Been a while since I’ve posted but wanted to flag up a bargain in case it’s of interest to anyone.
Superdrug (my local one anyway YMMV) are selling off stocks of hand gel for pennies. This is not only good as hand gel, but can be used as stove fuel.
They had a couple of different brands for 25p for 500ml 50p for a litre
One of them is 75% alcohol the other 70%. I would suspect that brands in stock may vary but would guess now demand is down as lots of people think Covid is over, they need to get rid of stock.
For my own interest, I compared using the gel to boil some water (using a cut-off bottom of a drinks can as the vessel- I know Trangia make a gel holder, but can’t justify spending out for something that is just an open tin)
Test details are below. It was fairly controlled (same temp water/ pan, done indoors etc) but not perfect (if I’m being super-nerdy about it)
Amount of water: 200ml
Vessel: Small stainless saucepan.
Control:
Stove: Trangia copy with Bushcraft store cross member stand on top
Fuel: Bioethanol (Ekofuel brand)
Time to boil: 7min 47 seconds
Fuel used: 8g
Boil cost: 3.4p
Test
Stove: cut off bottom portion of drink can with Bushcraft store cross member stand on top
Fuel: 75% hand gel (Go2 brand)
Time to boil: 4min 22 seconds
Fuel used: 16g
Cost to boil: less than a penny
So essentially the gel worked far quicker (partly as it’s immediately at full temp rather than needing to bloom like the Trangia) and because it gets through fuel quicker and at these prices is much cheaper.
Weight and clean-up wise the liquid wins (though arguably the stove itself is even lighter as it’s just one bottom of a can rather than 2 for a penny stove)
As mentioned, I don’t know if this is just my Superdrug, but would guess other retailers may well have big stocks of hand gel that they are selling off cheap.
It burns with little odour (or visible flame) but of course they all may have different additives.
Do note if you try other brands, heck the alcohol content. Some, especially at the peak of Covid were pretty low. I’d stick to 70% or over.
Note. There was some gel left once the water boiled and still burning (it’s not worth weighing this as you can with the bioethanol as you’ll be weighing the gunk left over which won’t tell you how much of the alcohol was used) so I did try reducing the gel amount to work out exactly how much was needed to boil with no waste, but it actually took longer to boil - I think essentially you need a certain amount to burn well. Also, running it down to nothing causes some spitting, so I stuck with 16g and can live with a little wastage.
Caveats.
The gel leaves a layer of gunky residue. It will wipe out to an extent, particularly if you soak it in a little water. Equally, if like me you are using the bottom of a drinks can as a gel holder. You could just replace it often.
Caution: Don’t use gel in a standard alcohol burner (Trangia/Penny stove/coke can stove etc) it will gum it up.
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