ecofuel XB stove

You should send us a picture or link if you have one. I got some stuff called "ecofuel" a few years ago. Came in cans that look like sterno except that this stuff doesn't evaporate, has a wick, and won't burn apart from the wick, etc. Decent stuff compared to sterno, but otherwise does not put out a lot of heat. I made a little tin-can stove to put around these cans. Is about as efficient as you can get in terms of protecting the flame from wind, keeping the pot near the flame, etc., and it still takes one of these cans about 15-20mins to bring 2 cups of water in a covered aluminum pot to a boil at 50-55 deg. F.

The other thing I don't like about it is that something tends to evaporate and puddle around the bottom of the can while its burning. I've never had a problem (yet), but I don't really trust it until I know what is really going on there (I suppose I should find them on the net and ask). On the plus side, I've had these cans for almost 3 years now and they come out of the box and work fine with no apparant evaporative loss. I know because I used one extensively this weekend.
 
I bought some EcoFuel a couple years ago at a Preparedness Expo that was sold in clear plastic bladders with a nozzle in one corner. You just take the cap off the nozzle and squeeze some out just like a squeeze tube. The problem was that they (IMO) overloaded each bladder, so that it was bulging and a bit stretched. After a few months the bladders started to crack, oozing out the greenish goo. I found some empty clear plastic shampoo bottles with the screw-on flip-top caps and transferred the EcoFuel into those. Now it's easier to dispense and a better size bottle to take camping. The vender I bought the EcoFuel from was including (I kid you not) an olive green anodized aluminum dialysis machine filter cannister with each purchase! They were about 6" in diameter, 2" high, and had a 4" dia. hole at the top with an aluminum lid that was airtight. The idea was, you squirt some EcoFuel in the bottom of the cannister, and you can set a canteen cup on it. When you're finished cooking, leave whatever EcoFuel is remaining inside the cannister and simply close the lid, thereby suffocating the EF & saving whatever remains to be reused later. If you wanted, you could also punch holes in the side of the cannister for better airflow, so you could put a small pot or frying pan on top without suffocating the EF, but then it would be harder to suffocate it when you put the lid back on. You could probably put some duct tape over the holes to suffocate it, then remove the tape when you're ready to use it again. If anyone out there has EcoFuel but no stove for it, I would suggest calling your local hospital and see if they have any empty dialysis filter cannisters they might save for you. They're small, lightweight, perfect for a stove, and you can store your EF in it when you go camping if you need to.

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Molon Labe
 
a link to a picture and descrption at brigade quartermaster site is

http://www.actiongear.com/cgi-bin/tame.exe/agcatalog/results.tam?rlk=1408882

yes matthew, I think it is same as what you describe. It may be also what X-head describe but i don't know, i have'nt seen the ecofuel other than in the canister, like in the picture in the link.

In the BQ print catalog it says the ecofuel canister burns for 10 hours at 200 degrees ( which isn't very hot, really). Or you can get 5 hours at 450 degrees (that is very hot.)

Matthew ,you also say it isn't hot. Is there ways to adjust the heat , for hotter heat? that is a big difference, 200 Vs 450. (Itr doesn't say how in the catalog)

Thanks
Martin
 
Those links grow stale and nothing turned up, but you are describing the right stuff. The two settings work this way:

There are two lids on the can. The larger lid is about 2" in diameter. The smaller lid is a 1.25" concentric circle inside the larger lid. If you pull up only the smaller lid, you get a smaller, "cooler flame". If you lift up both lids exposing the larger hole, you get a wider and therefore "hotter flame". The people I bought it from gave me 8 hours and 4 hours as the two burn times.

I want to add that the actual flame tempreture is probably no different using the large or the small lid apeture. I don't see how it really could be. What is different is the total amount of heat being generated (kcal/min) because of the different amount of burning surface area exposed. My guess is that whom ever gave you those temps didn't know what they were talking about. The smaller opening basically gives you a "food warmer" while the larger is supposed to be enough heat to cook, but it is rather slow. Might be just the thing for things like rice or beans that require long steady low heat for best results.


Either way it isn't very hot because as I said, it took the thing 15 mins or so to boil 2 cups of water [covered small aluminum pot at about 55 deg F. and a light wind]. Next time I'll try a wind screen. I think of these things like MREs of heat for cooking. They can be used instantly just about anywhere (provided there is ventilation of course), have a very long shelf life (mine are 2.5 years old and I don't detect any degradation). I've got a case of these things so I'll be able to check up on it in 20 years... Perhaps I'll leave that to my descendents.



[This message has been edited by matthew rapaport (edited 05-31-2001).]
 
Thank you for your insights Matthew. Liek everything else it has plusses and minusses, it may last forever in storage but heat is mediocre in use. The temperatures of 200/10 hours and 450/5 hours are in the Brigade Quartrmaster catalog ,I did not believe you can have it both ways. Your clear descriotion gives more credibility to the 200 degrees heat---slow cooking in ideal conditions it appears.

Thank you
Martin
 
You're welcome Martin... I suspect its a little hotter than 200deg F at least because that wouldn't boil water at all. Maybe 200 deg. C. Still, it is certainly not a really hot flame either. Like you said, pluses and minuses. Long shelf life, ease of use, relatively low flame temps.


[This message has been edited by matthew rapaport (edited 06-03-2001).]
 
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