Originally Posted by
Western Flyer
...but my “anemic, BTU challenged” alcohol stove melted the lid!...
The one test material that seems to work very well is a square of fiberglass cloth. It can withstand my alcohol flame. I think a canister stove might melt it. It folds up easily and can’t weight more than a gram or two. The problem is the fiberglass has a very slack weave and wants to fall apart with repeated handling, making it a poor candidate for touring unless I can hem the edges. While the glass was a free scrap from my kayak repair kit, I am hesitant to spend the $25.00 for the high temperature thread, to sew a hem around a scrounged scrap of fiberglass, for a stove made out of recycled aluminum pet food cans. There is a cost symmetry that needs to be maintained for aesthetic values. (Sigh! I’ll probably buy the tread just to put my curiosity to rest.)
Your stove is heat limited...unless you want to challenge a couple of hundred years of science. If you do that you might get some push back from engineers who use heat calculations based on that couple of hundred of years of science. Perhaps, before we go any further, you should go familiarize yourself with
heat and
temperature, which aren't the same thing. While you are there, look at
heat capacity and
thermal conductivity.
Also since you seem to be wanting to use an insulator to enhance heat transfer (
), you might also want to take a look at
thermal insulation. Just a hint, you usually don't want to put insulation between a heat source and a cold body unless you are trying
not to heat up the cold body.