Hi, All I've read some discussions here and elsewhere of folks mixing up their own stove fuel. Ignoring the videos of guys distilling naptha from auto gasoline in their back yards, it appears the favorite recipes are usually based on Coleman or similar fuel with various percentages of kerosene added. In the mid-'70s when the US was switching to unleaded gasoline, I often ran my original Svea 123 on it, then later mixed auto gasoline with Coleman fuel at about 50-50 for a while. Perhaps it was my imagination, but it always seemed my mix ran a bit hotter, and longer, than straight Coleman fuel. It took a few years, but soon enough I had the stove so glommed up it would barely run. Cleaning all the carbon and goo out was a chore, and the wick was toast, so I've run strictly Coleman fuel since. Do those of you who mix your own have similar experiences? Or are your home brews pretty clean burning? Thanks, Rick C
i've never used coleman fuel, it's £9/litre here. the panel wipe (that car painters use) works (i assume the same) and is £12-15/5litres, ie. less than 1/3 the price. it'd have to be a real emergency to use car fuel in a stove or lamp
I've run my Coleman 502's on VM&P naptha, with and w/o kerosene added, for extreme cold, used Bestine rubber cement thinner, it's pure n-heptane (and burns like it!!!), and for test purposes, run them on methanol and isopropanol, nothing to write home about! We've a member here that runs his 502 on straight kerosene, and another who modded his to run on butane!!! Here in the US, using naptha in place of Coleman fuel is a safe and sure thing.
Just so that our US friends can see why not many UK people use Coleman fuel, it costs approx $US 45 for a US gallon.
I was thinking yesterday that another company ought to compete with Coleman to bring the price down. I would not even consider distilling my own white gas. Ken in NC
......and to add to that, it's almost impossible to find a stockist locally in most places in the UK, so most people have to resort to buying it by mail order. To make things worse, the Royal Mail won't deliver it, so you have to resort to paying for a courier service......yep, more £££££!
I asked about making fuel recently in the "off topic" section, but in reference to a Kero/Paraffin replacement from vegetable oil. I might well get around to trying it.
Bio-diesel has been tried here by several members, as I remember, nobody was impressed, and it clogged up the stove like a bugger! Murph
I've used white spirit solvent for benzine and kerosene stoves. It's a really same as a ligroine fraction of naphta. And a coleman fuel is a ligroine also.
Here in the USA I've tried "Water clear type K Kerosene", "Paint Thinner", "Deodorized Paint Thinner", Also called "Mineral Spirits" and Stoddard Solvent in my good ol Optimus 45, They all seem to burn as close to the same as makes no difference. Stoddard Solvent is the cheapest, but as little as I burn of any of these liquids, I'll stick to the Water Clear kerosene. I have accumulated about 35 US gallons of it as a give away when buying kerosene lamps and appliances off of "Craigslist" locally. When I get partial containers of kerosene I add them to other partials to get a full container, minimizing the exposure to air during storage. My experience with diesel and biodiesel makes me stay far away from both as they burn poorly, smoke heavily and stink to high heaven when used in kerosene appliances. Coleman Fuel or Walmart's "Great Value" Camp fuel is available and costs USD $12-$16/US Gallon. I also have accumulated a good supply as giveaways when I've bought Coleman fueled appliances from Craigslist locally. Petroleum Naptha from the paint store burns like coleman fuel, but is nearly twice as expensive. As always, your mileage may vary. Gerry
Over here coleman fuel is quite expensive at €5/L, and paraffin about 4/L. I always use 'Wasbenzine' for the petrol stoves, and 'Lampolie' for paraffin ones. Both ara about €1,50 and work just fine. Sometimes zibro-fuel when its on sale....
By far, the most economic "alternative" fuels would be regular unleaded motor gasoline for white gas stoves. And (preferably winterized) blends of diesel for kerosene stoves. These are available internationally unlike many of the other fuel options. The stoves will probably need to be maintained more often, but to me that's much better than paying 5 to 10 times more for fuel. I exclusively use gasoline in all my stoves and lanterns.
Ultra low sulpher diesel is good because burning sulpher indoors STINKS! And winterized diesel is pretty much in between normal diesel and kerosene. They both should work fine, but will probably clog up before k1 kerosene will, again a little stove maintenance will keep things in working order
@BenniHanna Why use diesel when you can use JetA (which is pure kerosene). Here in Australia our kerosene is JetA1 and I can buy it at the pump for $1.93 per litre. At the present time gasoline in $1.45 per litre. Cheers Tony
Do they fill up cars and planes on same gas/petrol stations or why they sell JetA1 on gas/petrol stations?
Why use gasoline when you can use coleman fuel? Problem is that the vast majority of people don't have access to coleman fuel. Just like they don't have access to jet fuel. There's a local kerosene pump in my town but it's the only one I've ever seen in my life. Gasoline and diesel are simply more common for more people. JetA is a hell of a lot better to run stoves on than diesel, it's just a matter of cost and availability.
@Afterburner Because Australia does not refine home kerosene, and imports Jet A1 for the aviation industry, all except some imported "packaged" kerosene is Jet A1 - even the stuff that's dyed blue that you can buy in bottles from the hardware store. Cheers Tony
@Tony Press For what they use kerosene so much that is sold in pumps, is it used for house heating? I would guess that use of stoves & lanterns is not so common anymore that it require lots of kerosene.
