How will I heat water without electricity? This is an uncomfortable problem to solve, because at this point SHTF and you no longer have power or electricity. So how will you boil water? You don’t have electricity, you don’t have power, but you still need boiling water to cook your food.
Well you're in luck! I have spent countless hours learning the best tips, tricks, and methods on how to boil water without electricity and how to start a fire without matches from survival experts.
I won’t lie to you, when I wanted to write this article I thought it would be a quick and easy write. After all, I have plenty of experience outdoors and I know several ways to boil water when the power is out.
Boy was I wrong. After doing some additional research and consultation with some survival experts and learning all the ways you can boil water without electricity I realized this article is going to end up being closer to an ultimate guide.
However, I did my best to condense the article down to just the most relevant information that you would find useful when SHTF.
How to Heat Water to a Boil Without Electricity
I know you probably still don’t believe me, how can you heat water when you don’t have power? Easy, you use a stove that doesn't require electricity. The answer seems obvious once you read it, but what kind of stove doesn’t use electricity?
Well, that leads us into the first section of this article, what stoves you can use to heat water to a boil without electricity?
Some of this might be self explanatory but I can tell you from personal experience once you start reading more about heating water without power you will be just as surprised as I was about what's involved.
How to Heat water Without Electricity Using a Gas Stove
Our first method for heating water without electricity is a gas stove. I know this is super obvious but we had to mention it because it’s the next best alternative to boiling water with electricity.
However there are some nuances with using a gas stove that I bet you weren’t aware of. First you need to know that most modern gas stoves work by using an electric ignition.
This means even if you have a gas stove you will need to use a match or a lighter to light the stove if there’s no power. If you are attempting to light a gas stove with a match, be sure to set the burner on low and be extremely careful when you go to ignite the gas.
But that's not the only nuance with gas stoves, and this was my first surprise. Some gas stoves manufactured after the 1990s actually have a solenoid that prevents the gas from flowing when the stove isn’t plugged into a powered circuit, so make sure to test your gas stove before you need it to make sure you can manually light it and use it without electricity.
How to Boil Water Without Power Using a Camp Stove
So you don't have a gas stove or it was manufactured after 1990, so now what? Well, your next option for cooking on a stove is to use a camping stove or cooking without electricity. Camping stoves are independent from any source of electricity and are generally fueled by propane or other fuels.
Camping stoves are often fairly inexpensive and a great survival tool to keep around the house or in a bug out bag for when SHTF. The only downside to camping stoves is that they rely on propane, alcohol or other fuels.
So, if you don’t have any propane tanks laying around or run out of fuel, you have lost your camping stove as an option to boil water. If this happens to you don’t worry we have plenty of other methods for heating water without electricity below.
Do You Need Boiling Water to Cook Valley Food Storage’s Emergency food?
No, you don’t need boiling water to cook Valley Food Storage’s emergency food. Okay, I know this isn't a method for boiling water without power for the your bulk food storage, but I thought it would be some good information for anyone who finds themself trying how to cook without power.
We know that you can find yourself in the worst of situations needing calories and boiling water just isn’t available. We knew that we couldn’t sell emergency food that needed to be cooked first before eating because cooking in emergencies isn’t always an option.
That’s why our emergency food at Valley Food Storage is all pre-cooked before preserving for this exact reason. It won’t be as tasty as we intended it to be, but if you leave your survival food in water long enough, it will become perfectly edible. Of course, some items like our freeze dried fruit are phenomenal straight out of the bag.
The job of our emergency food is to remove stress in emergencies not create it trying to find a way to cook your food. That’s why all of our food features simple ingredients, simple storage, and simple cooking instructions to make the process as low stress as possible.
How to Boil Water Without a Stove
So, we've already discussed how to boil water with a stove but what do you do if your stove isn't working? One option is to panic and run around the streets frantically with the unprepared.
But you’re reading this article right now so you aren’t one of the unprepared. After reading the rest of the following methods for boiling water without a stove you’ll be more prepared than 90% of preppers who only stock food thinking that preparedness ends at sticking some food on a shelf.
[product_render product-handle="175-servings-long-term-food-kit"]
Having a shelf full of prepper food buckets won’t do much good to people who try to eat it dry with a spoon.
How to Heat Water Without Electricity Using a Fire
This method will come as no surprise to our veteran preppers but heating water over a fire is the best method to boil water without power. However there are a few different ways you can go about heating water over a fire.
The first way you can do this is over a campfire. You can heat water over a campfire by placing a pot directly on top of hot coals or by building a stand to hold your pot over the flames.
The second way to heat water without electricity is to heat the water in a fireplace inside your house. This can be done the exact same way as using a campfire except you are boiling the water within the comfort of your home.
How to Boil Water on a Grill Without Electricity
It may not be a first thought, but you can actually boil water on a grill. This is dependent on you having charcoal or propane and a grill available. However, heating water on a grill is still a great option when you're out of power and options for boiling water are limited.
Heating water on a grill is a fairly simple process, all you need to do is set a metal pot of water on the grill and crank the temperature up to 220 degrees fahrenheit.
How to Heat Water Using Solar Energy
I know what you're thinking, heating water with solar energy will take forever. Well you couldn’t be more wrong. In just 4-6 hours you are able to heat 26 gallons of water with solar energy.
That means it will take only about an hour to heat the amount of water you need to rehydrate your emergency food, depending on your solar stove setup and the local weather.
To heat water with solar energy you will need to make a satellite dish looking structure called a solar stove from reflective material. Once you make this structure you simply need to place a metal pot in the center of the dish and wait for your water to heat.
How to Boil Water With Candles
This is by far the slowest method of boiling water we discovered but it is still a viable option. If you have a decent amount of candles lying around your house and no power this can be a great option for boiling water in an emergency situation.
Smaller candles work the best in this situation because you can add more candles and the heat will be evenly distributed. We recommend using a minimum of six candles; however the more candles you can place under your pot the quicker your water will boil.
How to boil water without a heat source
This is the most creative way we came up with to heat water without electricity. After hours of research we found that you can actually boil water without a heat source.
This can be done by a vacuum chamber. Although we know this isn’t a practical approach to heating water in an emergency we did think it was an interesting way to heat water to a boil.
To do this you need to have a vacuum chamber handy that can lower atmospheric pressure. Once you grab your vacuum chamber simply place your container of water inside the chamber and lower the atmospheric pressure and boom, you have boiling water.
This works by taking out the gas molecules in the air to increase the rate at which water evaporates at room temperature.
