I posted this tip last year in the "Salty Sailors" forum but never took any pics of it until yesterday.
This tip applies to anyone who has an Origo or similar canister type boat stove on board. With the price of denatured alcohol these days it behooves you to try and conserve fuel in any feasible way possible.
Generally, these stove canisters have flexible round rubber type gaskets that keep the alcohol from evaporating from the canister when the stove is not in use and when you want to use the stove, you need to open the cover and remove the gasket and light the stove after closing the cover and opening the knob.
When you get through using the stove, you're supposed to let the stove cool down before putting the gasket on the canister. A lot of times I would forget about the cover and during the interim I can imagine that a lot of alcohol evaporated.
Some stores are getting $5.95 a quart for denatured alcohol and the canisters hold a quart.
So what I've been doing is keeping a cold damp rag handy and when I'm done with the stove, I open the cover and cool the canister down with the rag and put the gasket in place with a weight on top of it. Usually these stoves will stay open on a flat surface but my stove sits in a shallow recess and I had to make a stove lid holder out of a piece of Teak to keep it open. It's probably a good idea to have something to keep it from closing prematurely anyway. Anyway, once the inner part of the stove lid has cooled down you can remove the weight from the gasket and the propping stick, and close the stove. Oh by the way,-- you can buy Klean Strip S-L-X denatured alcohol at Lowe's or Home Depot for about $15 a gallon which is cheaper than buying it by the quart at the other stores and it says right on the can, "Also for boat stoves."
Joe
This tip applies to anyone who has an Origo or similar canister type boat stove on board. With the price of denatured alcohol these days it behooves you to try and conserve fuel in any feasible way possible.
Generally, these stove canisters have flexible round rubber type gaskets that keep the alcohol from evaporating from the canister when the stove is not in use and when you want to use the stove, you need to open the cover and remove the gasket and light the stove after closing the cover and opening the knob.
When you get through using the stove, you're supposed to let the stove cool down before putting the gasket on the canister. A lot of times I would forget about the cover and during the interim I can imagine that a lot of alcohol evaporated.
Some stores are getting $5.95 a quart for denatured alcohol and the canisters hold a quart.
So what I've been doing is keeping a cold damp rag handy and when I'm done with the stove, I open the cover and cool the canister down with the rag and put the gasket in place with a weight on top of it. Usually these stoves will stay open on a flat surface but my stove sits in a shallow recess and I had to make a stove lid holder out of a piece of Teak to keep it open. It's probably a good idea to have something to keep it from closing prematurely anyway. Anyway, once the inner part of the stove lid has cooled down you can remove the weight from the gasket and the propping stick, and close the stove. Oh by the way,-- you can buy Klean Strip S-L-X denatured alcohol at Lowe's or Home Depot for about $15 a gallon which is cheaper than buying it by the quart at the other stores and it says right on the can, "Also for boat stoves."
Joe
