Alcohol stove Windscreens

Windscreens for alcohol stoves are easy to construct yourself and offer a great boost to performance for almost any Alcohol stove. Here are some options.

For many of the windscreens that I will be covering you can make it the DIY route. And for others, you can get them cheaply. The difference they make is night and day. Since almost all Alcohol stoves are not pressurized they are very susceptible to the slightest gust of wind.

Straight to the DIY Alcohol Windscreen how to
Aluminum serving platter windscreen

Trangia integrated windscreen

When you decide to go for a Trangia alcohol stove the Windscreen that you need is already integrated into the stove. With their windscreen, you have a contained cookset. With potholders and a wind funnel to get the most out of the Trangia alcohol stoves.

DIY aluminum foil windscreens

These are the first types of windscreens that I had any experience in making them in. With my soda can alcohol stoves they were the logical step in the whole DIY take on those. You can make them easily out of ordinary kitchen aluminum foil. Or take the industrial grade and make it out of the thicker stuff. These will last longer and are less fussing about when setting up your windscreen.

To make one you will need just a roll of aluminum foil and maybe scissors and a ruler. Fold the Aluminum foil in a few layers to your desired shape. The multiple layers make sure it is stronger and not so easily pierced. I suggest storing a homemade Aluminum alcohol windscreen in your cooking kit inside your pot. For a few added grams you have protection from the wind when cooking. At virtually no cost. Follow the steps down below to make your own. Or adapt to your needs.

How to make an alcohol stove Windscreen

diy-windscreen-1 — Start out with 40 centimeters of aluminum foil, and trim the edges to give a work surface.

diy-windscreen-2 — After the edges are trimmed nice and neet, begin folding once down the middle lengthwise.

diy-windscreen-3 — Next turn to the short sides and fold them twice over, being careful to double it up over itself.

diy-windscreen-4 — So two folds on either end to strengthen it.

diy-windscreen-5 — After the edges turn to the long side which has the two loose layers on top each other. And fold there them twice as well.

diy-windscreen-6 — After the lengthwise fold your all done and have created your very own wind screen!

diy-windscreen-7 — Always stand the windscreen on its double folded edge like so.

diy-windscreen-8 — You can adapt the windscreen to fully enclose, this can be done by carrying a paperclip to clip the edges together. Or leave it half open like this. Up to you.

diy-windscreen-9 — The Windscreen when stored takes up no space at all and can best be kept inside the pot during hiking. This to ensure it doesn’t get all folded and scrunched up. A windscreen made from this type of alu foil will not last a lifetime but will do in a pinch.

Windscreen from an aluminum serving platter

You can also easily make a windscreen for alcohol stoves with a serving platter that can be found in grocery stores and places like Action. These you can cut to size with some sciccors and flatten the edges with some pliers. Measure the height you need of course for your stove and pan setup.

The finished product and you can expect these to last a lot longer than standard foil.

Other Alcohol stove windscreens

Other different options for Alcohol stove windscreens include making them out of material thicker or heavier than aluminum foil. For example, using a bigger can to cut a strip to make a sort of Trangia like contraption.

Got any more cool designs or ideas that you have come up with? Let me know down in the comments!

Further reading with all things alcohol stove I would highly recommend the Zen Stoves page.