These small, long
burning, gel fuel stoves provide hours of burn time and dont
take up a lot of room
or weigh you down. One of the
most commonly known stoves of this type is the sterno can, whiich
is widely used as a chafing dish
fuel.
Another version, is
the swiss military surplus "NOTKOCHER M71" gel fuel stove,
which comes with an integrated burner ring, and matches, shown
in the video below. The burner ring is a pretty handy
little item, you'll want to keep
it even after you burn
the fuel in the can. It can be used on
a sterno can, or with solid fuel
tabs.
The biggest advantage
these little stoves have over some of the other options is the longer
burn time. This type of stove can burn for several hours,
pretty impressive for such a small package. These
denatured alcohol based gel stoves also burn quietly, there is none
of the noise you get with a pressurized stove unit. Sterno
fuel is also very cold tolerant, it will not freeze, at least not
until long after you are a block of ice.
Undoubtedly the
biggest drawback to these types of stoves is the low heat
output that results in long cook times / boil times.
They are very capable of heating up, or even cooking a meal,
it just takes a little time. If you dont have anywhere you
need to be, these gel fuel stoves will get the job done for you,
eventually.
The swiss version of this
stove seems to leave more residue / soot on the
bottom of the cookware than regular sterno, I'm guessing it
may have higher methanol content in it to keep the
soldiers it was issued to from drinking it... but thats a
wild guess.
