Alcohol stoves: DIY vs pre-fabricated.

I’m sure my fancy feast should stove is not the most efficient, but for $1 it’s hard for me to spend the money on a Caldera Cone with the 10-12 or Starlyte.

Try a cat food can stove. Low barrier to entry.

My first move away from a canister stove was a DIY cat food can stove with a DIY aluminum roasting pan wind shield. Worked pretty well, helped me learn the pros and cons of stoves that can’t simmer. And it was cheap – a few dollars of materials and less than an hour of labor.

My next move was to the simple folding ESBIT stove with a DIY wind shield. That worked OK, but didn’t do well in the wind. Last move was to a TD Sidewinder burning ESBIT. I’m very happy with that setup: efficient, almost windproof, stable, fast enough, quiet, and simple.

It’s kind of fun messing around with stoves – and I never imagined I’d wind up liking ESBIT. Experiment and see what works for you, rather than trying to find the “perfect” stove from the start. I’ve even taken two cheap, light stoves on short trips to try them side by side.

— Rex

The other perk of DIY is that I enjoy bringing a few extra made of cans from my favorite local breweries, then passing them on to others on the trail.

The Zelph stoves have a wicking material that I think lets them work at colder temperatures. The fuel also won’t spill out of them. You could buy some wicking material separately to make your own stove, but most DIY stove plans don’t have a place for it. Also, if you’re using a Caldera Cone the opening at the top of the Zelph stove they sell is modified (smaller) for maximum efficiency.

Another reason to make your own stove is then you’ll know how to.

Four of us went to Adak, far out in the Aleutian Islands last week. Manfred & Son had both their UL packs and all their camping gear bundled in one 49.8-pound duffle.  Which went to King Salmon instead of Adak.  There are only planes to Adak on Sunday and Thursday, so although we knew where it was, there was no way it was arriving for 4 days.  Two sleeping quilts, tent, alcohol stove, CC and pot, the son’s boots (he walked on the plane in moccasins), packs, etc.  We managed to borrow enough camping (not backpacking) gear to get out and successfully harass the caribou, but had no stove.  There’s only a small grocery store with some food items, a few batteries, and toilet paper, but not hardware or camping gear at all.  I’d figured out how to get denatured alcohol to the island but we had no stove.

But we had a punch (a metal spike), an anvil (a piece of wood), a hammer (a rock) and a tuna can.

It worked for hot chocolate, Mountain House FD, oatmeal, cooking Dolly Vardens, but not quite for cooking caribou.  It was much less efficient than a CC and a 2 square feet of aluminum foil would have helped a lot.  But we got by.