Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Fine, you like the simplicity and making something. I have zero problem with that. However my 'technical mumbo jumbo' isn't addressed at the simplicity of commercial or the homemade qualities of can stoves. My 'technical mumbo jumbo' addresses the wild claims made by others about the effectiveness of the fuel...and that is applicable to bicycle touring. You can claim all you want that the stove heat just as well as a pressurized fuel stove but you would be absolutely and totally wrong. We know through science...you know that 'technical mumbo jumbo'...what the heat content of various fuels are. We use stoves to heat things so heat output is an important quality of the stoves. If you have a fuel that contains twice as much heat as another fuel, you can heat things twice as fast. On the other hand, if a fuel has half the heat content of another fuel it takes twice the fuel to heat something to the same temperature. Once you have to carry twice the fuel to do the same job, it adds up. Sure, you could carry the same amount of fuel and just refuel more often but you are just trading one problem for another.
Isobutane/propane fuel has twice the Joules/Kg as ethanol, but I find the stoves and the canisters to be bulky and inconvenient and I also don't like having to rely on fairly specialized stores for resupply, I know I can find denatured alcohol, Heet or in a pinch propan-2-ol (sorry for the mumbo jumbo there, but we seem to be splitting nomenclature hairs here so I thought I'd just emphasize the double OH in rubbing alcohol that gets lost by some even when you say isopropanol). I also don't worry about boil times as I've found that using a small well directed set of flames uses the least fuel to boil my water. Energy density is only one factor on the efficiency of a stove. Once it's lit energy transfer is everything and you've also got to consider flame patters, the cooking vessel and wind screen. I also use a 2 cup mug as my cooking "pot" so a gentle flame that stays on the base of the mug is ideal so no flames are wasted by going beyond the base and so that the mug handles stay cool. I boil 2 cups of water this way in about 5 mins on a warm day, 7mins if it's cold and use 15 ml of ethanol. It works for me, but I'm sure canisters are perfectly good at heating stuff up too.