Finding Denatured Alcohol in Canada
May 1, 2010 · Print This Article
Who knew that finding alcohol could be this hard !
My little sailboat Madsu has a non-pressurized alcohol stove made by Origo.
I love the stove – it’s super hot, needs zero maintenance, and compared to pressurized gas, is super safe.
The stove is responsible for making coffee, hot water for shaving, and all my cooking that isn’t BBQ; in short, one of the most important items on the boat !
Up until this year, I’ve been able to buy denatured alcohol for the stove at one of my local hardware stores - Rona used to stock it with solvents and turpentine – and it was relatively cheap. It was simply called Denatured Alcohol – a no brainer.
This year, I haven’t been able to find it anywhere.
So, I did a quick crash course on alcohol for stoves.
A search on the web shows that other people in Canada have trouble finding denatured alcohol. Other than for use in stove, apparently bike folks use it to clean gears etc.
Denatured alcohol is Ethanol – grain alcohol that’s been treated to make it undrinkable. It burns super hot and while not great for the environment, burning it is slightly LESS bad that burning other types of fuel. Most places I went to looking for this fuel, including my local marine store (Martin Marine in North Vancouver) sell Methyl Hydrate, which will also work in the stove. Methyl Hydrate is wood alcohol – if you’re old enough you probably remember using it in Bunson Burners in high school chemistry.
In any event, I was bent on finding denatured alcohol rather that burn methyl hydrate.
I thought I had found what I was looking for over at West Marine. They sell something called blue flame stove fuel, and though there was very little information on the bottle, I assume this is some type of ethanol mix. I almost had heart failure when I picked up the small bottle (less than a litre) and saw the price tag: $30.00. Burning EverClear would be cheaper. Meanwhile, in the US, West Marine sells a gallon of gallon of “soot-free alcohol” for 29.00 !
I’d almost given up, when I stopped by Steveston Marine just off Granville Island. They now stock something called Captain PHAB Marine Alcohol, from a Peterborough Ontario company, Captain PHAB.
It sells for $19.99 for a 4 litre bottle (that’s 1.14 gallons) and it’s a 90-10 mix (Ethanol and whatever they use to make it undrinkable). The staffer told me that one of the reasons denatured alcohol has been hard to find is that one of the main suppliers either went out of business or stopped carrying it.
So, for all you sailers, campers and bikers – try Steveston Marine in the lower mainland, or check your local marine store and if they don’t have it, get them to order it for you from Captain PHAB.
As for me, I’m heading down to the boat right now to fill up my stove and perk up a pot of coffee.
I’m so damned pleased with myself, I might even shave.
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4 Responses to “Finding Denatured Alcohol in Canada”
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Awesome find! Heading out to Granville Island to check it out. Thanks so much for the post!
You’ll see that Steveston Marine has moved their Vancouver store because of redevelopment of their old (awesome) location – it’s still nearby, over at 1667 West 5th Avenue, Vancouver.
I new location will be a lot better once the construction around the corner is finished – right now using the backlane to access their free parking is a nightmare as there is only one way in /out.
OK, so indeed, they had it in the store. 4L for $16 and 1L for $8. Thanks so much for the find again. A friend of mine also recommended to get a bottle of methyl hydrate from Canadian Tire or Home Depot – paint section. That is even cheaper, burns great but does not have the blue colouring of the Captain PHAB, which left some blue residue in my stove after burning. Both work great for any alcohol stove.
Many thanks! I should have googled first – I made the mistake of assuming it would be around in any hardware store.
FYI, for stove-users, the attraction of ethanol over methanol (“methyl hydrate”, old name for it) is that it has more energy. From
http://www.answers.com/topic/alcohol-fuel
“One liter of ethanol contain 21.1 MJ, a liter of methanol 15.8 MJ and a liter of gasoline approximately 32.6 MJ. In other words, for the same energy content as one liter or one gallon of gasoline, one needs 1.6 liters/gallons of ethanol and 2.1 liters/gallons of methanol. Although actual fuel consumption doesn’t increase as much as energy content numbers indicate.”
This may be more than just getting more heat for the same weight and volume; a stove designed for ethanol may run sub-optimally on methanol. The sizes of the holes from which the vapour comes out may assume a certain amount of flame will be produced, enough to keep the alcohol below vaporizing at the right rate. Most stoves run OK on both – just better on ethanol.
For me, it’s just about my tea boiling in 7 minutes instead of 10.
Now, my only problem is finding a decent marine store – in Calgary(!)
PS: Your “10%” is almost certainly methanol – the denaturant of choice, one of my googles claimed. I guess Da Man would prefer that bums and other cheapskates actually DIE and thereby learn not to get around the liquor taxes, not just have to learn how to choke down a gross flavour.