Denatured Ethyl Alcohol

jimh

jimh

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Anybody know where I can buy some?? - the instructions that came with my 'Kenyon' 240v / Alcohol stove clearly state that this is the only type of fuel that should be used despite several chandlers trying to push methylated spirits as a suitable alternative (not convinced myself!!).

TIA

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The chemist

But I use methylated spirits in my stove. It's simply the stuff they sell in supermarkets for use in dish warmers and fondue sets. you're burning it, not drinking it, I hope.

Do not use the stuff used for cleaning windows, unless you want the boat to stink like a french whorehouse.

Look at the concentration. Only the chemist has 100% pure alcohol. It's more expensive, but much more efficient.

Alcohol is IMHO the only safe fuel: it can be put out with water.

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Denatured alcohol is methylated spirits! Since pure alcohol could in principle be drunk (with a suitable mixer of course!) it is taxed. Consequently, alcohol (ethanol) which is for fuel/cleaning use is "denatured" by adding a small amount of methanol which is poisonous. A purple dye is added to make it impossible to confuse with the pure stuff. Since it cannot be drunk it can be sold without tax. A similar situation exits with colourless road and tax free red diesel, although you cannot drink the former of course! You should have no problem using purple methylated spirits (meths) in any stove.

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I think your chandlers are correct. Denatured alcohol is ethyl alcohol that has been modified so that it cannot be drunk (in theory!) The usual way this is done is to add anything from 5% to 20% of methyl alcohol. In the UK it is common to add a purple dye as well. In USA some stuff called rubbing alcohol is widely available for stoves, this is iso-propyl alcohol but is not often seen in UK, well not by me, anyway.

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Meths is the cheapest ethyl alcohol but you can also use surgical spirit. In an emergeny you can drink that without killing yourself. It has horrible herbs (I think it is menthol it might be wintergreen though?) in it to put you off and castor oil to put you on.

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You can't get it in this country (uk) it's illegal. I have an Origo alcohal stove that runs fine on meths you can buy almost clear meths in B&Q £3.00 per litre, it doesn't smell bad either I think the more dye they put in the worse it smells but that might be just my imagination. be warned though they can't sell it on a Sunday, something to do with the licence.

Ian

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"Blue" meths also contains pyridine, which smells AWFUL, to make it even more unattrctive to drink. Industrial methylated spirit (IMS) is ethanol plus metahanol only. It has a pleasant odour not that different to pure (absolute) alcohol or vodka (which you can buy on a Sunday). IMS would, if you could buy it legally, be the ideal fuel.

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We did look at barbeque lighting fluid in the lab a few years ago. I think we propably only ran an IR spectrum but concluded it was a more highly refined version of paraffin with no colouring. I have always used paraffin since then although it is necessary to be certain it has all burnt off before cooking to avoid paraffin flavoured food.

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