Question: using Alcohol stove and copper pots

[blume357]

Here a strange thing yesterday.... was told by someone that they had been told that you should not use a copper coated pot with an alcohol stove on a boat because of some type of fumes it gives off.... I think it is b.s. but ..... was wondering if anyone else had heard this.

 

[gramps]

I call BS also. I would want to see the chemistry supporting that claim.
gramps

 

[Bull Barrel]

Hmm....stillsare made from which material?
What do they make?

Did alittle web search and found nothing on it. In fact I found alcohol stoves made of copper.

 

[blume357]

The only way I could see it is that possibly the alcohol flame hitting the copper could cause excessive incomplete combustion and higher CO (that's carbon monoxide) than normal as compared to say a stainless steel pan or pot.... but then when using any kind of open flame stove on a boat you would want good ventilation regardless.

 

[coach]

Been around sailboats that often used alcohol stoves most of my life and never heard about alcohol stoves and copper pots.
Now overheating Teflon coated pans will give off toxic fumes.

 

[Busterswoodshop]

It's amazing what will kill you now that wasn't given a second thought years ago.

 

[Jeepnik]

But, but, but, it's on the web so it must be true, even when it ignores the laws of physics.

Think about this folks. What are the finned tubes in your tankless hot water heater made of?

 

[exavid]

The wife and I have cooked many times over many years with copper bottom Reverware pots and pans on our various boats most of which had alcohol stoves, both pressure and non pressure type stoves. Being sailboats the cabins were not highly vented to the outside in the typical Southeast Alaskan weather. I think you're safe. Doesn't sound likely to me that an alcohol stove could do much to a copper bottom pot, alcohol flame isn't all that hot compared to other fuels.

 

[Rick Courtright]

HI,

Blume, I asked your question over on a stove forum inhabited by a fair number of boaters, and the general consensus was along the lines of "If that's true, I guess I've been dead for about 40 years!"

Rick C

 

[mohavesam]

There is no shortage of people who've "been lucky for years"... I see them everyday! ;)

Seriously, alcohol in its various dilutions, is pretty darned dangerous. Yet safer for a fool's use than gasoline of course.
For one, the purer the solution, the clearer the flame (additives are used to color the flame for safety).
A clear flame is prone to dumb mistakes, like reaching across a flame or putting one's face above the near-invisible flame. Darwin strikes.
Secondly, the flash point of alcohol (isopropanol) is around 65 degrees F. This means alcohol vapors can be fully ignited by a spark or even a light bulb, pilot light, or a spark inside a switch.

Alcohol won't react to copper in a flame state. Some copper alloys may react to liquid isopropanol depending on the zinc content.
Refer to your 8th grade chemistry book.

 

[k22fan]

I used copper bottom Reverware pans on my sailboat's alcohol stove for the 17 years I owned it and I seem to still be alive. If I recall correctly alcohol was safer because alcohol fumes do not settle into the bilge area like gasoline and propane fumes will. A home made sailboat that I moored next to used a diesel stove. If you weren't used to it the interior stunk.

I got a lot of strange reactions from clerks while buying solid copper Chore Boy scouring pads for cleaning stainless guns. Eventually I was told that meth heads put a tuft of Chore Boy in the bottom of their pipe to increase the high they get. Is there any truth in that?

 

[Precision32]

It is my understanding the alcohol is used on boats because you can extinguish an alcohol fire with water; something you can't do with petroleum based fuels.

 

[Colonialgirl]

I used propane on my Sail boat; The propane line ran along side the cabin and where it came thru for the stove there was a cutoff valve that got turned off after every use. Had two "flat" propane tanks mounted on the fore deck by the main mast.

 

[blume357]

As you know, propane is great but very dangerous on a boat because it is heavier than air... and so if you have a small leak inside the boat you will fill the boat with propane.... like you described.... as many lines and connections as possible outside the boat along with the tank(s)... fewest connections and a cut off valve inside the boat.

 

[k22fan]

A friend related how he lost his 38' wood yawl to a propane fire off the Oregon coast. He was on the forecastle when a fire ball suddenly erupted out the cabin door. All he could do was get off in his row boat. He rowed toward a shipping lane through two nights then was spotted and picked up by a freighter the third day. The third night there was full gale. Since he was living on the boat all he had left was his clothes.

 

[toysoldier]

. If I recall correctly alcohol was safer because alcohol fumes do not settle into the bilge area like gasoline and propane fumes will.

That's a very important safety point. My late father-in-law was a corpsman in the Pacific theater. He said that avgas fumes would accumulate on an airstrip on windless days. A soldier who didn't smell the fumes clinging to the ground lit a cigarette. He dropped the match, which caused a flash fire, burning the soldier from the waist down. :shock:

 

[k22fan]

For that reason gasoline is more dangerous than any of our reloading stuff. The concrete slab and end walls were all that remained of one warehouse at my old job. It burnt before I was hired. One of the tenants was an auto repair business. Its owner had drained a gas tank into an open container. He dropped an old fashioned trouble light breaking its bulb. That was enough to light the gas fumes which flashed across the floor igniting the gas. The cities rules were that a structure that was more than XX% destroyed could not be rebuilt without going through the same permitting process as a new building. The city council's vision of their future was white collar workers in nice office buildings so the building could not be rebuilt. Even though it's an every day item gasoline needs to be handled with care.

 

[Rook]

There's been a lot of moonshine made in copper pots with flames heating the pot and I doubt anybody ever died from the copper fumes. Explosions now that's a different story but still not due to the copper.