I hiked into northern B.C. Canada. Might not be as quick as a engineered pressurized stove but would have worked just fine and saved more weight. These are great when the weather has soaked everything wet or there is 6 feet of snow everywhere and you desperately need a soup or a tea or are long over due for a meal. First class information and wonderful presentation! Cheers, hope to see you in the woods.

Thank you for going to all the considerable R & D required on this project, and for sharing it with all of us.