Annie, you've lived with a Kero stove, so maybe you'd be fine with a pressurized alcohol stove.  I've had brief experiences with what I think was a Hillerange alcohol stove.  Even after a full rebuild it was always temperamental and I was always prepared for flames to go to the headliner.  I did the rebuild and I admit I never lived with the stove long enough to get really good with it.  However, in comparison, the Maxie stoves are pretty much effortless to use and the preheating is a piece of cake.  If the cost of the Maxie is just replacing the burners occasionally, that doesn't seem so bad.  The parts to rebuild the pressurized stove weren't cheap and I was never happy with the result.  I'm looking forward to see what David comes up with in his Maxie-Sea-Swing build as I'm also not a fan of the Maxie Gimbals or integral tank.  However, my experience is that the Maxie burners represent the sweet spot in terms of safety and heat (Origo is colder and safer, pressurized is hotter and less safe).

Alcohol Cookers

There is no way I'm going with gas on SibLim.  Quite apart from the fact that it always runs out when you are cooking for guests, the bottles are big and awkward to handle, I have to have good access to somewhere where I can get them refilled and gas is still not a particularly safe fuel to use.

So I'm going for alcohol.  Yes, it's more expensive, but infinitely more convenient - I can buy it in any grocery store.  However, the major problem is the availability of a good, marine cooker.  I am still debating whether to fit my cooker fore and aft or athwartships.  If the latter, then the problem of pivoting it goes away and I can choose between a slow Origo or a fast and corroding Maxie.  I have managed to buy an excellent pressure alcohol stove, that uses the tank as ballast, slung low down under the cooker: however it takes up a huge amount of room.  I am working on getting a second-hand one, but it's not working properly and has to go back to the owner to get it sorted before I purchase.  If he can do so, I end up with spare burners which are no longer made, as far as I can tell.

Does anyone have more information on pressure alcohol cookers?  Availability of parts?  Does anyone have a working burner that they would sell me?  Or cooker, for that matter?  I have heard that the burners last for years - much longer than kero ones.  Does anyone know if that is correct?  I know they were tremendously popular in North America at one time - much more so than kero.

While on the matter, I toy with the idea of a genuine Sea Swing cooker.  Anyone got one of those in need of a home?

Mark Thomasson wrote:

I think I was remembering some powerful hooch I had in Bali once, sure poisened me!!