The Simon Alcohol Stove

***** stars



After doing some research on what kind of cook stove was the cleanest burning, had fuel available in most countries, and was compact enough to carry either backpacking or bicycle touring, I decided on the Simon Stove.

I got mine through a mail order from Australia, where after converting the Au dollars to US dollars it was about $25.

The Simon is an alcohol stove (you can also build your own alcohol stove from a soda pop can, but then you still need to create a way to set a pot or your tea kettle over the flame unless you are going to hold the pan in place the whole time.)

The Simon comes with its own way to support a pan as the legs that hold the lid on fold out to act as feet for balance and a support for your pan or tea kettle. It comes in a vinyl pouch with a belt loop and is small enough and light weight enough for backpacking or bicycle touring.

Probably the most impressive feature of this stove is the use of denatured alcohol as its fuel since this burns so much cleaner than other fuels and is usually available in most countries. (In the states most hardware stores carry it, in some countries you can find it in pharmacies or drug stores.) There are some countries that require the addition of a foul smell or color additive to make sure it is not used for human consumption, or to keep folks from imbibing it accidentally.

It does not seem to come with any directions for the use of it, but it really is fairly simple to figure out with some common sense. At first I thought the lid would be placed on it after lighting so the flames would be routed through the tiny holes around its edge rather than through the top, but now I believe the lid is designed to extinguish the fire if you are done before the fuel runs out albeit a somewhat tricky process to put the lid on when it is lit. (tongs would be a nice thing to have to keep hands farther from the flames when attempting this process.)

Lighting was a matter of putting fuel in the main chamber and holding a match over the large opening on the top. It took a few seconds for the flames to start moving from the center to the holes around the edge, but once that happened the flame was spread out nicely to heat the kettle or pan.

It has a large enough central chamber to allow for enough fuel to cook several dishes, boil water or toast marsh mellows before it needs refueling.

Many of the alcohol stoves I have seen rely upon a core that would need replacing after so many uses, but the Simon does not have a core and relies upon a hollow chamber between the main chamber and the outer wall.

The drawbacks to this stove are that it gets too hot to pack it up until it has cooled down (but so do most stoves alcohol or otherwise) that I have seen.

The biggest advantage is the clean burn it creates which means you do not have blackened bottoms to your camp mess kits. To me that is a very big plus.

To review gear and rate it I will use the 5 stars method. The Simon Stove gets a resounding 5 stars.