Originally Posted by cyccommute

It's simple thermodynamics. I didn't say that you can't boil water. I said it takes longer to boil water and more fuel. Pure Ethanol has a bit over half the heat energy of white gas or butane (which have roughly the same energy content). Add 5% water and the heat energy drops to half. Methanol has less than half the heat energy of butane. Since the rate of oxidation for fuels is roughly the same, the amount of time it takes to put a certain amount of heat into a body of water is independent of the fuel. If the fuel has less energy in it to begin with, it takes longer to heat the water. You can say that your alcohol stoves heat at the same rate as butane fueled stoves but you are experiencing an observational bias. The science behind burning fuel and heating water says otherwise.

Here's a question for all of you alcohol stove users: What fuel do you use at home for cooking? Do you use alcohol? If not, why not?