"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On 15 Jun 2007 05:53:45 -0700, wrote:
Gotta squawk at alcohol being dangerous comment. It is not a cheap fuel,
though
for a weekend/couple of weeks cruiser as many are in northern climes, the
delta
cost to another fuel is negligible.
There are several issues with alcohol but the biggest is the fact that
it burns with a nearly invisible flame. Folks run out in the middle
of cooking their meal, add more fuel, spill some, and next thing you
know the curtains or boat are on fire. It used to happen all the time
when alcohol was more popular.
My unpressurized Origo stove works just fine. And if I spill some fuel, I
can
put it out with water, which dilutes the alcohol to the point where it
will not
burn.
Unpressurized alcohol is safer, no question. There are still the
issues of spillage, invisible flame, low heat content and high cost
however. If you look at serious cruising boats, i.e., many thousands
of miles under the keel, most of them are using propane. Larger power
boats are mostly electric.
I have a pressurized alcohol stove on Essie at this time, and I have to take
issue with the idea that the flame is "invisible" (or nearly so). The flame
is blue, perhaps a bit dimmer than propane, but hardly invisible. The tank
is located in the head -- filling it cannot result in flames all over the
stove. Nor would I attempt to fill it while the stove is burning anyway, as
that would result in a loss of pressure and the stove going out.
If your non-pressure alcohol stove runs out of fuel mid-meal-prep, it's the
result of poor planning. That aside, following proper stove usage procedures
(allow the stove to cool before adding fuel) provides a perfectly safe
cooking experience. "Safe" in the sense that we're playing with fire, of
course.