[Philmont] Stoves - Pepsi Can Alcohol Stoves

I played with alcohol stoves for a while. I decided that they weren't
for Scouts,
especially younger Scouts, when I set myself on fire refueling one.
What's that
smell? It's me! :-) That invisible flame can cause some real surprises!

Check out this chart
<http://thru-hiker.com/articles.asp?subcat=2&cid=57> showing
stove and fuel weight for a 14 day trip boiling two cups of water per
day (i.e not Philmont
but Thru Hiker's 28 day trip calculations look the same). The
surprise winner is an
Esbit stove! Second place went to the alcohol-burning, Cat Stove with
gas canister
stoves coming in a close third.

I don't think you can get alcohol, Esbit tablets, or gas canisters at
Philmont, which
should be factored into your choice. Alcohol can leak out in your pack, Esbit
tablets have a fishy smell and they can be hard to light (Vaseline and
cotton balls
help a lot), and can leave soot on your pot. Both alcohol stoves and
Esbit stoves
can be well under one ounce, but are a little slow for cooking and
neither one works
well for big pots like most crews use at Philmont. I wonder if you
could put 3 alcohol
stoves under one pot?

I normally use a 3.5 ounce canister stove for backpacking but Philmont
is different. My
crew will experiment with a heavy stove (like a 13 ounce WhisperLite)
and large pots as
well as small stoves and small pots to see which they like the best.
I'm guessing that
the WhisperLite will win for Philmont, even though my troop normally
uses small stoves
for backpacking.

I'm also thinking about taking a wood-burning backpacking stove like
the Bush-Buddy to
Philmont. If I could find a lightweight (wood burning) Kelly Kettle,
I'd consider that too. I
like the idea of being able to pick up fuel on the trail.

Woodburning stoves are as much fun to experiment with as alcohol stoves.

YIS
Bob S

On Dec 21, 2007 10:37 AM, Terry Pogue <terrencepogue@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Alcohol stoves are great! but not for Philmont. They are super for
> individuals. I have a Trangia and there is a cult following for alcohol
> stoves. They don't have enough BTU's for heating 4,6 or 8 qts of water and
> Philmont doesn't carry alcohol so getting refueled would be tough. As far as
> safety goes - they can't blow up, they have no moving parts, they make no
> noise, they don't use petroleum based fuels. They cook slower than any type
> of gas stove but for individuals they are great - as long as you aren't in a
> rush - and what backpacker is.
>
> Terry Pogue
> St. Louis, MO
>
> SGWOffice@aol.com wrote:
>
>
> I'm not sure how Philmont feels about them but I've been experimenting with
> them. They have a place but I worry about the dangers with scouts: the flame
> is frequently invisible, the stoves are easily tipped over with fuel/fire
> spilling everywhere, I haven't found an easy way to turn them off other than
> just letting them burn out and waste fuel. Plus, they only have one setting
> (not necessarily bad for Philmont food) and I am not convinced of their fuel
> efficiency in terms of BTU output. I do like them for easily heating up that
> hot drink when it is just too much trouble to pull out the whisperlite but
> I'd recommend against them for youth.
>
> For what it's worth.
>
> Steve
>
> In a message dated 12/21/2007 12:02:50 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> andrewmchorney@cox.net writes:
> Hello
>
> Our troop is going in 2009 (yeah) and it will be the 1st time for most of
> us. My son did the Mountain Man Trek in 2006 while I was at the PTC. How
> does Philmont feel about the use of pepsi can stoves and using denatured
> alcohol.
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
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Received on Fri Dec 21 17:15:18 2007