Alcohol Stove Accessories

 


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Accessories for your Alcohol Stove

 

Build a Wind Screen

Build a Stove Cozy

Build a Stove Platform

Build a Simmer Accessory

Build a Stove Snuffer

 

 


Build a Wind Screen

(aka Windshield, Windschutz, Windscreen)

 

MSR's Solid Heat Reflector with Windscreen

 

A wind screen serves two purposes.  It acts as a radiation shield, reflecting heat back at your stove and pot, and shields your stove against the wind, which can easily blow out many alcohol and gas stoves.  Rocks, trees, snow walls, packs (not too close) and trekkers may be used to block some wind, but a properly designed wind screen works so much better.  Commercial and DIY aluminum screens should more than make up for their extra weight in fuel savings and decreased cook times.

 

 

Note - A tight fitting windscreen around stove mounted over a gas fuel canister or petrol tank can be very dangerous.  This can cause overheating and lead to an explosion.  There are a few safer options for canister stoves - See Canister Stove Windscreens, Roger Caffin's Wind and Radiation shields, Homemade Canister Stove Windscreen, 2DrX Explorations' windscreen and backpackinglight.com  1179 for more information.  See also US Patent 2,448,326

 

 

Making your own functional windscreen is pretty easy and should be just about free.  Here are a few ideas to consider:

 

JetBoil Helios with Plastic Windscreen

 

 

If you don't want to go to trouble of building your own windscreen and heat reflector, then MSR, Aaron Rosenbloom from Brasslight and others will be more than happy to take your money and sell you a strip of softened aluminum or something similar.  And if you just want to go crazy, you can purchase titanium sheet/foil from sources such as Backpackinglight (0.03mm), Titainium Goat (0.05mm) or Suluk46.

 

 

Related Links:

Zen Stoves PotStands - detailed information on windscreen/potstand combinations

backpackinglight.com  Stove Windscreen Dynamics and Design: Part 1 Requires membership

backpackinglight.com  Stove Windscreen Dynamics and Design: Part 2 Requires membership

The Fire Bucket Stove System

adventuresinstoving  windscreens

backpackinglight.com  53217  discussion on windscreen with canister stove

Tick's canister stove windscreen

backpackinglight.com  478144 - Windscreen on FireMug Stove

backpackinglight.com  526962 - Windscreen on FireMug Stove

backpackinglight.com 20654 - Windscreens for canister Stoves

backpackinglight.com  45927 - Windscreens for canister Stoves

backpackinglight.com  16675 - Windscreen on canister stove

backpackinglight.com  1179 - Windscreen on canister stove

backpackinglight.com  53110 - pot support on canister stove doubles as windscreen

backpackinglight.com  11852 - Windscreens for canister stoves

backpackinglight.com  179272  Windscreen with flip down feet

backpackinglight.com  495091 - compressible windscreen

backpackinglight.com  194226 - elevated windscreen on tent stakes

backpackinglight.com  7695 - bushbuddy elevated windscreen

hikinggear.de  four-dog-stoves-bushcooker-lt-i-der-nahezu-all-in-one-kocher-verbrennt-holz-spiritus-und-esbit-tabs foil windscreen on Four Dog stove

gearlist.outdoorseiten.net  301  Windscreen elevated with extensions and clips

cascadealpinist.com  improve-stove-effeciencies-part-ii  Insulted platform and square windscreen

sailfar.net  8658 - Hanging Pail

 

 


Build a Stove Cozy

 

If you are hiking and cooking in the bitter cold, your stove will need a bit of help staying warm.  There are a number of methods of achieving this.  One is to build and insulating jacket around your stove.

 

Rob Endicott points out:

 

"Zen seeker, I have learned a trick that you may want to verify and post regarding the open top center wall alcohol stove, but might apply to others as well. I made one such alcohol stove about 5 years ago and was immediately happy. Sadly I often camp in places and times where cold is the condition. My stove failed awfully. Last fall this simple rule occurred to me. That the rate of evaporation and hence flame, is directly proportional to the temperature of the alcohol in the stove. Wave a torch across the the belly of a burning stove and you will see the flames intensify as you do this.

What I did after realizing this was to simply insulate the whole stove (below the burners) by applying a thin layer of fiberglass insulation and wrapping it loosely with metal tape. Basically, cold weather extracts heat from the alcohol making it too cool to evaporate quickly enough and stoves work poorly. Aluminum is an excellent conductor of heat as well. By insulating you theoretically will be able to keep the alcohol temperature higher. The whole idea is like a "Stove cozy."

I took my stove on a trip this December and was able to get a cup of boiling water in under 10 minutes at 28 degrees F with insulation applied. It's now an any season stove for me."

 

"I put the insulation right up to the burners. Before I sent you this I did a few tests to make sure I was right about this. It is 35 outside now and 75 in my kitchen. With the cozy it took 30 seconds more to boil a cup of water at 35 than at 75. Without the cozy the little jets won't even catch outside. Once I made this it was sort sort of like a no brainer. Why would you not do this? It's like not insulating your hot water heater and wondering why it uses more power in winter. This open stove design is by far the best as well. Props to the designer. You couldn't insulate a stove that needed priming very easily and this one works without any fiddling from cold tired fingers."

 

 

 

A stove can also be wrapped with other heat resistant material such as fiberglass, carbon felt or Kevlar cord, wick, cloth, tape, etc.

 

 


Build a Stove Platform

 

Winterized Alcohol Stove Test

 

Snow platforms are also important if cooking on snow and nice to have to insulate against the cold ground.  They can be made from an assortment of materials, but aluminum over close cell foam seems to work.  See Winterized Alcohol Stove Test.

 

Mark Jurey's Penny Stove 2.0

 

A stove can be elevated with part of another can to distance it from the cold ground with or without a platform.

 

 


Build a Simmer Accessory

 

This is nice to have if you need to simmer a special dish for a long time.  A more fuel sparing alternative might be to use a pot cozy to keep food at near boiling temperature longer.

 

The following methods work well with open jet stoves.  You may also be able to get a simmer attachment to work on a pressurized jet stove, but it can be difficult as you must find a way to balance having enough heat to keep the stove in operation and not so much as to burn your meal, plus you must be able to do this with different environmental conditions (what works on your stove top, may not work on the trail).

 

For many stove designs, you may wish to use a system that covers all or your jets (except with pressurized jet stoves).  Covering your jets should help decrease the amount of wasted fuel leaking out of your jets and helps to prevent stove fire ups.  This can be difficult if you have jets on the side of your stove and isn't completely required for safe simmering.  Just make sure that you allow your stove to cool down enough that the jets don't fire up when you relight it with the simmer attachment.  If you want to cover your side jets or vents, make sure that the simmer accessory you use doesn't fit too tightly, as you may not be able to remove it.  You may also want to polish (SOS pad or metal polish) off the side of your can to remove any browning that might adhere to your simmer attachment.  Test out your setup and if it continues to relight to full operation, you may need a smaller opening in your simmer attachment.

 

To get your simmer accessory to work properly, you may need to put out a hot stove a let it cool for a couple of seconds before relighting it.

 

Options


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

Trailquest's Adjustable Simmer Attachment

 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 


Build a Stove Snuffer

 

This is a nice to have accessory which makes is easier and safer to put out your stove.

 

Options


 

Variant of Perry Michael Koussiafes' Stove Snuffer

 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


 

 

 


  

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