Originally Posted by
ullearn
Can you use a water bottle to carry camp stove fuel?
My camp stove uses alcohol fuel and the recommended type is the yellow Heet bottles (Methyl Alcohol) , which if you look at the bottom of them they are labeled recycling symbol # 2 - HDPE (high density polyethylene).
I don't currently own a fuel bottle holder like the MSR ones, but I have tons of old cycling water bottles lying around, which these are labeled recycling symbol # 4 - LDPE (low density polyethylene).
Can I save a few bucks and reuse my water bottle to carry the the Methyl Alcohol?
Let me preempt the joke - "only if you want to accidentally drink fuel"
I don't...and wouldn't...carry fuel in a bottle that is the same as one that I might drink from for the same reason that I don't take bottles of water into the laboratory or take laboratory glassware into my office. 99.9% of the chemicals that will kill you dead and 99.2% of the chemicals that will make you think you want to die are colorless. You can't tell the difference between water and most chemicals. You also can't tell the difference between water and methanol. One quench your thirst and the other will make you either blind or dead.
Don't use a water bottle for stove fuel. Buy an MSR fuel bottle. It's cheap. How much is your sight or life worth?