Bio ethanol/ methanol heater

[Gray]

Guys, can you use ethanol/methanol in heaters or stoves that use a wick like a kero heater or is there likely to be a big blue flash and a loud bang.
cheers

 

[Karl82]

i wouldn't personally, think they to close to meths use as a primer rather than fuel in a pressure heater. ethanol can be used in trangia burners.

 

[Gray]

Not a pressure heater, a wick burner. Even so, it feels a bit dodgy

 

[wingstoo]

Guys, can you use ethanol/methanol in heaters or stoves that use a wick like a kero heater or is there likely to be a big blue flash and a loud bang.
cheers

Probably OK to do, so long as it is only used with a wick, unlikely to cause an explosion due to the wick coming through an open hole from the container. They usually just have an open top to the burners, just like a trangia burner does, so a wick will probably lower the amount of heat produced but will save on fuel used.

 

[PDA1]

Many wick alcohol stove/burners are available on the market nowadays. Best known are "Minibull design" and "smokeeater908". So alcohol can be expected to work in a wick kero burner/stove, such as a Rippingill. A plus point is that the alcohol will burn without smoke/soot, but will have less heat output than kero. There will be no blue flash and loud bang.
Wick alcohol stoves are becoming a sub cult in the US DIY stove world as they can give "better" simmer/bake outputs, together with easily attached remote fuel bottles to give much longer burn times than Trangia/soda can types, hence there suitability or baking and "real" cooking. Still light weight enough for hiking.

 

[nitrambur]

Meths is much more volatile than paraffin, probably not a good idea

Stolen from another forum

As odd as it may sound, lamp oil, kerosene and mineral spirits are not "flammable" liquids. In its most simple definition a flamamble liquid is volitile enough at room temperature to give off vapors which burn. Methanol, gasoline, acetone, and the like are "flammable". At room temperature they give off vapors which can burn and even explode.

On the other hand, diesel fuel, lamp oil, kerosene, even vegtable oil are all liquids which give off burnable vapors only at elevated temperatures. They are classified as "combustable" liquids.

A wick lamp burns because you put a match to the wick and heat the liquid right on the wick above its "flash point" and it gives off vapors which then burn giving the flame which is the object of the exercise. It is self limiting because only the liquid right at the surface of the wick gets hot enough to give off burnable vapors.

Filling a wick lamp with methanol (or gasoline for that matter!) there is no such limiting factor. The liquid in the tank is giving off burnable vapors. The entire lamp is nothing but a molotov cocktail.

 

[Gray]

Food for thought here fellas, keep it coming. Thanks a million

 

[nitrambur]

this from wikipedia on fuels for paraffin lamps (it also says a paraffin heater is essentially a large lamp) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene_lamp#Fuels

 

[Gray]

this from wikipedia on fuels for paraffin lamps (it also says a paraffin heater is essentially a large lamp) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene_lamp#Fuels

Ooh, ok. Kind of what i was worried about. Thanks for this, i guess its a no no.

 

[Gray]

Many wick alcohol stove/burners are available on the market nowadays. Best known are "Minibull design" and "smokeeater908". So alcohol can be expected to work in a wick kero burner/stove, such as a Rippingill. A plus point is that the alcohol will burn without smoke/soot, but will have less heat output than kero. There will be no blue flash and loud bang.
Wick alcohol stoves are becoming a sub cult in the US DIY stove world as they can give "better" simmer/bake outputs, together with easily attached remote fuel bottles to give much longer burn times than Trangia/soda can types, hence there suitability or baking and "real" cooking. Still light weight enough for hiking.

i may be wrong but i think these type stoves are designed sepcifically for that purpose, like the monkeyboy stove where the wick is more like a wad that soaks up the fuel. According to Wiki, if you put alcohol in a kero burner with a wick and any of the vapours from the tank escape to the wick whilst its lit then its goodnight. Now i think about it, its common sense really.

 

[wingstoo]

Just google Wicked Ethanol burners, there are a lot of them out there to do your research with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-DQ04vdf9k

http://www.ethanolfireplaces.com/Mo...e-Firepot-Tiki-Torch-Fuel-4-Bottles_p_68.html

http://zenstoves.net/WickStoves.htm

I certainly wouldn't put it into a pressurized lamp though...Tried it with 20 tilley lamps many years ago, got a right telling off before they turned them off and emptied the tanks of petrol before re-filling with paraffin and starting again...They were really bright lights as well...

 

[Gray]

Just google Wicked Ethanol burners, there are a lot of them out there to do your research with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-DQ04vdf9k

http://www.ethanolfireplaces.com/Mo...e-Firepot-Tiki-Torch-Fuel-4-Bottles_p_68.html

http://zenstoves.net/WickStoves.htm

I certainly wouldn't put it into a pressurized lamp though...Tried it with 20 tilley lamps many years ago, got a right telling off before they turned them off and emptied the tanks of petrol before re-filling with paraffin and starting again...They were really bright lights as well...

great info, cheers

 

[rik_uk3]

Methanol/ethanol heaters are popular amongst boat users, safer to use than gas.

http://www.marinemegastore.com/product-5100-Heat-Pal-ECS_5756.htm

I've one of these

You can cook on them too. The fuel is soaked up into a pad in the fuel container and a litre will burn six or seven hours.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ORIGO-Hea...053?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d41e4b4c5

 

[Gray]

Thats the dogs Rik, cheers

 

[rik_uk3]

Cheers mate, thats about £70 delivered including tax which is not bad. Not sure about the heat output but I'd guess around 1.5Kw which is nice background heat in a larger tent. With methanol so cheap these days you can afford to run one pretty much 24/7. Leave the lid off and rest a pot/kettle directly on the built in supports or put the lid on, kettle on top, turn the stove down and leave your kettle on low heat for your brews.

 

[mountainm]

Methanol/ethanol heaters are popular amongst boat users...

Don't they kick out a fair bit of condensation indoors?

 

[rik_uk3]

I don't know MM, it will produce water the same as gas etc.

 

[wingstoo]

Fuels burn when they react with oxygen in the air. The hydrogen in hydrocarbons is oxidised to water (remember that water, H[SUB]2[/SUB]O, is an
oxide of hydrogen). If there is plenty of air, we get complete combustion and the carbon in hydrocarbons is oxidised to carbon dioxide:

hydrocarbon + oxygen → water + carbon dioxide

Ethanol is CH[SUB]3[/SUB]CH[SUB]2[/SUB]OH, often abbreviated as C[SUB]2[/SUB]H[SUB]6[/SUB]O

 

[ged]

Guys, can you use ethanol/methanol in heaters or stoves that use a wick like a kero heater or is there likely to be a big blue flash and a loud bang.

The number of threads on this forum where people ask about using fuels in appliances for which they were not designed never ceases to amaze me.

All heaters and stoves are supplied originally with a set of instructions. Thesedays that's a legal requirement.

The instructions are a part of the product; following them is vital for its safe operation. They tell you all you need to know. It's best to read them carefully, and do what they tell you.

If you have one which you bought at a car boot sale, found in a skip or whatever, and it didn't have any with it, there are ways to find the instructions. With 21st century technology it's usually a doddle.

 

[Gray]

Deleted by myself as it was innapropriate.