[AdamLein]

ekenna: we have an unpressurized alcohol stove. In addition to the absence of a pump handle, you can check to see how the fuel is stored. In a pressurized stove there's a tank with a refill vent on top.

An unpressurized stove on the other hand is essentially an alcohol lantern: under each "burner" there's a large canister (wide, shallow cylinder) filled with a fireproof wicking substance. There's a hole in the top of the canister with a metal mesh over it and under the mesh you can see the wick (doesn't look like a lantern wick, more like pillow stuffing or something). You fill the canister by pouring alcohol in through the hole and you light the stove by holding a flame up to the wick.

On my stove you get to these canisters by lifting up the entire top of the stove.

In terms of getting these stoves to work, I can't really think of any way in which they can fail to do so, short of submerging the canister in water :P They have no "parts" per say, save for newer stoves which usually have a shaped metal plate over the wick that causes the flame to spread out; without it the flame will be concentrated in the center of the element.

If it's unpressurized I would definitely keep it for onboard use as it's much safer than those portable propane stoves which you probably shouldn't use in the cabin. Keep the propane stove for its current use (picnics on the shore, cockpit use, etc).