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From: Jim Martin <MartinJA_at_DSMCOPO.COM>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Stove Fuel -Reply
Date: Fri, 05 Jun 1998 08:21:31 -0500
Quick comment on unleaded motor fuel in camp stoves.

The unleaded motor fuel you buy at the pump has many additives in it
most damaging to a camp stove is the dispersents used to keep your
fuel injectors clean. These are based on low molecular weight
polymers. After the fuel flashes of you will be left with a gummy mess in
your burners. I wouldn't used these fuels in a camp stove unless it was
absolutely necessary. 

Jim

>>> Dave Kruger <dkruger_at_seasurf.com> 06/04/98 11:17pm >>>
Dan Hagen wrote:
> 
> Dave Kruger wrote:

> > Despite the higher cost, I'd use butane/propane if there
> > were an easy (and legal) way to re-use the containers.  ...
> 
> Dave,
> 
> How do you re-use white gas containers? I am not referring to the
fuel
> bottles, but to the containers in which the white gas is purchased.
Most
> stove manufacturers (including MSR) now recommend that you buy
the fuel
> in small quantities (to ensure fuel freshness and prevent fouling of the
> stove), and MSR sells very pure fuel in its own little containers.
> While these containers are recyclable (as are the butane/propane
> containers) they are not reused.  

No, I do not really have a way to re-use the gallon metal containers my
Coleman fuel comes in.  Some go to my place of work for various uses,
but a lot just go to the recycled metals bin.  Less metallic "overhead"
than with butane-propane, but still some recycling to be done.  Used to
be able to buy white gas at the corner gas station, but now you would
have to belly up to the unleaded pump -- and much of the time you
would
get an "oxygenated" fuel which has lower heat-producing ability (but
higher octane).  Supposed to work in some "white gas" stoves,
nonetheless

In over 30 years of using white gas (almost always Coleman fuel), I
have
NEVER experienced any problems with my various stoves (Svea,
Optimus,
MSR, and now Coleman Feather 400) that could be traced to the fuel. 
Yeah, now and then I have to recondition one, but it's usually due to
some bonehead maneuver of mine.  Maybe I have replaced three or four
pumps in that time.  Never had to clean out a vaporizer.

I suspect the stove mfr recommendation re: "fresh" fuel is a precaution
intended to protect you from "bad" fuel -- more likely overseas, I
suspect.  I think if "old" fuel were a problem, I would have experienced
it, because sometimes stuff sits in one of my stoves for 6-7 months at a
time, and some cans of Coleman fuel have been around for 2-3 years!

Has ANYBODY a documented case of "old" fuel lousing up a stove?

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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From: Philip Wylie <pjwylie_at_planet.eon.net>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Stove Fuel -Reply
Date: Fri, 05 Jun 1998 23:15:58 -0600
Jim Martin wrote:

> Quick comment on unleaded motor fuel in camp stoves.
>
> The unleaded motor fuel you buy at the pump has many additives in it
> most damaging to a camp stove is the dispersents used to keep your
> fuel injectors clean.

Moreover, in Canada they use MTP as an additive (banned in most or all of the
USAas a known Carcinogen) Yum Yum to the taste buds.

Cheers,

Philip


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