Re: [Paddlewise] Stoves and fuel.

From: Richard Mitchell <mitchelr_at_ucs.orst.edu>
Date: Thu, 07 Jan 1999 03:03:46 -0800
Presuming the airlines permit transport of your gas burning
stove, after it has been thoroughly emptied and cleaned, what
fuel will be available upon arrival?  White gas is ideal but as
most of us have discovered, it is not always available,
especially in international travel.

While kerosene is the widely advocated alternative to white gas
in many camp stoves we discovered it was not readily available in
the Bahamas at the venues accessible to us.  We searched for
alternatives and finally in desperation took a couple of quarts
of pump unleaded.  A workable choice in our Whisperlite but by no
means the best. 

After the fact, we took up the problem with MSR and obtained some
interesting recommendations.  First, we should have taken our MSR
GK II (or a Dragonfly) for best multi-fuel applications, or the
Whisperlite International 600 if kerosene was available.  Second,
avoid pump gas at all costs.  The MSR folks were full of horror
stories of corroded stoves that had only short sessions of use
with pump fuels.  Third, read the fine print.  I learned that
"paint thinner" would have been a ideal substitute if it were
comprised of 100% stoddard solvent (not the cheaper variants
containing turpentine).  Paint thinner of high quality was
available but in ignorance I passed it by.  Stoddard solvent is
the same "cleaning solvent" used at dry cleaners so if a cleaning
establishment has some *unused* still clean fluid to sell, that
would work too.  

Every trip, another lesson.    

Rich Mitchell
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Received on Thu Jan 07 1999 - 03:03:15 PST

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