I have been a long time proponent of Esbit, but am going to try alcohol. With the plethora of stove designs out there what works well for you? I have tried a "catstove" a simple catfood can with several 1/4" holes around the top. I have also tried the Etowah stove and it was moderately lame in my opinion. The burner didn't seem to have the surface area for adequate heat output. I am looking to use this in the winter but am willing to work with the limitations of alcohol. Any input here?

What kind of alcohol stove are you using now? I tried stand alone stoves, but in the end found that a Caldera Cone with Esbit/alcohol capabilities was pretty darn efficient and convenient.

Either you start with a known cook pot and then work your way out to what kind of burner will work properly, or else you start with a known burner and then work your way out to what kind of cook pot will work properly. Not all cook pots work with all burners.

--B.G.--

+1 to Bob's comment.

Think about what your main pot is/will be and match the alcohol stove to match.

Some of that matching is just for diameter, and some of it is for overall heating capacity.

In general, for a narrow cook pot you need a narrow flame pattern. For a broad cook pot, you can probably use a broad flame pattern. If you have a cook pot with a volume of only 600ml, then maybe you want some burner that is small. If the cook pot is 1.5L, then maybe you want a big burner.

If I am only boiling water in a 600ml pot, then often I will take only Esbit. If I am trying to cook something carefully in a big pot, then I take a 12-10 burner with a simmer adjustment on it.

--B.G.--

I have always used esbit for my stove for most all of my 4K miles. I am just now experimenting with alcohol stoves. We use an Evernew Ti pot, I think about 1 liter, and I use a smaller MSR ti for solo trips. For cooking, we usually just boil, and use a cozy to let our meals cook, so no simmering is really necessary. I may get a larger pot at some point as this is very tight cooking for my wife and I. Much appreciated info here!!