in relation to Alcohol and the ORIGO alcohol stove (and other brands of UNpressurized alcohol stoves)....
I agree the crown brand from Lowes is one of the cleaner burning alcohols available.
I have used the Jasco brand, which is sold by a lot of marine retailers and is blue in color and sold specifically as a fuel for marine stoves but i have never used a smellier alcohol than the jasco brand.
Everclear or Clearspring will also work and has hardly any smell, but i think there is a bit more water vapor produced from it, and even though its more expensive it can also serve a dual purpose.
one thing about any fuel you burn, anywhere at anytime, if enough fresh air is not getting to the combustion point fast enough, it will create more smell as well as a much higher amount of carbon monoxide (CO)... and in most cases, some soot.
to help remedy this problem, you must turn the flame down a bit so the influx of air will be sufficient for the combustion.
the quality of the denatured alcohol fuel and what it was denatured with, is a lot of the cause of the smell, a clean fuel will have hardly any smell unless its starving for air.
but even with a dirty alcohol that smells exceptionally bad while burning, you can minimize the severity of it by turning the stove down... especially when you first light it. a cold burning alcohol stove will always smell more than one that is hot.... when you want to use it, open the burner full open for lighting, then turn it down for a few minutes while it heats up before turning it up to a higher setting.
we have found that using the origo on setting 2 will keep the smell to a bare minimum, yet still heats a full teakettle of water within about a minute of trying to heat it on the high setting. I think this is due to a cleaner, hotter burning flame because it has the correct amount of air getting to it... with the higher setting, i believe the flame starves itself between the heat and moisture which is leaving the flame so fast that it keeps the necessary amount of fresh air pushed away from it... which creates smell.
when the setting knob on the stove is open too far, it has a flame that has potential but is not fully supplied with oxygen for the amount of fuel that is available to it, so you either have to remove some of the available fuel, or give it more air... so turning the knob to a lower setting is the best and easiest way to regulate it properly.
to some people, an alcohol stove may seem like a magical device, and all that is needed to operate it is to turn a knob and strike a match to it. when you realize that it isnt really magical, and when you are armed with the proper understanding of how and why it works, its a great option which is safe and clean for cooking... anywhere!
I agree the crown brand from Lowes is one of the cleaner burning alcohols available.
I have used the Jasco brand, which is sold by a lot of marine retailers and is blue in color and sold specifically as a fuel for marine stoves but i have never used a smellier alcohol than the jasco brand.
Everclear or Clearspring will also work and has hardly any smell, but i think there is a bit more water vapor produced from it, and even though its more expensive it can also serve a dual purpose.
one thing about any fuel you burn, anywhere at anytime, if enough fresh air is not getting to the combustion point fast enough, it will create more smell as well as a much higher amount of carbon monoxide (CO)... and in most cases, some soot.
to help remedy this problem, you must turn the flame down a bit so the influx of air will be sufficient for the combustion.
the quality of the denatured alcohol fuel and what it was denatured with, is a lot of the cause of the smell, a clean fuel will have hardly any smell unless its starving for air.
but even with a dirty alcohol that smells exceptionally bad while burning, you can minimize the severity of it by turning the stove down... especially when you first light it. a cold burning alcohol stove will always smell more than one that is hot.... when you want to use it, open the burner full open for lighting, then turn it down for a few minutes while it heats up before turning it up to a higher setting.
we have found that using the origo on setting 2 will keep the smell to a bare minimum, yet still heats a full teakettle of water within about a minute of trying to heat it on the high setting. I think this is due to a cleaner, hotter burning flame because it has the correct amount of air getting to it... with the higher setting, i believe the flame starves itself between the heat and moisture which is leaving the flame so fast that it keeps the necessary amount of fresh air pushed away from it... which creates smell.
when the setting knob on the stove is open too far, it has a flame that has potential but is not fully supplied with oxygen for the amount of fuel that is available to it, so you either have to remove some of the available fuel, or give it more air... so turning the knob to a lower setting is the best and easiest way to regulate it properly.
to some people, an alcohol stove may seem like a magical device, and all that is needed to operate it is to turn a knob and strike a match to it. when you realize that it isnt really magical, and when you are armed with the proper understanding of how and why it works, its a great option which is safe and clean for cooking... anywhere!
