I did a cost comparison on different fuels and what it costs to boil one liter of water. The number of liters boiled using a given amount of fuel comes from a Primus chart I found. I think this is a bit optimistic, but it's a start. I don't know if this includes preheating using fuel from the bottle or is strictly theoretical. Using the Omnifuel, they say you can boil 19L with a 230 g can of butane, 25L using 530 of Coleman Fuel, and boil 25L using 530 ml Kero. The 530 ml bottle is the bottle most of the Omnifuels ship with. Ok, so I pay about $4.30 / gallon for K1 kero. Today I see that Coleman Fuel has gone up in price to $9.44 / gallon. 220g butane/propane canisters cost $4.88 / can. Denatured alcohol is about $6 per quart. Unleaded gas is $4 / gallon. There is roughly the same energy in gasoline and Coleman fuel so I will just do the math. It is about 25 cents per liter of boiled water using butane/propane. Coleman fuel costs about 6 cents per liter of water boiled. Unleaded gas is about 2.2 cents per liter boiled. Kerosene costs just over 2 cents per liter of water boiled. To compare, using an electric tea kettle, it costs me 1 cent per liter of boiled water at 11 cents per kwh. And using a beer can alcohol stove (the little pressurized types), it costs 19 cents per liter of boiled water. I use about 30 mls of alcohol, give or take, in my stove.
It really is irrelevant how much fuel costs. You happen to be in certain part of the USA where fuel(s) cost X, Y or Z. In other States it will be different. This is an International Site and we have members all over the world from Norway to Sweden to Denmark to Israel. Turkey to Russia and everywhere in between and of course here to the UK where Ross started the CCS. In every country fuel cost will be different and will vary and petro-chemicals go only one way and that is up! The cost of fuel is, was and always will be peanuts when it comes to maintaining ones hobby. I doubt there is a spouse in the world that will not ruefully comment that when it comes to Boys and their Toys no cost is too expensive!!
Surprised to see that the prices are almost or exactly the same here in Norway, except for unleaded wich is 3 times higher here and Coleman wich cost 79 NOK per liter or, wait for it, 55 $ a gallon!
What would a local alternative be? That's disgusting at that price. It would be far cheaper in that case to use butane canisters.
You can get Aspen 4T or the equivalent alkylate petrol for a somewhat better price (but still ugly) at $23 a gallon. Unleaded here gums up the stove quickly, so I mostly use cheap BBQ lighter fluid wich is more or less kerosene.
As alternatives for Coleman fuel I've used panelwipe and Aspen4. The Aspen4 was a bit more expensive than the panelwipe but I have a feeling (didn't run any fancy tests to prove this ) the Aspen performs better. Regards, Wim
I have noticed that stoddard solvenet / white spirit / mineral spirits smell and burn almost exactly like kerosene if you light a pool of it. I have never used any in a stove though. I am going to pick up a bottle of that and also fabricate from biodiesel in the kitchen to see how it burns. I finally found some lye today at an agricultural supply store. That was the hardest ingredient to obtain for biodiesel. Oil is cheap and easy thanks to Aldis. Methanol is everyhere. But Damn meth addicts and drug cookers have caused most stores to quit selling lye. Clearly this isn't the audience to complain about $9.50 / gallon Coleman Fuel . I do recall filling my car up in Tulsa, Olkahoma in 1999 at 82 cents per gallon for unleaded. At that time, small oil producers were going out of business because it cost more money to run the oil derricks than they generated. Gasoline, on an inflation adjusted basis, was the cheapest in history during that time. It was nothing to drive 85 mph on the interstate, fuel economy be damned. Now I putter along at 55-60mph, air up my tires, roll up the windows, and keep the AC to a minimum.
I've tried different sorts of white spirits in my stove, and it all depends on the blend how it burns. Some burns nice and blue and don't smell, other burns white and others again burns completely opposite of normal, first part of the flame yellow and blue at the tip. Oh, and back in '99 the difference in fuel prices was even greater, if I remember correctly it was 8 times higher here. Gotta love them taxes...
When I was on a road trip around the USA on 2008 we were literally laughing out loud on gas station forecourts at how little it cost to fill up our hulking great SUV after a multi-hundred mile blast across the interstates. Back in the UK you would have to be a seriously wealthy person to keep that beast on the road but in its home territory you could fill it up using the loose change you found down the back of the sofa. This was back in the heady days of the two dollar pound which helped a lot Today, avg UK price of unleaded = £1.36 / litre or $8.48 / US Gallon
people at the canoeing site have the same interest in fuel cost but in the end i just say that with all the gear you buy it's not really that much.outfitters and summer camps that run thru fuel by the drum might want to figure fuel costs into their overhead.
You are a youngster, urbanmedic-- I well recall gasoline at 23-26 cents per gallon up until 1973... 8)
Thanks Ed, I'm just stepping outside to go sit on the railway tracks....at the gas station the other day I noticed liter bottles of meths, shellite and kero, all for NZ$10.99... Last time I looked (couple of years) a US gallon can of Coleman fuel was NZ$38
~ 20 cents/gal. during price wars in the mid 60's in Missouri 8) who cares what it costs to boil water? I enjoy the light of a Coleman lantern and messing with Coleman stoves, price be damned
White spirits are very expensive here but I did find this crowd that sell it for just over 5 dollars a litre (for 20l) http://www.pacer.co.nz/shop/index.php?cPath=92
Greetings, All, I, too, remember the gas wars of yesteryear, and have some video tapes, taken from the windows of our moving vehicles, which show some of the rock-bottom prices we paid back then for gasoline. But, I agree with Mike, in that I'm still going to fire up my stoves, lanterns, and heaters, no matter the price. But, I might cut back on how MUCH I fire them up. We'll see. I have plenty off fuel on hand, having bought around 35 gallons of K1 water-white kerosene last year for around $250, or so a gallon. It's by far the best kero I've yet found, and I bought it from a fuel supply depot, which had the lowest prices in So. Cal, bar none. I'll have to check and see what they as for it today. Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
Another factor in this is the price of the stove. The branded stoves ie msr primus etc are not a lot cheaper in gas than they are in liquid but there are some very cheap butane stoves that work just as well so the higher fuel cost takes a long time to reach break even point ie butane fuel+stove = real stove+fuel. Until you reach that point you are on a winner. If you refill your non refillable canisters then you might never reach this point
If you're worried about the cost, how about a small wood-burner - Bush-buddy or a Swiss Volcano stove etc? Burns twigs, scrap wood, pine-cones. Around $10 for a Swiss volcano stove which includes a litre flask and a cup - just add fire! Or make your own hobo stove for nothing - even cheaper!
Turpentine Substitute/Stoddart's Solvent/White Spirit (Not Coleman fuel) is a good fuel in multifuel stoves but will not burn in a Svea 123r (I've tried it. It's not volatile enough). It primes well but you can't light it unless it's on one of those fabric things (priming pads) or whatever. It doesn't seem to gum up stoves. I've used it in Dragonfly, TK111 and XGK. It's the cheapest fuel you can get in Ireland apart from unleaded.
