So, I screwed on a gassie recently to a Coleman brand canister, opened the valve, and... nothing. No gas. I live in Southern California; rest assured that this was not temperature related. It was 23 C/73 F yesterday. I tried several stoves, and... still nothing. Finally, I had a brain flash, and I tried a Coleman brand gassie. It worked just fine. Apparently Coleman's latest canisters, the ones with an orange labeling ring on their tops, have a slightly different specification. The Lindal valve appears to be more deeply recessed inside the threaded connector. The pins on many of my stoves aren't long enough to depress the valve unless I want to overtighten them which is a bad idea with aluminum or brass stove threads vs. a steel canister. I've documented the issue here on my blog along with a video demo: Coleman Canisters - Caution QUESTION: Is there a good "pin extender" I can rig up so that I don't have to overtighten and potentially damage my stoves? I bought three 450 g canisters. I'd rather not use them as paper weights. I thought about a little piece of plastic inserted into the Lindal valve area, but I'd be afraid of jamming the Lindal open. Any thoughts on this? Yeah, yeah, I know "switch to paraffin/kero like a real stovie," but I've already bought the gas and can't return it. HJ
I've occasionally come across the same issue with stove/canister incompatibility due to the pin on the stove not being long enough to activate the valve. I used a small steel ball such as is used in switch detent mechanisms to 'bridge the gap', reasoning that unlike the small piece of plastic you considered (or short piece of metal rod, as did I) it would be unlikely to jam in the valve. So it proved, but the difficulty of not losing the ball when a cart change was required discouraged me from considering it as a regular solution! John
Interesting observation. I used the orange canister on a Primus backpacking lantern. It is the only canister Walmart sells by me.
I just happened to visit your website, last Sat. evening and saw your experience with the Coleman gas cartridges. So on Sun. afternoon I just had to hook up my only Coleman cartridge to the Kovea Spider and check it out. The stove did light up and ran but was not the powerhouse at full throttle that it is on other cartridges. Definitely not getting as much fuel from the Coleman cartridge. I hesitated to tighten the valve and cartridge any tighter, like you mentioned no cartridge is worth ruining the stove valve. Really enjoy your site by the way, have learned a lot. Thank you Hikin Jim. Jrs08
If the canisters are a different specification but still carry the dot39 mark then they are faulty and must be returned to the retailer for a full refund. Dont we wish they would belive that despite it being true. Easiest fix keep the coleman cans fot your coleman stove and buy other ones for your other stoves
@presscall That's a great idea. Now to source one (just one). If I knew any dove hunters, I could ask for some steel shot. I tried one of the beads off of my old army dog tags, but no go. Too big. What I've been doing is using a G-Works adapter and transferring fuel from the big 440 g Coleman canister to a series of 110 g canisters, but I'm cranking down far too hard on the adapter for my liking. HJ
@8R Pete Primus and Jetboil seem to be compatible with the orange label Coleman gas canisters. Other brands are hit or miss. I tried three MSR stoves. Two didn't work at all; one worked fine. HJ
I've read about people solving this in the sticks with finding a tiny pebble to do the job. Maybe, lacking a suitable sized ball bearing, heating a small amount of electrical solder so it beads up is an option.
We have those coleman cannister at the walmart here. They are cheaper than MSR, Primus, and Jetboil, which are the brands I use most. The reason the coleman cannisters are cheaper is because they don't have the same weight as other brands. The major brands are normally 8 oz. (250 g) and 16 oz. (450 g) containers. Primus here is actually 8.9 oz. That being said, I have not done a cost per oz to see how they compare.
Normally things like this are done to make you use only the same brand consumable. If that had been the case though the stove would of had a shorter pin and the coleman gas canisters would also required a shorter pin. This would of left everyone buying coleman stoves only able to use coleman canisters. Apple has been doing this with headphones and power adapters for years
Hi, Jim, do you know about what diameter you need? I have No. 7 steel shot dove loads left over from last season and would be happy to cut one open and send you some shot for your experiment. What I've found with the dove loads is the shot's really a variety of sizes and far from perfectly round, unlike the higher priced waterfowl loads where one pays a premium for nice round and uniform pellets. So you might be able to use some of the smaller pellets and discard some of the larger ones. You can PM me with an address if you're interested. Rick C
@sa3spd I'll send you a PM. I"m not sure what size I need, but something slightly smaller than a GI dog tag chain. The bead from my old dog tags fit but wouldn't go down far enough inside the valve assembly to work, so something slightly smaller than that. Well, too short might work, but too short could also be a legal liability. Other stoves with a longer pin would depress the valve too soon and cause gas to start flowing before sealing. A pin too long means other stoves can't reach Coleman's valve but no gas is released prematurely. Dunno. The tolerances are so small that I suspect that this is just an oversight. HJ
@sa3spd you're a genius. The shot works perfectly. I'm now able to use, easily, stoves that wouldn't work at all before. Thank you so much. I notice you're local, in the next county over. Have you considered joining us for the upcoming CASG? HJ
Better than the steel ball I use and carefully stow away, with more available it doesn't matter if the individual shot is lost changing canisters. All in all though, a ridiculous anomaly that manufacturers have imposed when the screw canister is - we'd supposed - a universal fitment.
Its funny-When I worked in an outdoor store 24 years ago, we never sold those canisters. They collected dust and my boss used to say to me-rotate the canisters or dust them. Now the same store, different location has them but Walmart is 5 minutes away and they have my Coleman butane bottles for my Primus grasshopper.
@presscall Well, thanks to @sa3spd I am well supplied. A bit more gas is lost when first screwing on the canister than normal, but that's a small price to pay considering that I could not use the canister at all before. #7 shot from @sa3spd Placing the shot Success! Off loading the Coleman brand 440 g canister to a smaller (empty) Primus 220 g canister via a G-Works adapter. Note ice bath to facilitate transfer. There has to be a pressure differential to really get the receiving canister full. I put the donor in warm water for a few minutes, and the recipient in an ice bath. It's fairly easy. The once empty Primus canister is now full again. Regards, HJ
@8R Pete That's the new MSR Pocket Rocket 2. Review here: https://adventuresinstoving.blogspot.com/2016/12/review-new-msr-pocket-rocket-2.html HJ
