Like Sir Isaac sitting under the apple tree, I made an accidental discovery today, though of much less import than Newton's. I spilled Coleman fuel (white gas) on my hands, workbench and some boxed wine below. From past experience filling the lawn mower with gasoline, I instantly dreaded the idea of that forever lingering smell. I quickly wiped up the excess, but still, some had dampened the cardboard of the boxed wine. Surely I'd be hearing from the wife on this one. Much to my surprise, within minutes all the CF evaporated without evidence. No smell. No grease stains. Guess it demonstrates how pure CF is compared to additive laden automotive fuel. No gasoline for my stoves. Now, if only I could afford CF for the lawnmower.
Hello Knotty, Even better: White gas/naphta can be used as a cleaning agent As we know stove generators jam after a few runs on automotive gasoline and can be cleaned or kept clean on CF I have a 22B that had been running on automotive gasoline before I bought it. It now runs a lot cleaner after a few tanks of white gas. Cheers, Peter
I could be wrong... But, I believe the smell of automobile gasoline is one of many additives added to the fuel. In this case, so you smell the fuel really easily. Sort of like they do with natural gas - add a stinky smell so people notice it. A safety measure. It's all those additives that go into automobile gasoline that don't get burned and cause all the fouling. They burn just fine when in the 3000psi high pressures of an automotive engine cylinders. But, without those pressures, a large percentage of what is in modern automobile gasoline never burns in our little stoves where no pressures are present at all. The non-burning constituents of automobile gasoline either escape into the atmosphere or cook into a sludge in the stoves generator. It's why Coleman fuel, without all those automobile additives, was created. Though some seem to think it's just Colemans way to rip off the buyers of their stoves or something equally conspiracy-like.
Instead, you would need to use what's called alkylate petrol - assuming it's available in the US. From what I read here, it seems to be freely available in Scandinavia but far less so in the UK where it's sold as Aspen fuel at quite a high price - slightly cheaper than Coleman (aka 'green gold') though...
Unfortunatly, it's that same attribute that makes it attractive to folks making methamphetamine. It's a near optimal non-polar solvent for doing alkaloid extraction, with a few exceptions. Evaporates with no impurities, leaving behide the desired product. Murph
I once used CF in my lawnmower to finish cutting my grass after it ran out of gasoline. It worked fine. An expensive option but an option nonetheless.
Priced at nzd15.99 per litre. I would say its a little more than a conspiracy theory. It's like burning money.
G,,day I use shellite. cheaper than CF. it is available in 20 litre drums as well as small 1 litre bottles , 1 litre bottles about $8 to $9 each which is a bit cheaper than CF. cheers kerry
Quite some time ago there was a posting regarding a small group of really intense Coleman folks who were distilling gasoline and thereby making there own Coleman fuel. Now this is serious stuff folks, best not to try at home. But it was very interesting to watch but I cannot locate it. Has anyone else seen this posting ? Ken H.
I think you need to look at why it costs so much in New Zealand, Dan. Isn't this something to do with NZ trade restrictions or importation taxes, etc? I pay $9.50USD for a US gallon here in the States for Coleman fuel. Coleman fuel was developed in the fifties because gasoline started getting crammed full of really nasty chemicals that burn well in engines but not in cars. Doron talks about it at his fuels webpage. It's well-established fact. It's not about Coleman trying to rip folks off. It's that modern car engines burn fuel differently than stoves and need different fuels. A liter of CF should last a week of trail travel I should think. $2 per day for CF is going to cancel a trip? I can't even get a pint at happy hour for $2 and we all know exactly what I'll end up doing with it after I drink it. Around here, $15.99 wouldn't even pay my vehicle gas to drive to the trailhead. Or, as Kerry has suggested, use Shellite.
It's why Coleman fuel, without all those automobile additives, was created. wasnt this the original gasoline up to about 1920 when they started adding lead to make cars go better. They started adding lead etc after someone showed how well a car went on alcohol fuel which coincidently is also the real reason behind the American prohibition.
For the real conspiracy theorist, the stuff we get here as Coleman fuel is not American Coleman fuel. It is Fuelite or similar with the label changed and 5 bucks added to the price. I suppose it is an expensive label as it has 2 colours in the printing. Even the White gas like Fuelite is $12 a litre but it comes down to about $120 plus gst for a 20L tub. The cost is supply and demand. Not much demand so not much supply so the can charge what they like. We need to promote more white gas stove use.
I wouldn't advise anyone to use Gasoline in a Coleman stove. I do use it, I bought a Coleman 533 about 7 years ago for £6.00. The man I bought it from said it didn't work, I put a new pump washer on and a new generator which cost me about £15.00 for the two. It's never missed a beat since, if it packed up tomorrow I could no doubt get my £6.00 back if I wanted and still it would have worked out very nice for me. I see these items as consumables the same way I need to change the oil and air filter in my car, I could drive my car in non dusty conditions to make the air filter last longer but I don't. If I used the stoves I own until they broke they would still last my life out. For lanterns it could be another story as they could be burning for hours on end. The stoves I'm talking about aren't rare and the parts are readily available. Like I said this is just my position.
Interestingly I was given a Radius 42 a few years ago. Original owner had bought it new and run it only on pump petrol. Half of that petrol would of been leaded as well. He said it had had no maintenance in that time. True or not I dont know but it has the original srv etc.
Hiya there fellow Kiwi Stove people! I am a great believer in establishing facts (at what cost?). The only way to tell the difference between Shellite, Fuelite, Tergolite etc in New Zealand, as against Coleman Fuel would be lab testing by an accredited fuel testing laboratory, and see the test reports, to demonstrate the difference. The amount spent on testing, would pay for all the fuel I would use for the rest of my life in the outdoors, or the fun I have trying stoves out in my "man cave". (If you see this Bernie Dawg, did you know your email address does not seem to work anymore?)
"The only way to tell the difference between Shellite, Fuelite, Tergolite etc in New Zealand, as against Coleman Fuel would be lab testing by an accredited fuel testing laboratory, and see the test reports, to demonstrate the difference." Im pretty certain the only difference will be the makers stamp on each molecule.
Makes me wonder if fuel has changed recently,I feel guilty saying this but I came across a stove that I put away some ten years ago and it still had fuel in it, I took the cap off and it looked and smelt as it should and it fired up no bother. Yet I have had no end of problems with lawn mowers, no matter what I do water seems to get into the fuel or is it making its own water. I had some in a clean plastic can with a proper lid stored in the shed over winter, I put it into a glass jug to have a look and sure enough about a spoonful of water rolling around at the bottom of the glass. One thing I always without fail do is fill the stoves with the little Coleman filter funnel.
Last liter of Coleman fuel I bought in Ireland was €12.50 (about £10 in UK money) and not found any since, nearly out so I've been trying Aspen 4 fuel at €5.50 a liter and it works fine (Aspen 2 is for 2 strokes). A 5l can works out a bit cheaper at €25 but single liter bottles are so much easier to handle and pour I'll pay the extra for the convenience. If anyone reading this in Ireland is looking for Aspen fuel I've found that some of the larger garden machinery shops sell it.
