A few weeks back I had a few old cans lying around, so I made an attempt at a soda can stove, in truth only to see how it would work.

For anyone not sure what a soda can stove is, Wikipedia give a good definition…

A beverage-can stove (or pop-can stove) is a homemade, ultra-light portable stove. The simple design is made entirely from cans (typically soft drink or beer cans) and burns alcohol, typically denatured. Countless variations on the basic design exist.

To find out more about soda can stoves, here is the entire wikipedia article.

It turned out to work very well, although if I were to take one along on tour I would remake it and take a little more time, especially cutting the cans, as the edges of my tins bent a little as I cut them, which made fitting the two tins awkward and one ended up splitting. This meant that flame came from the split, which probably lost a fair bit of efficiency.

I used about 50ml of fuel (I know because I bought a 100ml bottle and used half) and it burned for about 5 minutes, certainly enough time to boil a couple of cups of water. I probably wouldn’t want to try and cook anything too fancy using one, but for a quick cup of tea or a cup-a-soup, it would be perfect.

Now I need to find an old wire coat hanger to fashion a pot stand.

Has anyone used one of these on a regualr basis? Do you have any tips or tricks for getting the best out of them? Write a comment, tell your story…leave a comment.