This is my simple alcohol stove, free of cost since upcycled from an empty Nivea Men Cool Kick deo bottle. It is of light weight aluminium and easy to make. The form factor allows to carry it easily in any pocket or in an emergency cooking set or to store it in any small space, if one carries alcohol for medical purposes one can just cover the bottle with the stove. It runs with liquid alcohol available everywhere on the world and sold as medical spirit, ethanol, heet etc. (but it works not or only poor with burning paste or gels).
It is not meant for hard core cooking but only for making coffee, tea or soup, means heating up a cup (or two) of water, or for heating up any canned food, emergency meals etc. This tasks it does also easily as stand alone stove, no further stands required, but windscreen recommended (the one I use is simply made from aluminium foil).
It is ideal as backup solution or for day trips, biking, emergency, prepping, survival, outdoor, bushcraft, minimalistic nomades etc.
The function principle is different to the one of most other alcohol stoves, since it keeps the main flame inside the tube.
The flame rises inside, heating the aluminium and such bringing the alcohol to boil – the vapourized alcohol burns mainly inside and secondary combustion is either caused by air sucked inside the upper holes or happens, if the stove is used as stand alone solution, outside around the stove. There are no jets, there is no pressure inside, no felt nor fibres nor perlite required, just burning alcohol vapours.
Beware: this stove has to be filled with alcohol, use it always on even ground and don’t use it inside a tent or a building – in cases of tipping or falling down it may cause fires.
Manufacturing tips: I tested several deo bottles and found this one stabile enough for the purpose. I use to remove the paint with sandpaper and to drill the holes with a drilling machine, but I made some first trials without removing the paint and just using simply the awl from a Swiss Army Knife. A metal saw is recommended to cut the bottle, the ones from Swiss Army Knives or Multitools will do the job as well as any specific metal saw or metal saw blade.
For making the stove, I drill usually the holes first, then I sand the bottle, finally I cut it with the saw.
Enjoy!
Post time: Aug-12-2017