Pre-heating a Taylors cabin heater with "alcool à brûler 90"

[Poignard]

I have had a Taylors cabin heater for many years and have always pre-heated the burner using methylated spirit.

I recently installed an Origo cooker which I run on alcool à brûler 90 so I have a plentiful stock of that on board.

Is it OK to use this to pre-heat the Taylors cabin heater instead of meths?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I have had a Taylors cabin heater for many years and have always pre-heated the burner using methylated spirit.

I recently installed an Origo cooker which I run on alcool à brûler 90 so I have a plentiful stock of that on board.

Is it OK to use this to pre-heat the Taylors cabin heater instead of meths?

They're both the same thing - alcohol that has had an impurity added to make it unpleasant or poisonous so people don't drink it! In the case of meths, it is the dye methylene blue plus a bittering agent; no idea what it is in the French alcohol a bruler, but the basic ingredient in both cases is alcohol!

 

[Poignard]

Thanks AP. That's one less bottle of inflammable liquid to carry around. Just leaves alcool à brûler and whisky

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

They're both the same thing - alcohol that has had an impurity added to make it unpleasant or poisonous so people don't drink it! In the case of meths, it is the dye methylene blue plus a bittering agent; no idea what it is in the French alcohol a bruler, but the basic ingredient in both cases is alcohol!

The French product just contains the bittering agent, no dye, and smells much less noxious when burned.
In my experience, it's possible in the UK, to buy wholesale quantities of isopropyl alcohol for the manufacture of products such as Eau de Parfum, and it is used in the tattoo and piercing industry etc., as a cleaning agent.
No need to go to France to buy it in future, (Brexit? ), just search "isopropyl alcohol" on Ebay.

 

[Poignard]

Thanks for the information Spirit but I keep the boat in France anyway and alcool à brûler 90 is widely available in supermarkets, grocery shops and DIY stores at a reasonable price.

Post-Brexit I'll be keeping her in France until they chuck me out.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

The French product just contains the bittering agent, no dye, and smells much less noxious when burned.
In my experience, it's possible in the UK, to buy wholesale quantities of isopropyl alcohol for the manufacture of products such as Eau de Parfum, and it is used in the tattoo and piercing industry etc., as a cleaning agent.
No need to go to France to buy it in future, (Brexit? ), just search "isopropyl alcohol" on Ebay.

Isopropyl alcohol is a different chemical, with different burning properties. It may well work, but it isn't the same as denatured alcohol (the generic term for both meths and alcool a bruler) .

 

[Channel Sailor]

Isopropyl alcohol is a different chemical, with different burning properties. It may well work, but it isn't the same as denatured alcohol (the generic term for both meths and alcool a bruler) .

The stuff I use as a substitute for meths sourced in the uk is called Bio Ethanol. That is what it says on the bottle.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

The stuff I use as a substitute for meths sourced in the uk is called Bio Ethanol. That is what it says on the bottle.

That is the same as meths; straightforward ethanol! The "bio" bit is irrelevant to its composition!

 

[Fr J Hackett]

That is the same as meths; straightforward ethanol! The "bio" bit is irrelevant to its composition!

Meths is methanol or methy alcohol CH3OH makes you go blind and daft if you drink the stuff ethanol is ethyl alcohol C2H5 OH sorry can't do subscripts.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Thanks for the information Spirit but I keep the boat in France anyway and alcool à brûler 90 is widely available in supermarkets, grocery shops and DIY stores at a reasonable price.

Post-Brexit I'll be keeping her in France until they chuck me out.

I will have a word and see if the process can be accelerated

 

[Poignard]

I will have a word and see if the process can be accelerated

So kind.

 

[Hydrozoan]

Either isopropyl alcohol or ethanol is used in rubbing alcohol, so if Parsi keeps on board that or some other unguent for aches and pains it's potentially another bottle saved! I guess only the whisky would do for all three jobs.

 

[lpdsn]

Meths is methanol or methy alcohol CH3OH makes you go blind and daft if you drink the stuff ethanol is ethyl alcohol C2H5 OH sorry can't do subscripts.

Despite the name Meths is mainly Ethanol. Try looking up a few data sheets.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Either isopropyl alcohol or ethanol is used in rubbing alcohol, so if Parsi keeps on board that or some other unguent for aches and pains it's potentially another bottle saved! I guess only the whisky would do for all three jobs.

Personally having read some of his Brexit contributions I think he may have been at the meths

 

[Poignard]

Personally having read some of his Brexit contributions I think he may have been at the meths

Which might account for my spirited attacks on Brexiteers

 

[Amulet]

Despite the name Meths is mainly Ethanol. Try looking up a few data sheets.

Indeed. I misunderstood this for most of my life. The Meths name comes from "Methylated Spirit" meaning spirit with meths added to spoil the fun.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Meths is methanol or methy alcohol CH3OH makes you go blind and daft if you drink the stuff ethanol is ethyl alcohol C2H5 OH sorry can't do subscripts.

No, I'm afraid it isn't. It contains methanol as an impurity (which is why you shouldn't drink it; as you point out, methanol is poisonous). But the "methylated" bit refers to the addition of methylene blue. The main component is ethanol.

 

[VicS]

No, I'm afraid it isn't. It contains methanol as an impurity (which is why you shouldn't drink it; as you point out, methanol is poisonous). But the "methylated" bit refers to the addition of methylene blue. The main component is ethanol.

ITYWF that methanol, aka wood alcohol, is traditionally added as the denaturing agent and that this gives rise to the name meths or methylated spirit.
Industrial methylated spirit (IMS),now called "Industrial denatured alcohol" (IDA) does not contain the dye which I believe is actually crystal violet.
All the relevant info on allowed compositions is hidden somewhere on the Customs and Revenue part of the Government website.

Isopropanol I am sure will work but it has a much stronger smell which not everyone might appreciate.

 

[Hydrozoan]

ITYWF that methanol, aka wood alcohol, is traditionally added as the denaturing agent and that this gives rise to the name meths or methylated spirit. ...

Thanks, Vic - that had always been my understanding but I could not find a definitive link covering both the deliberate addition of the methanol and the naming for it (rather than for the dye).

 

[Baddox]

As already said “Meths” is ethanol adulterated with the toxic methanol. Other countries use other things to put people off drinking it, but it will burn the same way.
As an aside; some decades ago I was camping in Switzerland and needed meths for the camping stove. The camping shop didn’t have any so I tried the local chemist. They spoke no English and my German was poor at the time, so I wrote the chemical formula and all was understood. “Ah, alcool à brûler. Fondu!” was the reply. Oddly it smelled like an ester had been added.