Well, I found ethanol in Calgary, on the web at least:Ĭalgary is a good place to find chem-lab materials, there are a lot of labs in town via the oil industry. I guess Da Man would prefer that bums and other cheapskates actually DIE and thereby learn not to get around the liquor taxes, not just have to learn how to choke down a gross flavour. PS: Your “10%” is almost certainly methanol – the denaturant of choice, one of my googles claimed. Now, my only problem is finding a decent marine store – in Calgary(!) Most stoves run OK on both – just better on ethanol.įor me, it’s just about my tea boiling in 7 minutes instead of 10. The sizes of the holes from which the vapour comes out may assume a certain amount of flame will be produced, enough to keep the alcohol below vaporizing at the right rate. This may be more than just getting more heat for the same weight and volume a stove designed for ethanol may run sub-optimally on methanol. Although actual fuel consumption doesn’t increase as much as energy content numbers indicate.” In other words, for the same energy content as one liter or one gallon of gasoline, one needs 1.6 liters/gallons of ethanol and 2.1 liters/gallons of methanol. “One liter of ethanol contain 21.1 MJ, a liter of methanol 15.8 MJ and a liter of gasoline approximately 32.6 MJ. Many thanks! I should have googled first – I made the mistake of assuming it would be around in any hardware store.įYI, for stove-users, the attraction of ethanol over methanol (“methyl hydrate”, old name for it) is that it has more energy. I’m so damned pleased with myself, I might even shave. So, for all you sailers, campers and bikers – try Steveston Marine in the lower mainland, or check your local marine store and if they don’t have it, get them to order it for you from Captain PHAB.Īs for me, I’m heading down to the boat right now to fill up my stove and perk up a pot of coffee. The staffer told me that one of the reasons denatured alcohol has been hard to find is that one of the main suppliers either went out of business or stopped carrying it. It sells for $19.99 for a 4 litre bottle (that’s 1.14 gallons) and it’s a 90-10 mix (Ethanol and whatever they use to make it undrinkable). They now stock something called Captain PHAB Marine Alcohol, from a Peterborough Ontario company, Captain PHAB. I’d almost given up, when I stopped by Steveston Marine just off Granville Island. Meanwhile, in the US, West Marine sells a gallon of “soot-free alcohol” for 29.00 ! I almost had heart failure when I picked up the small bottle (less than a litre) and saw the price tag: $30.00. They sell something called blue flame stove fuel, and though there was very little information on the bottle, I assume this is some type of ethanol mix. I thought I had found what I was looking for over at West Marine. In any event, I was bent on finding denatured alcohol rather that burn methyl hydrate. Methyl Hydrate is wood alcohol – if you’re old enough you probably remember using it in Bunson Burners in high school chemistry. Most places I went to looking for this fuel, including my local marine store (Martin Marine in North Vancouver) sell Methyl Hydrate, which will also work in the stove. It burns super hot and while not great for the environment, burning it is slightly LESS bad that burning other types of fuel. Other than for use in stove, apparently bike folks use it to clean gears etc.ĭenatured alcohol is Ethanol – grain alcohol that’s been treated to make it undrinkable. So, I did a quick crash course on alcohol for stoves.Ī search on the web shows that other people in Canada have trouble finding denatured alcohol. This year, I haven’t been able to find it anywhere. It was simply called Denatured Alcohol – a no brainer. Up until this year, I’ve been able to buy denatured alcohol for the stove at one of my local hardware stores – Rona used to stock it with solvents and turpentine – and it was relatively cheap. The stove is responsible for making coffee, hot water for shaving, and all my cooking that isn’t BBQ in short, one of the most important items on the boat ! I love the stove – it’s super hot, needs zero maintenance, and compared to pressurized gas, is super safe. My little sailboat Madsu has a non-pressurized alcohol stove made by Origo. Who knew that finding alcohol could be this hard ! Original article below – and there’s a lot of great info in the comments. We do however have a Lloyds Ethanol, which is essentially the same. This recall was all stove alcohol across the country, not just Captain Phab. “Unfortunately we do not produce marine alcohol anymore, it was discontinued due to a Health Canada recall in Oct 2019. In an email from the company in Aug 2021: “ UPDATE: Captain Phab Marine Alcohol is no longer available.
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