homemade soda can stove...

I am making a soda can backpacking stove and wanted to know what is the safest and most efficient fuel to use.

Thanks
Adam

Several fuels will work. Denatured alcohol or Gas line antifreeze in the blue bottle(Heet)are my favorites. If you get the Heet be sure to get the kind in the blue bottle. If you get the kind in the red bottle it is teribly smokey and sooty. Good luck with the stove!

The only safe fuels to use in soda can stoves are alcohols, preferably what is sold as marine stove fuel. The gas line antifreeze products contain additives that are poisonous if you get them (or their burn products) in contact with your food or drink. The pure alcohols (methanol, ethanol, denatured alcohol, isopropyl "rubbing" alcohol) and marine stove fuel are ok - plus a lot cheaper than Heet.

I have also heard I can use EVERCLEAR, is this true? And how efficient is "rubbing" alcohol?

I have never tried everclear I don't know if it will work. I had to by rubbing alchohol in a small town on a resuply once, I think it was the 80% kind. It warmed my water but it took a long time, lots of fuel, and made tons of smoke. I have a picture somewhere I'll try to find it.

Bill, the reason I like heet is you can buy it just about anywhere. It's often hard to find anything else on a resuply in a small town. Almost every gas station or small grociery has heet, few denatured alcohol. Also, the size of heet container is perfect for a week of cooking. If you can plan ahead than heet may not be the best choice

jeffrey,
In this area, Heet is unknown, as is true in general for non-snow areas (I know about it since I frequent snow country in the winter). But isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol is available in any drug store and most grocery stores. Use the 90 to 99 percent type. Denatured alcohol is available in virtually every hardware and paint store (look in the solvents section, sometimes labelled as paint remover - just read the label to see which type of paint remover, since there are many other kinds that are not denatured alcohol). The big chain boat stores (like West Marine, which has stores all over North America, including stores in the middle of the desert states) and REI and EMS carry "marine stove fuel" (get the gallon cans, since they charge an exhorbitant price for the quart size - but even the quart-size is much cheaper per ounce than Heet and other brands of fuel line antifreeze). And you can always use vodka, whiskey, rum, brandy, and distilled spirits generally (look for a minimum of 80 proof - demerara rum and cognac make really great-smelling fuels, if a bit expensive).

Oh, yeah, Everclear is pure ethanol, available in 151 and 190 proof (75.5% and 95%) - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everclear_(alcohol). Burns just fine (expensive, though, since it has the alcoholic beverage tax added on). You could also use lab alcohol, if you have the proper permits - no alcohol tax. Just ask your med school buddies.

Thanks all, just an update... just built a can stove using the Heineken can plans. Looks good, works good, and used rubbing alcohol to experiment. I think the rubbing alcohol is going to burn "sutty". Used 91% isopropyl. Probably will change fuels as I experiment more. As a note though; I noticed that when you fill the stove with fuel, each time you fill the bottom rim full to fill the cup with fuel it is approx. 5 mins of burn time. Of course this burn time may vary with different fuels. Working on a pot stand this weekend and will boil water with the rubbing alcohol to get some test results as well.
I am kinda a nerd and love this experimenting stuff, sorry if I "nerded" out.
LINK FOR THE HEINEKEN CAN STOVE
http://www.csun.edu/~mjurey/penny.html

Cool stove Adam! I think your an official "Stovie" now. Thats like a "techie." I built several dozen stoves in 03 fearing they wouldn't last too long. I ended up giving them all away because the original one still works. I built the Pepsi G stove

http://www.pcthiker.com/pages/gear/pepsiGstoveinstruct.shtml

I've seen all of the new variations of can stoves(like yours) and would like to try some of the newer ones. let us know how it works

Adam, the problem with isopropyl alcohol is that it is part water, which causes all kinds of problems, including the fact that the water is just extra weight since it doesn't burn. These stoves are designed to burn straight alcohol.
There are a lot of discussions about stove design and fuels on various lightweight backpacking websites. A few sites have dozens of different designs listed with pictures and instructions for many of them.

I made a stove and used denatured alcohol from Home Depot in it. Probably as cheap a source as any. The brand is Klean Strip S-L-X Denatured Alcohol in a blue and orange can. A quart should last a long time.

Whatever you do, don't try burning Coleman fuel (white gas) or anything like it in one of these stoves. That would be extremely dangerous and your chances of getting burned would be very high.