Hey, Doug, I've got two of them, one of which has seen quite a bit of use. Sweet Bride and I used ours, for the first time, on a 9 day, 170 mile backpack up in the Sierra. Worked a treat, I must say, and we very much like that stove. It burns hot, simmers wonderfully, and packs up inside a small cloth bag, and then into the cook pot. We did use priming paste with ours, as we do with the Coleman Multifuel stoves. Our only complaint is minor. The rather thin, yellow, O-rings that Coleman uses for their fuel bottles are worthless! They soon crack and die a very early death. This is easily remedied, however, and other than that, we think the Apex II is a cracking good stove. Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc Mark
I picked up an Apex2 yesterday, though this one seems to have been for the Japanese market as all wording is japanese. Seems to go alright but compared to my XGK2 it seems a bet flimsy...i woulden't want to stand on this while exiting the tent in the middle of the night...I had thought about fitting a thin donut shaped piece of stainless underneath the base to add some rigidity...any ideas?
HELP, please! I am thoroughly confused by Coleman stoves. They seem to have as many models as Carter's has pills, LOL! UGGHHH! I am looking for single and double burner stoves made by Coleman that can switch fuels from Coleman fuel to Kerosene. If they made any of the Feather or Peak 1 models, the ones with the cute feet pods capable of switching generators from gas to kerosene, please let me know, which ones they are by model and name, and which ones are preferable. Likewise, did they ever make a two burner camp stove capable of using kerosene with a generator change? I came across a brass Coleman that looked like my old Primus 96 and turned it down, because I did not know anything about it...wished I still had my 96. I am grumped out over the skyrocketing price for Coleman fuel and would rather use kero as it is much cheaper and available were I live. I am not sure if I trust or like the idea of using unleaded gasoline. Last time I was around an unleaded gas stove the fumes nauseated me and when it lit, it went POOMPH with a big flash. That kinda put me on edge about gasoline burners. Thanks so much for your gracious advice and input. Alex
Underlying principles:- Kerosene burners have to be primed with methylated spirits or a priming paste or pre-heated with a blowtorch, so the 'easy-start' capability of a Coleman is lost if a Coleman's to burn kerosene Once primed, they have to stay hot enough to vapourise the kerosene To get the fuel/air ratio right, kerosene burners have smaller jet orifices than their white gasolene burning equivalents, so in theory, they'll be running fuel-rich if pumping kerosene through a burner set up for white gas. In practice, it's not always so critical To date:- I've run a Coleman Handy Gas Plant on kerosene by reducing the jet size and pre-heating the burner with a blowtorch Ditto a Coleman Suitcase stove, by wrapping brass wire round the generator to maintain vapourisation Ditto a Coleman 502 A Coleman Apex (remote fuel bottle and pump) has an optional kerosene generator and that's the case too for the Coleman Peak stove with a similar burner type but with the burner mounted on the fuel tank, so with the appropriate kerosene generator installed they'll work fine on kerosene. John
