{"id":1473,"date":"2025-11-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/?p=1473"},"modified":"2026-08-01T17:32:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:32:41","slug":"alcohol-stoves-honestly-assessed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/alcohol-stoves-honestly-assessed\/","title":{"rendered":"Alcohol Stoves, Honestly Assessed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alcohol burners are simple, cheap, silent and have one safety characteristic that makes them genuinely dangerous if not respected.<\/p>\n<h2>The Invisible Flame<\/h2>\n<p>The most important thing about them. Denatured alcohol and methylated spirits burn with a flame that is nearly invisible in daylight.<\/p>\n<p>A stove that appears to be out may be burning. People reach for it, pour more fuel into it, or pack it away, and serious burns result.<\/p>\n<p>Always assume a stove is lit until proved otherwise. Check by holding a hand well above it to feel for heat rather than looking, or by putting the cover on and waiting.<\/p>\n<h2>Never Refuel a Hot Stove<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Pouring fuel into a burning or hot stove can flash back to the bottle<\/li>\n<li>That is a recognised cause of severe burns and fires<\/li>\n<li>Let it cool completely, which takes longer than it looks<\/li>\n<li>Move the fuel bottle well away before lighting<\/li>\n<li>Fill outside, on the ground, never on a lap<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Where a stove design includes a sealed cover for storing unburned fuel, of the kind described at <a href=\"https:\/\/alocs-us.com\/\">alocs-us.com<\/a>, the cover is also the safest way to extinguish it: smothering rather than blowing.<\/p>\n<h2>What They Do Well<\/h2>\n<p>Simplicity, with no moving parts to fail. Silence, which is genuinely pleasant. Very low weight, since the stove itself can weigh almost nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Fuel is available almost everywhere and can be carried in any quantity, unlike sealed canisters. It also works in cold weather where canister pressure drops.<\/p>\n<h2>What They Do Badly<\/h2>\n<p>Slow. Boil times are considerably longer than a canister stove, which matters when you are cold and hungry.<\/p>\n<p>Poor in wind, which is why they need a windshield more than any other type.<\/p>\n<p>Hard to control, since simmering is limited even with a simmer ring, and hard to extinguish precisely.<\/p>\n<h2>Fuel Types<\/h2>\n<p>Denatured alcohol, methylated spirits and bioethanol all work. Availability and naming differ by country, which matters when travelling.<\/p>\n<p>Never use petrol, white spirit or any fuel not intended for the stove.<\/p>\n<h2>Fire Risk on the Ground<\/h2>\n<p>Spilled alcohol spreads and burns. On dry grass or leaf litter that is how wildfires start.<\/p>\n<p>Bare earth, gravel or a stone slab, cleared of anything flammable, with water to hand.<\/p>\n<h2>Air Travel<\/h2>\n<p>Fuel cannot be flown. A stove that has held fuel may also be refused, so clean it thoroughly.<\/p>\n<h2>Carry a Backup<\/h2>\n<p>These are simple enough to be a good backup themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alcohol burners are simple, cheap, silent and have one  [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1474,"href":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions\/1474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gz78.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}