I’ve definitely been sold on using a homemade alcohol pop can stove for my thru hike of the AT, but there are so many designs to choose from I’m not sure which is the most proven, the most efficient, or the one with the easiest use. Anybody have personal experience or heard reviews? Thanks guys.
Mitch
every year this same issue comes up…which is the best pepsi can tuna can stove. Miss Janet has a stove burn off with equal amounts of fuel (a shot glass full) after testing literally hundreds of combinations and internet purchased vs homemade…they all boil water within 15 seconds of each other and the fuel burns at a consistent burn time give or take 10 seconds.
i was a part of one or 2 of these burn offs. there doesn’t seem to be any difference whatsoever in pepsi can stoves.
i bought one from antigravity gear…but will never buy one again…seems you could put denatured alcohol in any metal cup and it would still burn significantly similar in any container.
take 2 pepsi cans, cut down to say 1.5 inches, cut the bottom off of one side, slide them together, poke holes in top or high along the rim…doesn’t matter if you use a stand either.
once the fuel heats up the can, it becomes a conflagration for 11 mins or so. watch leaf cover in the areas you cook…any stove can be a fire hazzard, but these small stoves, if not balanced on something level can tip and ruin yer dinner and catch gear, tables, and the forest on fire.
some people don’t know, but the flame is burning the fumes and not the fuel. so you could have a fire and not see it…there are many safety tips on some of the websites…just be sure to check out daytime vs night time views…the fumes will literally jump right out of these stoves…thus a great cooking setup.
burn
There may not be much difference in stoves, but there sure is in the fuel. 190-proof Everclear makes a hell of a fire and you can also drink it.
That’s what they meant by using gear with dual functionality.
JAWS
Another addition to your Pepsi stove is an old tuna can.
My whole setup is carried in a tiny stuff sack, and it fits in my pan, along with a tiny container of Biosoap, spare matches, spices, etc etc. Sans fuel (old juice container, I carry about 6-7 ozs at most) weighs in at less then 16 ozs.
Who dares waste a good drink like Everclear for fuel ??!!! Bookers, with a splash or branch water. 'nough said.
-xtn :boy :cheers
airferret
Well, whadya know, I made my first ever working pepsi can stove only tonight!
I followed Cobra’s design at the URL below. Despite what folks will tell you, not all designs are equally easy to produce, although Burn is right, their performance does not seem to vary wildly, particularly when compared with the various levels of money, time or skill needed to construct them.
Now I might just be technologically enfeebled, but stoves like the anti-gravity model, where one large well is created in the middle of the can in addition to the side holes, I have always found tricky to knock up. You have to get the side holes just right to make sure they channel the flames appropriately, otherwise you end up with one big flane shooting out of the well. Cobra’s stove omits the centre well with only another small hole in the centre through which to pour fuel inside the can. Therefore, you have to light it by priming, but this is no great drama.
On my recent hikes, I used the tuna can stove which is so simple even I made it in under 5 minutes. This is basically a medium sized tuna can with 2 jagged Vs cut in it on either side as to act as a pot holder and provide ventilation. I then placed an empty aluminium tea light holder in the middle to hold the fuel and put a match to it. Voila!
I found I could boil a cup of water for coffee (St Rick likes his coffee!) in no time at all and with only one ‘shot’ of fuel. This was more efficient than the anti-gravity stove, the Etowah and various others I came across on the AT, if fractionally slower.
On my recent jaunts around S. America and Australia, I perservered with the tuna can stove and actually found I liked it much better than the expensive, brass Trangia burner I almost swapped it out for when I came across one in a shelter on the Bibbulmun Track. So far, the same tuna can and tea light holder has lasted me 900 miles.
www.boblog.org/at/cobrastove.htm#The%20Cobra%20Stove
St Rick
Ditto here. After trying just about every stove out there…I’d trade all of them for a pepsi can stove. Its EXTREMELY lightweight, works great, and even if by some odd chance you manage to destroy it on the trail. A quick town stop for a couple of pepsi’s, the needle from your first aid kit, and a good sharp knife, and presto you got another stove. I carry two of them. One for cooking the noodles and one for boiling some water for drinking.
Here’s a great tip…If you wear contacts…Take a old contact lens solution bottle, and put the fuel in that. It wont leak, and its easy to put the fuel in the stove without spilling it everywhere.
bryan
I have to say the idea of using a contact lens solution bottle for carrying your stove alcohol is great.
My only problem is I kept on forgetting and would put “eye drops” in my eyes. In the long run everything turned out all right - I’m now #2 on the list for a new seeing-eye dog. 
jaws