Denatured Alcohol Brands and Prices

[Blue Nose]

I have to say I love my Origo pressureless alcohol stove. I have been buying the soot-free denatured alcohol from West marine that origo recommends. But at $30 a gallon I am willing to never buy it again!! I have read posts on here that others are using hardware store DA and I was wondering if you could weigh in and tell the brand name, price and where you buy it. I only want to use products that don't soot the pots.

Thanks!

Jeff

 

[Steve Dion]

Jeff: When we had our Origo stove, I would go to the local Ace Hardware store and purchase it by the gallon. At the time it was about $10-12/gal. I know that it has gone up in price so I am not sure what you can expect.

 

[DannyS]

I've used Kleen Strip from Home Depot and Ace Hardware's brand and have had no problems. Both are around $15 / gallon and I think that's expensive. I can't imagine paying $30.

 

[MrUnix]

The Ace hardware store around here doesn't have that great of a deal.. they have a '6-pack' of 1qt cans for about $40, which if you work it out, comes to about $27 for a gallon.. Home Depot however has 1 gal cans of the stuff for around $15, as does Lowes if you have one in your area. I'm sure you can find similar prices at any other large home improvement store.

Along those lines, I am constantly amazed at how expensive ordinary stuff is once it's branded for a specific purpose.. for example, the wife used to buy nail polish remover at the local drug store; an 8 oz bottle for about $7 (and I've seen some much more expensive). It's just acetone, sometimes with a little bit of fragrenece added.. so I get gallon cans of it at Home Depot for around $15 and re-fill her little 8oz bottle whenever she is running low.. add a few drops of perfume and she never knows the difference!

Cheers,
Brad

 

[sailingdog]

Why would you buy fuel for an alcohol stove at WestMarine??? Defender has alcohol stove fuel for $17 per gallon.... Or buy it from the local hardware store or Home Depot/Lowe's for about the same...

I have to say I love my Origo pressureless alcohol stove. I have been buying the soot-free denatured alcohol from West marine that origo recommends. But at $30 a gallon I am willing to never buy it again!! I have read posts on here that others are using hardware store DA and I was wondering if you could weigh in and tell the brand name, price and where you buy it. I only want to use products that don't soot the pots.

Thanks!

Jeff

 

[higgs]

Denatured alcohol is denatured alcohol.

 

[kenn]

... just sayin'

...I am constantly amazed at how expensive ordinary stuff is once it's branded for a specific purpose.. for example, the wife used to buy nail polish remover at the local drug store; an 8 oz bottle for about $7 (and I've seen some much more expensive). It's just acetone, sometimes with a little bit of fragrenece added.. so I get gallon cans of it at Home Depot for around $15 and re-fill her little 8oz bottle whenever she is running low.. add a few drops of perfume and she never knows the difference!

Nail polish remover is usually based on lacquer thinner, which isn't exactly the same as acetone, I believe there's also toluene and/or xylene. Also, better nail polish remover may be tweaked for a lower volatility and longer "workability".

Never cheap out when it comes to your wife. Especially if she let you buy a boat.

 

[Roger Long]

Ditto here on noticing absolutely no difference between marine stove fuel and hardware store alcohol. West Marine fuel soots the bottom of pots on an Origo stove just as well as the hardware store stuff.

 

[sailingdog]

Kenn—

The MSDS for most nail polish removers list acetone as the primary active ingredient... here's one as an example. Most do not even list other active ingredients, so it is unlikely that they have toluene or xylene in them.

Nail polish remover is usually based on lacquer thinner, which isn't exactly the same as acetone, I believe there's also toluene and/or xylene. Also, better nail polish remover may be tweaked for a lower volatility and longer "workability".

Never cheap out when it comes to your wife. Especially if she let you buy a boat.

 

[BobM]

Given how alcohol is made, fermentation followed by distillation, I think it pretty unlikely that you could have a significant sooting problem with any brand. They just add methanol (even lower boiling point) and isopropanol to it so you won't drink it. It is probably blended in after the fact at most manufacturers as the required ratio is very precise (90:5:5 if I recall correctly). Note that Canadian denatured Ethanol is different. It is 95:5 ethanol:IPA (we have a Canadian manufacturing division).

 

[Joe]

Ditto here on noticing absolutely no difference between marine stove fuel and hardware store alcohol. West Marine fuel soots the bottom of pots on an Origo stove just as well as the hardware store stuff.

What are you waiting for....... just go buy a quart of denatured alcohol at Home Depot(it's in the paint department) and try it out, then make your own decision. Like Roger, I thought the West Marine stuff was just as sooty as the Home Depot stuff... so why would you pay 3 times as much for the same result. Anyway, trying a quart won't set you back a bunch if you decide you don't like it.

 

[sailingdog]

And you can always use it for cleaning solvent if you don't decide to use it as stove fuel.

What are you waiting for....... just go buy a quart of denatured alcohol at Home Depot(it's in the paint department) and try it out, then make your own decision. Like Roger, I thought the West Marine stuff was just as sooty as the Home Depot stuff... so why would you pay 3 times as much for the same result. Anyway, trying a quart won't set you back a bunch if you decide you don't like it.

 

[Joe]

And you can always use it for cleaning solvent if you don't decide to use it as stove fuel.

yeah.. a no brainer.

 

[sgnlman]

A friend recommended isop alcohol from the local drug store $4.00 for two quarts. Burns just fine in my Origo.