Review of the Super Cat Alcohol Stove

(Thank you, Two Bears)

The Super Cat is a super lightweight stove made from a 3OZ can of Fancy Feast cat food. The Dollar store sells the same size cans of cat food 2 for $1

1. Open the can and feed your cat or set the food out for a stray.

2. Wash out the can.

3 use a paper punch and punch 16 holes under the rim. I punch one hole, them another hole on the opposite, then I punch two holes until there are four holes equidistant apart. Then I divide each of the four areas. This gives you 8 equidistant holes, then divide the area so you have 16 holes below the rim.

Here is a You Tube Video that shows how to make a Super Cat stove in mere minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aZgcehnSiM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Earlier I called this stove super lightweight. This stove only weighs 6.7 grams (about 1/5th of an ounce). Do not assume the stove will crush when you put a pot of food on the stove. If you accidentally step on the stove it will crush; but a pot and food will not crush the stove. As a test I set the stove on a table, and I stacked all of the books I could find in the living room until the stove was supporting six books totaling 9 pounds of books.


What kind of fuel can you use in an alcohol stove?

Ethanol

Methanol

Heet (a gasline antifreeze) in the yellow bottle is one best fuels you can buy. You can buy Heet at Wal-Mart, Auto parts stores, and many convenience stores. You will probably see Heet in red bottles too. The red bottles of Heet are isopropyl alcohol.

Denatured alcohol.

High proof grain alcohol

151 proof vodka, rum, moonshine, everclear, etc.

Do not use isopropyl alcohol unless you can't get anything else. The reason is that isopropyl burns dirty, and will soot up your pot, and you will have a mess to clean.


How to use the stove.

Pour 1 or 2 fluid OZs of Alcohol. Light the alcohol with a lighter or match, and allow the alcohol to burn for 15 or so seconds. This allows the alcohol and stove to heat up, then you are ready to set the pot on the stove. If the water is very cold the stove may go out because the cold pot has cooled the alcohol and stove too much. If you have very cold water hold the pot over the flame for a while to warm the pot.


Many people who hike the Apalachian trail carry alcohol stoves just because fuel can be purchased along the way. A large number of those carry the Super Cat simply because the stove Weighs next to nothing.


Several people do video reviews of alcohol stoves.

Here is the link to a You Tube video where Hiram Cook Tests the Super Cat stove, and tests a Vargo Triad commercial alcohol stove that cost $30.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkUoAhABlPc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Rating of the Super Cat homemade stove 4 3/4 stars.

Here is a picture of a beer can pot sitting on my Super Cat stove.

What is shown here weighs 1.015 ounces. A windscreen made from aluminum foil would weigh next to nothing. Deffinately less than 1 1/4 OZs.

The Heineken keg can is no longer available. I can get the Fosters beer can but the lid is almost impossible to cut out so I did this with the normal 24 OZ Budweiser can.

Nui aloha.

Two Bears