I can't believe they ever boiled with all these people watching.

the comedic timing of the pause followed by "it's a knock off" was gold

I have used the same Trangia for over 20 years and it still works great. If I want speed I will take my Rocket stove or Jetboil with me, but that's not what the alcohol stove is all about. After it cools down I can screw back on the top with fuel in it and throw it back in the pack. I have made stoves and bought other alcohol stoves over the years but I always go back to my trusted Trangia.

I have the evernew titanium. When I bought it about 5 years ago it was about $30. I have been very happy with it and, I use it to make coffee in the morning as I travel the US in my van. Very detailed testing and excellent video.

Kinda happy with my Trangia's, respectable boil times, respectable burn times, middle of the road price, and between the lid and simmer ring your able to transport fuel between burns if necessary, and you can modify the temp/efficiency if you don't need full boil. I can even live with firebox soldering both of mine for me, but I'm definitely glad I watched this all the same!

I feel like the best figure of comparison is simply 'boil time' i.e. how long you can make your pot boil. Therefore, I've created a table ordered by boil time, then wait time until boil, then weight, then cost: 3:32 (8:42) 26g $3 Lixaa 3:30 (8:17) 110g $15 Trangia 3:07 (8:37) 88g $19 Solo Stove 2:16 (8:11) 44g $19 Boundless Voyage 2:01 (7:15) 14g $0 Sprite Can DIY 1:52 (6:32) 13g $25 MBDC Elite 1:37 (7:54) 12g $10 Turbo Gnome 1:36 (6:24) 28g $3 Fancy Feast DIY 1:10 (6:45) 14g $20 MBD Elite Pro 0:59 (6:48) 36g $43 Evernew 0:00 (0:00) 50g $1 Walmart DIY (FAIL) Observations: The most efficient stoves (longest boil time) are also those that take the longest to start boiling. Lixaa and Trangia seem the best, depending on which design you prefer, and if you care about weight. MBDC Elite or Fancy Feast is best if you don't care about efficiency and just want a quick boil. Also - I feel like whether you use a pot stand or not can make a big difference. Pot size will definitely matter.

Great info on alcohol stove comparison!!! Thanks for your time to compare these items!!! Excellent production!!!

This 22 min video went by very quickly. It was very well presented, interesting, and informative. Thanks!

Awesome video man, I’ve been considering adding an alcohol stove to my kit and really only knew about the Trangia - nice to know there’s lots of viable alternatives including a DIY option. Thank you!

Great video. I've made loads of different types but never got round to doing a controlled burn test. Thanks.

Fantastic video! I'm currently looking for a good Alcohol Stove so you've saved me a lot of time. Thanks!

I always wondered about all those stoves out there, this was really good.

Hey Ernie Thanks for spending your time creating the video and stoves I hadn't heard of the ever new stove it looks good as you've pointed out shame it isn't compatible with the Trangia base.

thank you so much for using metric system. makes me understanding your excellent measurements way easier

Great vid Ernie! You had me when I saw the Buffalo River Handbook on your shelf.

Thanks for the video! Great job boiling water. I've boiled quite a bit today myself while designing my own stove. It's kind of a cross between the Evernew and the Fancee Feast stoves, but it gets longer boil times. Glad you put those comparisons up, as it lets me know how my DIY stacks up. I got some numbers on mine today. It weighs in at 0.8oz, primes in 11s, boils 2 cups in 6:38 and burnout happens at 10:47 w/ 1oz denatured alcohol. After seeing how much people pay for the minibull stoves I'm starting to wonder if mine may actually be worth selling.

Great vid mate and thanks for the metric measurements!

I have the Trangia for over 25 years At that time i used denatured alcohol And it worked very well ...also burned clean...now a shelf decoration... Those were the days

Great video. I bet this took considerable time to make. Thanks so much for the information. Great work.✌️

Still watching this video 2 years later! Thank you for doing the work.

Test flaw noted...The Trangia was placed into the Firebox Nano with the use of the "Nano Sticks" this elevated the burner as opposed to the use of the Evernew which was placed on the baseplate of the Firebox Nano with no elevation - the distance of the flames were not the same. This caused different flame heights and different temperatures.

Thank you for this video! I immediately went and purchased two of the Lixada stove. On eBay it comes with a cross member that fits into the stove for just under $10. Thanks again!

Excellent test and variety. Thanks for sharing. Take care.

Nice test. I like the fancy feast because it doesn’t need a pot stand and works in very cold weather.

I watched to the end. I so enjoyed this expose on alcohol stoves. I have the Trangia, and made a pop can stoves in Scouts. I love all things stoves. I mostly dO canoe backtripping. I have lightweight stuff, but definitely have some luxury items too.

Glad to see that you, lile the rest of us, have more stoves than you know what to do with.😁 Thanks for the vid!

why am i interested in these camping stove vids? i don't even camp.

I've now made several cat can stoves in different styles and sizes and they're my go to. I just don't think you can beat them for simplicity and performance.

Very well done! Loved it, thanks! Time well spent. 😁

Good video. Clear fair and informative. Thanks!

I really enjoyed your video, it's been very helpful and tells the facts about the truth ? THANKS AND I WILL BE WAITING FOR YOUR NEXT VIDEO

I love this exhaustive coverage of alcohol stoves. Well done sir.

I probably have 10 alcohol stoves. Made some of them but bought most. I have small fast priming and heating, then larger slow priming but long burning ones. Love the simplicity of an alcohol stove and a yellow bottle of Heet. Thanks for the video.

That was a beautifully done test with proper scientific method. I like my trangia style fosters can alcohol stove, with simmer cap it weighs 23grams, it's 84mm diameter by 40mm height and can hold up to 3oz of fuel for longer cook times. With 1oz or less it lights super quick since it has a huge 45mm rolled edge hole in the center chamber.

Great video. I like you call a spade a spade. Good methodology and honest you are an engineer.

Some of my comment is not directly related to alcohol stoves but might be helpful to some folks with little experience. I wasn't aware of the Rainier tragedy noted below. Sorry to learn about that. It's obvious that methanol stoves would not be used in a mountaineering situation. I am an experienced long distance hiker but no longer am able to do that. As someone pointed out, without a proper windscreen, fuel consumption would be excessive. I learned that the hard way in Maine. I ran out of fuel due to high winds even with a wind screen and had to borrow canister fuel and a stove from Boy Scouts. My opinion based on experience is that this type stove is only suited for above freezing weather and low wind. All things being equal I would buy the cheapest style or make my own stove . In addition, I would learn to make a proper fire in case it is needed. It is always good to have a backup plan.

You gotta love that fire box nano

Wow! Thank you! You just saved me so much research time and the mistakes, buyers remorse! Thank you! I can't believe you made watching water boil so captivating, :-) I subscribed of course!

It was worth it just for the "...and you are considering watching me boil 22 cups of water." My other hobbies include watching grass grow, and timing paint drying.

You Rock Bro! Whole Package, Info, Humor what else could you ask for!.

Great review . i've got Trangia both civilian and the much more powerful military versions Only you give a full time from lighting too boil I now use a Chinese £12 jet style gas cooker 2 minutes 30 start too boil 500ml and the 100 gram fuel cartridge lasts 1 hour. The A stoves are very light but the fuel weighs a ton.

Thanks for doing a great job editing to make this test go faster. Skip all the tests and just use ESBIT in a BGET burner inside a Caldera Cone that fits a 2 1/2 cup Open Country aluminum pot. Works great for me and I have 3 alky stoves to compare. My favorite is the little Kojin stove.

This is very enjoyable, since I like gear videos. I have had good results with zelph’s stoveworks alcohol stoves. He has alcohol stoves that do not spill out fuel, and he has worked out pot diameter for the stove selection. I have the Companion Burner, as well, for coldest temperatures I hike and camp. I have used it with my hardware cloth constructed folding flat wood burning camp stove he had made, as the Companion Burner. The smallest ‘pocket stoves’ are a favorite: Starlyte Burner w/Lid I like the looks of that MDB Elite ‘Starbucks’.

Super helpful video! I've been a canister stove guy for a while and have considered dabbling with alcohol stoves but wasn't sure where to start. This gets me headed in the right direction, thanks!

I have a LOT of alcohol stoves. Some DIY and some purchased. None are as good as the ready to use stove called the "Fancee Feest". The rest of my stoves just sit in a box gathering dust. Yes you can build your own and that is fun yet...for colder temps and faster bloom...go with the fancee feest.

cheers bro.I actually being working on lately a few designs myself such as a Trangia DIY dual fuel as well as a dual fuel design that is based off a Alocs cs-13

Thank you for this truly wonderful video.

nicely done. many thanks!

Really good pal thanks for sharing that 👍

Great breakdown. Love Tinny’s stuff. He has some crazy light stuff.

Great video Ernie 👍. It really comes down to What are you doing with the stove. I’ve made lots of DIY stoves and I prefer the cat can stove you had. If I’m just boiling water I will bring a cat can stove. If you cut the tomato paste can in half you can make two stoves, I think the height is 5/8. This stove will be a bit slower and a longer burn time, but for me it’s not about how fast I can boil water. My overall favourite would be the Trangia burner with a FireBox Nano, just a great combo and I use the simmer ring all the time.

I have used the same Trangia stove for over 20 years and love it.

hi I have experience in expedition in the far north of Canada (fishing guide) and the most stable and perform spring, autumn ... is without question is the "fancy feast"

Great comparisons, thanks, new to the channel have to check out more

Great video Ernie!👍

Fantastic video. Thanks for posting. I subscribed!

Hi Ernie. Firstly thanks for all your hard work mate, it has given me such great insider knowledge 😀. One little DIY alcohol stove that has perked my interest is the Arizona penny stove and I was wondering if you have any experience with this little gem and how it compares to some of your other little alcohol stoves?

After watching several videos, I built a stove using a 12 oz beer can and a 7.5 oz soda can. The bottom 1" of the beer can became the stove bottom. The soda can is the inner sleeve. The beer can's top ring minus flat part where the pull tab attaches, slips over the bottom and the short soda can cylinder. The burner jets are 5/32" holes about every 1/2"" on the outside, top of the beer can's shoulder. I also inserted the drill bit and bent the jets a bit vertically. that helped direct the flame upward. The soda can part fits tightly between the top/bottom beer can sections. I cut 4 small triangular slits in the bottom of the soda can to allow good fuel flow. I enlarged the hole in the soda can where the pull tab top was removed. The opening is about 60% of the top. Also drilled 3/32 inch holes in the perimeter of the soda can. Four small grooves in the top lip of the beer can to allow air flow if the pot is on the stove. I JB welded the beer can and the soda can top edge to the top inner area of the beer can. This may have reduced performance a bit but I wanted it to be sturdy. Weight .5 oz. So about performance. Once ounce of denatured alcohol. Time to start of bloom - 45 seconds. Full on in 1 minute 15 seconds. After full bloom, placed 700ml titanium pot with cover on containing 2 cups tap water on a pot on a stand, 1 1/4" above stove. Time to boil 4 minutes. Total burn time, 15 minutes. Ambient temp 75F. Elevation 500ft. No wind. Follow up test. Same conditions except pot directly on stove after full bloom. Time to boil, 5 min 20 seconds. Total burn time 35 minutes with pot on the stove. That is NOT a misprint. 35 minutes during which time the boil was maintained. I must have gotten lucky. My first stove build and performance is better than most of the versions I see on UKposts.

After watching about 10 of your videos I figure it's time to subscribe! Have enjoyed every one I've watched so far!

Nice Vid!!! Love to see you add the TOAKS Titanium Siphon Alcohol Stove. It’s awesome!!!

I watched and I ended up digging in my recycle bin. Now I have a fully functional meets my needs alcohol stove! Amazes me that I didn't have to buy anything! I have a Solo Titan twig stove and I wanted an alcohol burner to use in it when I don't have twigs or for when the titan is too hot for cooking. But now I am thinking I have good options if I make a few of these with different intensities. I plan to make a dozen different soda can stoves and vary the the number of holes and size of holes to find the perfect fry an egg stove, keep foods warm stove, turbo boiler.... anyhow, thanks! (oh and yes I do enjoy watching water boil!)

I have a lot of alcohol burners/stoves. One that impresses me is the Toaks titanium siphon alcohol stove (really a burner-needs a separate stand). It is tiny, weighs almost nothing,and burns extremely well. One thing that stands out is that the bloom time is typically 2-3 seconds.

Thank you for taking the trouble to make this video. . Love your sense of humour too. . Bravo buddy.

I recently ordered the Solo Stove alcohol stoves since I caught their deal around the holidays on the Titan stove. pretty anxious to get them and try em out. I'm an alcohol stove newb, I've either used wood or an MSR stove.

Great video and very informative. ill stick with my Trangia since i can have fuel in it, and i actually use the simmer ring.

Some folks think this alcohol stove phenomenon is fairly new . My first one was made 55 years ago from a tomato paste can and burned moonshine . I have the Trangia and military issue Svea , but have yet to see a factory made that works better or as well as home made . My tip for cold weather = Cut a small strip of aluminum from a can . Bend it to fit inside the stove and place a small piece of trioxane on the strip to heat the stove and get the alcohol to vaporize . This works at 50 below zero . This is a great video and much appreciated . Thanks Paleo Hiker MD .

22:31 minutes never went so quick! I am a fan of Tinny since the early beginnings of his YT channel.

I didn’t know they worked, thanks for sharing

Dude....excellent presentation!

Tinny makes the SFP now (like the gnome, but lighter and no pot stand required). Didn't get 2 cups to boil on .5 oz, but 1cup will.

Out of all the alcohol stoves I have these three are used the most. For canoeing ( weight does not matter ) it's the Out-d Stainless Steel Alcohol Stove. it's 8.71 oz ( stove only ) and about 2 ,1/2 times the size of a mini Trangia. . Backpacking it's the Evernew Appalachian set ( 5.7 ounces for everything ) that I grab most of the time. I made a cat food stove from a Vienna sausage can with a tomato past can. Some carbon felt separated the two cans. Total weight 1.4 oz. The reason for the taller cans is for the additional height needed. It's used as a 2 nd heat source in a Vargo Hexagon titanium wood stove ( 4.2 oz ). Even after all of these years I still consider the , tired and true , Trangia as the standard.

Thank you very much for this video!

All these are variations on a theme. They all do the job, but for me, the difference is the construction. I use the Trangia most of the time, but any of the clones will do fine as well. They are robust. For something lighter, I just use a pop can stove that is extra tall at 2" rather than the more often seen 1-1/4". I build the double wall version. It just holds more fuel, or, about the same as the Trangia. I tested the two, and found that they both burn for about 25 to 30 minutes. Long enough to boil water for a couple cups of coffee, and to heat the tent (carefully) before I turn in or roll out. Good presentation.

The white Box stove stand works awesome with the evernew. Easy to push away for simmering.with pot directly on stove.

Good to know, and very informative video 👍 subscribed

Great job! I modified the fancy feast stove. For the inside can I use a Sapporo beer can cut 2 and 5/8 inches and a Bumblebee minced classic can as the base. Everything else is done in the same way. It is more stable. It can boil very quickly and the larger reservoir allows for near 20 minute cook times (I fried a steak in a cast iron skillet).

Interesting comparison.👍 A time from blooming would be good because one can soon find a way to make a slow blooming stove bloom quickly thus negating any immediate advantages of one that blooms ‘naturally’.Hope that makes sense 😅

Great Channel Glad you mentioned about ventilation a lot of the other channels don't And what alcohol versus propane in the others Do you need ventilation

Awesome Video to watch during the C19 lockdown. I dig the lightweight-ness of all of these stove. However, you will be carrying fuel no matter what if you are out for multiple days. So I'm wondering what is the benefit over lets say a whisperlite besides cost? I already have a MSR and am looking for DIY projects to add another easy stove to my car camping set. Rock on!

Thanks, this helped out

Brilliant comparison vid! Fair play for doing so many lol

Thank you. Mr. Stove.

A Fancy feast stove works in sub-zero degree temps with sub-zero temp fuel. Love the Flat Cat stove design too.

For controlled cooking the Trangia or one of it's many copies is the best imo. For boiling water, for me, it's the fancy feast - easy and cheap to make.

Thanks. That was interesting. The take-away that I have learned is that it doesn’t matter too much what you use. My cooking system is the Trangia stove and the Firebox. In you analysis you didn’t talk too much about the added usability of having an adjustable simmer lid. When cooking numerous items timing is critical. Using that feature allows you to ensure that things on the stove stay hot but not burn/scorch while you are cooking steaks on the open fire pit. Similarly, having a lid to snuff out the flame allows you to save fuel for the next time. In summary, there is more to consider than weight, time-to-boil, and consumption rate. I particularly like the Firebox system because it is multi-dimensional in that I can use twigs and branches. Or, I can use the Trangia. Or, I can use pellets,,or charcoal. Very flexible. I frequently use theTrangia w/Firebox because of convenience. It is quick to start and quick to stop. Also, there is no wood ash byproducts to dispose of. Having said that, I have watched you DIY videos because I don’t always have my cooking system with me (it requires advanced planning) and in an emergency situation like a flood, hurricane, tornado, it may be critical to boil water for first aid, drinking, or c-rats. Your demonstrations are extremely helpful. Thanks for all you do for our community.

Great test. Given the times, one needs to look the boil time in context of overall flame time. From there, for me its Trangia/Solo/Lixada and Fancy Feast with a mention for the Sprite Can. The others don't seem worth the time as these already cover fast boil times, long flames along with weight saving considerations. If there is a clear winner it might have to be Lixada and the sprite can. OK boil/flame time, fantastically cheap and incredibly light. It makes you think!

Up to date on your videos, I think the reason why the Catstove has the best time is because it burns as a wick and not by jets that blows a lot of the flame up the side of the pot.

I've had a diy one made from a small energy drinks can for a long time but haven't used it in ages after getting a mini gas stove, may have to take the old alcohol one out and make a coffee this weekend

Good stuff! Have literally burned gallons of fuel testing stoves. For me the Fancee Feest or "cat can" as you call it is my fave. No pot stand needed, efficient and lights in the coldest temps thanks to the wicking material. Also the have a sweet spot for the Trangia, despite it's weight.

Dear Ernie - Well this was a real nail-biter. I stumbled-across your UKposts channel and enjoyed your 'battle-of-the-alcohol-stoves'. Glad that I had a hot mug-of-tea and a biscuit to make it even better. Regards - Paul (Garland, Tx)

This was surprisingly really funny for a video about stoves

Notice that when the outside temperature drops, as it usually does this time of the year, titanium alcohol burners requires more effort to ignite and bloom than the Trangia (brass), since titanium does not conduct heat very well. Hiram Cook did a few test on that with different titanium burners by Toaks. This is also my experience when trying to use my Evernew burner vs the Trangia during winter. Also notice that *some* of the "knock-off" stoves (Evernew- and Trangia copies) does not have internal wicks.

Great comparison. 😎🤙

I love these kind of videos...did you get a new 3F UL backpack?

Harkins back to the videos by the master of all things alcohol stoves Hiram Cook! Great work!

Don't be so negative..you CAN possess every alcohol stove out there. Think of it as a bucket list achievement. Great and informative video..love watching water boil.

thanks again, i am watching again, your mouth speaks a naked truth, godbless u ,man.

I know this is a bit older but I really figured you would have had more then 11 alcohol stoves. I am happy with all of mine, except the lixada brass model. I bought it as a kit because I wanted the firebox style twig stove. I opened it and where the cover on the is riveted on the simmer ring popped off. No good way to repair that I can think of. If I put a full blown rivet it won't fit back over the screw on cover. Short of buying a 30 dollar set of doming punches. Another great vid!

No reply necessary. But it might help to know that the Aluminium Lixada burner fits the Evernew DX stand. Leave the 2 halves assembled, remove power/turbo plate, pop in a second Lixada Ali. burner, add the power/turbo plate on top. Plus the Evernew X stand. If you want the 1" Hiram Cook sweet spot, flip the X stand upside down on the Lixada burner (you could file extra notches into the X stand so it registers better on the burner). All of this will fit into Evenew Solo Kit (750 Pot 400 mug). With room for foil Titanium windshield. Thank you again for your vlogging efforts good of you to share, all very interesting & so helpful. Take care

Fuel capacity, and wind resistance are the most important to me, since they're all fairly close in speed, but not in capacity. Plus they're way slower if they keep blowing out. I like my little Varro titanium, because it's so small and light, and has not only a built in pot stand, but spikes to keep it in the ground, but man it's slow to prime, and goes out fairly easy while waiting. So I switched to the Trangia.