[Cdt-l] Alcohol Stove fuel

[Charlie Thorpe]

Hello Alistair -

I have found denatured alcohol to be available under its own name in quart and gallon sizes in just about all of the big-box building supply stores I have visited (Lowes, Home Depot, etc.):

Lowes - http://preview.tinyurl.com/aagxdga

Home Depot - http://preview.tinyurl.com/bxwgy4b

Walmart - http://preview.tinyurl.com/bf6jsws

I have been using the S-L-X brand denatured alcohol for a lot of trail miles and have never had any problems of any kind with it.  I buy the biggest can that I will need for the entire hike and break it down into the little plastic soft drink (or water) bottles sized to fit the number of days in each resupply I set up.  Never had the big cans leak in the car, either.

I ran out of S-L-X, so I picked up a quart of "sunnyside denatured alcohol solvent" in a small hardware store in Cuba, NM.  It burned in my Brasslite, but it smoked so bad it turned my pot black (not all that bad a color to absorb heat best <g>) and got soot all over me.  I was too cheap to throw what I had left of it away when I got home, so I put it in the paint locker for thinning shellac, etc.  

I now buy S-L-X in the last city that I come to before I hit the trail which has a big-box hardware store.  Never had to buy HEET, but have been glad to know about it in case I ever needed to.

Good luck!

- Charlie

> I've used an alcohol stove for many years and usually used Yellow HEET as fuel. Rather than buying the individual 12 oz bottles, I was wondering whether the fuel was available in larger containers. I looked on the Home Depot website and found a product called "Klean-Strip 1 gal. Brush Cleaner" which has a sku code 809347 and costs $16.96 for the gallon size. Under the specifications for the product it states that the solvent type is denatured alcohol. Has anyone tried this product in their stove? If this stuff works then it would be a good alternative (and more economical in some locations) to buying the yellow HEET bottles. Also "brush cleaner" may be available in some towns when HEET is not.
> 
> Alistair