ak08820

Just a few years ago, I remember purchasing other brands of "gas treatment" for 2 or 3 bottles for $1 from automotive supplies stores which advertised in Sunday papers. I am making a soda can alcohol stove and looked up the price of the Heet used as fuel and it is an eye popping $11 for 12 Oz at Sears.

There are other sources that indicate that Heet is $3 for a 12 Oz bottle and I checked at the Home Depot and it was $8 for a quart.

I was a working in chemical factories in my early career and know how dirt cheap methanol is. There must be some law against such blatant extortion by retailers. This behavior has started after 9/11 in the US and grown like a plague. E.g., Ice cream was 64 Oz for all of last century and now the new half gallon is 48 Oz. Same for orange juice. The new gallon of bleach is now 96 Oz. not the 128 it was for ever in past. If you write to the retailers you get a sugar dripping reply about market research and constantly adjusting to the products to the needs of people, etc.

I wish there was a simple design for a DIY stove that can burn gasoline.

bradtx

ak08820, It's the ice cream packaging that dies it, right?

Brad

LeeG

Why buy HEET when you can get a qt. or gallon of alcohol at HomeDepot or the hardware store?

John N

If you are on the road and can not find a hardware store, almost any auto parts store (AutoZone, O'Reilly's, etc.) and a lot of conv. stores sell a bottle of the yellow heet for $2-$3. Gallons of denatured are sure cheaper proportionately but we don't always have the luxury of carrying an entire gallon of fuel when we only need a pint or so.

staehpj1

Because I only ever buy it when on tour and 12 ounces is about the right amount to carry to last a few days to a few weeks depending on how much you cook. Also it is already in what I have found to be a suitable bottle.

I would buy it from Home Depot if I were buying it at home, but that does me no good if I fly to my touring location.

To the OP, yeah $11.12 is crazy expensive, I have probably never paid more than $4 and usually much less. Then again if I needed it and it was the only store available for the next couple days I wouldn't bat an eye at that price.

chriskmurray

If you think that mark up is bad, look at something as simple as the cost of bottled water vs tap water.....

LeeG

That's funny, before all the various energy drinks and bottled water I'd fill my water bottles from a hose or bathroom faucet. Spending $2 for a qt. of water is normal now.

simplygib

And to add insult to injury, the fine print on many of those bottles of water indicates it is filtered from a "municipal source," aka tap water.

To the OP - that price is outrageous for HEET. But it's hard to call it extortion when the choice on whether to pay that price or not is entirely yours. Nobody's got a gun to your head. Sears will make a fortune on it if there are enough people out there who don't bother looking or caring what the price is. Otherwise, they'll have lots of bottles with dust on them. It's the free market.

fietsbob

Just give up cooking.. eat out, at breakfast and lunch ,
bears (etc.) wont tear up your tent then , either..
since food smells wont be there.



Defining:
Highway robbery is when men come to the road, stop you,
and take everything of value you have.

you are just complaining about prices, where you went to a
chosen shopping outlet .

BigAura

Sears has been broken as a retailer for a long time.

It's 16.44 at WalMart.......for a dozen.

Rowan

Just remind me which coloured bottle of HEET I need to get for our Trangia. I need to be on the lookout for some as we move south in the US.

BigAura

Heet Yellow ---> 1.67 at WalMart

chriskmurray

It is pretty funny/sad how much people will hate on drinking tap water trying all sorts of BS excuses like tap water is bad for you etc. It really makes one want to do a literal facepalm.

fietsbob

May be OK on the Air Force Academy campus,
Though they serve a particular Kool-aide there..

Central America does not have the same level of water treatment..
stick to the Beer.

Cervesa ..

bikenh

Simpler solution, use rubbing alcohol. It all comes down to how far above the stove you sit the pan as to how blue you can keep the flame. You can get a 32 Oz bottle of rubbing alcohol almost anywhere for $1 and it will last you at lot longer than a 12 Oz bottle of Heet. Watch the videos on youtube. I've been doing some experimentation to build my own rubbing alcohol stove to use as my main stove for home yet alone on the road. Like I said from what I've seen it all comes down to how far above the stove you sit the pan....VERY KEY AND IMPORTANT.

staehpj1

Rubbing alcohols is usually 70% alcohol and 30% water. It doesn't burn very well in my jetted type stove. It might work better with bigger jets. It reportedly burns OK in open flame non jetted stoves. It is cheap and available and I'd would use it in a pinch, but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Blinkie

Another good option is denatured alcohol from any paint store or department. You get it in a tin about a quart in volume, for about five bucks. It's not *pure* ethanol, as it legally must be denatured; sometimes it's as much as 50% diluted with methanol (and sometimes just a little methanol; or a little isopropyl alcohol, kerosene, gasolene, some other petroleum derivative -- but most often methanol), but just look up the MSDS to see if you're concerned.

12bar

I can't speak to the cost of fuel for a stove but I am well versed in the food industry. I retired after spending 32 years there and can say without hesitation the package size has nothing to do with consumer preference and everything to do with margins, profit and wall street expectations.

ak08820

That is much better!
I will have to go there.

ak08820

Rubbing alcohol is 30% water as indicated and also it burns with a very sooty flame and turns your pots messy on the outside.

staehpj1

In my stove at least it was kind of sooty and didn't burn very hot. It might be possible to build a stove that burns it cleanly, but I think the BTU per weight ratio is going to be kind of poor even then. I figure it is probably best reserved as a fallback option when there is nothing else available.

ksisler

9/11 led to a fair number of odd things, but seems a stretch to blame these things on it. When the mainstream box of your fav butter pecan shrinks from a full 64oz half gallon down to 48oz, it was caused by the brands attempting to keep the "out the door price" close to what folks are used to paying even though the cost of materials, production, packaging, and transportation have gone up quite a bit. Supply and demand as distorted by reality and those marketing wonks!

juggleaddict

Most grocery stores stock 70/30 rubbing alcohol and 91/9. The 91% isopropyl works quite well in a jet stove. Still a little sooty, but it's the same price as 70% in most places.

juggleaddict

if you're willing to fork the price, everclear works pretty well too O:-) Buy it in bulk. I'm not sure what the price compared to isopropyl would be, but it's 95%.

Unfortunately can't be bought in a lot of states.

jon c. 

This behavior has started after 9/11 in the US and grown like a plague. E.g., Ice cream was 64 Oz for all of last century and now the new half gallon is 48 Oz.

I think that began well before 9/11. In my mind, the trend started with the 13 oz "pound" of coffee and those began to appear in the late 80s.