I'm looking for fuel for my Trangia camping stove. All chemists have the same blue, slightly sented 70% isopropyl which I think might smell funny if I burn it. I did go up to the big home pro near ... is it exhibition centre? But they only had products labelled as 'thinner' but not specifically what was in them.

I'd like 90% rubbing alcohol, clear, unsented. If I can only get 70% I might try 'salting out' to purify it a bit. Any comment/suggestion is welcome.

You may want to go to a paint store and buy methanol. They sell it as a solvent/thinner. I've bought 1 liter glass bottles and 4 liter tins.

I'm pretty sure it's pure enough to use it as camp stove fuel.

I haven't found any 90% rubbing alcohol, though I look every time I'm in a different drug store- just 70%

Try a hospital?

Don't know, just guessing.

Does it say methonol in English, or just thinner? Did you find this in BK?

Says methyl alcohol in English, but it's inconspicuous in the details on the label. The 4 liter tin that I still have says it on the back, not on the front. Just Thai on the front.

They also had mineral spirits (thinner), lacquer thinner, and turpentine (but it's just smelly mineral spirits, not pine based turp). I bought some of each, then closely examined the labels and opened them up when I got home. I sniffed them to make sure of what they were (but I didn't inhale, honest)

I bought mine at one of the small paint stores on Rama 4 between Big C and Queen Sirikit Center, but I imagine they're available at paint shops on every corner in town.

OK, thanks. I'll give that a go, if I can get past the language barrier.

I did have this mad idea, of getting the blue 70 iso, using salt to purify it to 90, then seeing if charcoal can filter out the scent/colour... but methyl alcohol is probably a better way to go. I've got this image of sitting under a tree on a beach, frying something over Christmas.

OK, thanks. I'll give that a go, if I can get past the language barrier.

I did have this mad idea, of getting the blue 70 iso, using salt to purify it to 90, then seeing if charcoal can filter out the scent/colour... but methyl alcohol is probably a better way to go. I've got this image of sitting under a tree on a beach, frying something over Christmas.

It's a little faded, but my 4 liter tin has 150 baht written on it.

Can't imagine what 4 liters of pharmacy 90% (even 70%) Isopropanol would cost, but I imagine it's more than $5 here in LOS.

I speak pretty much zero Thai and I had no problems finding the methanol in a paint store.

Enjoy the roast.

Edited November 25, 201312 yr by impulse

OK, I'll try.

It's gonna be some kind of a fry up though (roast, I wish!).