Does anybody know if i can use safely kerosene in a coleman 533 dual fuel stove (which is suited only for unleaded gas and coleman liquid fuel)? Thanks!
i would say no - the 533 uses the same generator as the 422... however, a 502 maybe (there are posts here on SB that discuss w/pics), and a 550 definitely (very nicely, actually; i use one every other day in winter)...
Hello Freitas, the answer is no, as kerosene (or paraffin) is a different fuel than petrol, with different requirements - like the sort of generator - to be brought into a gaseous state. A generator is the part or process in which a liquid fuel is changed into a gas, and most are designed to do so efficiently for only one sort of fuel. You will have to inquire with Coleman whether such a generator is available for your stove. Why are you asking?
Thank you. I'm thinking about buying a Coleman 533 and a friend of mine told me that it works well with kerosene, but it is difficult to control the blaze. You must pre heat longer. And Coleman Fuel is difficult to find here in southern Brazil.
A 533 really isnt the best solution. You should go for the 550 with a kerosene generator, I believe these have to be bought separately. Failing that, get a brass Primus stove or, if your budget will stretch to it, a 'red bottle' stove like the MSR's or the Primus Omnifuel. If you buy the 533 you will probably be stuck with using unleaded gasoline. Does Brazilian fuel contain a lot of ethanol? Maybe if you preheated the heck out of the generator with a small butane torch and only used a few pumps of pressure to start off with, you might get it to work on kerosene. It would be a lot of trouble though. If liquid kerosene gets out of the end of the generator you are going to get a big mess underneath the burner and its not easy to get at that to clean it.
If you are going to try it, better start with a 1:1 mix of kerosene and petrol. If it works with this, you might then try 2 parts kero with 1 part petrol. I did this with one of my blow-torches that is designed for petrol, and it worked OK at 1:1, and even gave me a hotter flame. Mind, though, that a blow-torch does not have the same kind of generator as a stove. Yonadav
there is no kero generator for the 533. If burning kero I would stick to the older style brass stoves. They are designed for kero where even the 400 is a petrol stove that was modded to kero and although they work ok they are still not as good as the originals. You have to use paste to preheat as there is no proper preheat bowl where on a old primus style although meths is best anything that will burn could be used
Hi Freitas I'm from Florianópolis, but will writte in english so everyone can understand. Hope it's not too late, though. Are you aware that Coleman Fuel (or white gas), in Brazil, is what we call "benzina"? If you wanna try "gasolina" from gas stations, It may work well, but I think it's not recommended, becausa our "gasolina" has meths (alcohol) in the mix. I don't know the why's, but it's common opinion that you should not put alcohol in a stove that isn't specifically design for it (it looks like it has something to do with the seals). "Benzina", in Brazil, it's not the cheapest fuel available, but I think it's that expensive at all (about R$ 12,00 per liter). I often use "benzina" (white gas) in kerosene stoves and it runs very well, not too much rich mix as one could imagine. But the other way around may not work, because white gas jets are much smaller diameter than kero's, so it could result in a too lean mixture. And there's the vaporizing thing: it looks like any stove will burn white gas, because it takes almost nothing to vaporizing it. But because of that, a white gas stove isn't a great "vaporizer" (well, it doesn't have to be), so other fuels may simply not be vaporized at all by white gas burners. Anyway, if you want to give it a try with kerosene, don't forget to clean it before returning to white gas. I think you have to wash it, dry it, and then put some white gas do "suck" the water residues, throw all the fuel out, and only then put a new amount of white gas to burn. That's what I do, but I really can't garantee (I think someone has already written about this technique in this forum). By the way, if you have to wash a tank, you could do it with boiling water: the heat will evaporate almost every remaining water. Rafael
Interesting you said that, but the generator on my new 533 (just bought April 2020) has grooves cut on the nut, which according to Coleman manuals say it's a kero generator. Is that not true? I've a 550B that has the nut with pre-cut grooves and it works great on both unleaded and kerosene. So, today I tried using kero on 533 and meth spirits (denatured alcohol) to prime, but it pours right out the bottom because both the cups have holes drilled in them! Can't get hold of fire paste here. Will have to find a metal cup without holes that fits and perhaps that might prime properly. Even if it does work, people here have said that it's not easy to control the flame on the 533. Is that true? I much prefer kero as it's less toxic and cleaner.
Never heard of kero in a 533. What do the instructions say? My guess is that they say nothing about kerosene. A 550B as I recall is designed to burn kerosene-- with the kero generator.
I've played a little with Coleman stoves and kerosene/Coleman fuel mixes. The short answer: you can burn a kero mix without significant issues with a white gas/Coleman fuel generator (as the 400-series and the 508/533 ship from the factory) if you stay below 75% Coleman fuel/25% kero and use the stove in warmer weather (above 50F/8C). Without a kero generator and pre-heating, it won't work well. When Coleman labels a stove 'dual fuel' they mean white gas/Coleman fuel AND/OR automotive unleaded gasoline up to E10 (10% ethanol by volume) because the stove's innards (fount, valves/tubing, o-rings and washers) are protected from the effects of alcohol at that percentage or lower. You should never burn E85 (85% ethanol by volume) automotive fuel, because it will attack the stove's internal parts... and you might get a flaming mess because of the preponderance of ethanol. Coleman liquid fuel stoves are not designed to burn any fuel with a high percentage of ethanol. Now, when Coleman labels a stove like the 550B or the Apex II 'multi fuel' they mean that you can switch out the generator for a kero-specific generator (that will also work with Coleman fuel or white gas or unleaded gasoline, but will not put out the equivalent BTUs because of the smaller kerosene jet) and thus have the option of running either white gas/Coleman fuel, automotive unleaded gasoline up to E10, or kerosene (with the kero generator). The reason the kero generator works so well is the restricted nozzle causes the flow of kero through the generator to be slowed, which gives more time for the kero to be heated/vaporized in the generator tube. The flow of kero with the gas generator is so high that the fuel will not be vaporized... so you'll get a lot of liquid kerosene dripping down from the burner all over the stove and the ground... a huge fire hazard. Yes, maybe you can pre-heat the gas generator enough to get the kero to vaporize... at low flow rates... but if you open the valve up fully the liquid kero will actually cool the generator enough to stop vaporization. So, in Brazil, if I could I'd use Coleman fuel/white gas. I would If it was uneconomical, then I'd consider blending up to 20% kerosene... without a kero generator any higher ratio of kero to gas will cause problems. I'd be careful about using automotive gasoline if I didn't absolutely know the percentage blend of ethanol... gasoline labeled E15 can actually have a much higher percentage of ethanol, under Brazilian law. Hope this helps.
All fun. Yes, Coleman 'dual fuels' are for white gas (Coleman fuel) or pump petrol. But pump gasoline is undesirable for long-established and well-established reasons. The whole Coleman 'dual fuel' thing was marketing nonsense. Sure, any enterprising person can do this and that with kero and petrol mixes. I've put 10 or 15% white gas into keroburning brass classics with satisfactory effects in cold weather. You can burn white gas in a brass keroburner if you want and don't care about the real dangers. You can try to burn kero in petrol stoves with little success, and you can add white gas until the success is marginally better. But why? Kerosene stoves are designed to burn kerosene. White gas stoves were designed to burn naptha (white gas, Coleman fuel, panel wipe, shellite, etc.) QED, ipso facto, res ipsa loquitur, etc. Use the fuel the stove is designed for. Too simple....
Update on using kero on 533. I managed to replace the burner bowl that has no pre-drilled holes in it so I could prime with meth spirits (denatured alcohol). Yes, it does burn kero in a manner of speaking but not as well as unleaded petrol. It's not happy when on low trying to simmer just does not happen. The flame turns yellow and dies, ie, very poor flame control and regulation. It was okay on medium and high settings though, but why bother when 550B will burn kero to your heart's content, too hot for some admittedly.
This is because the jet (opening at the burner end) in the gas generator is too big. I've examined the kero generator on a 550B... the generator tube is the same size but the opening is smaller. What this evidently does is retard the flow of kero inside the generator, which gives it more of a chance to vaporize at the expense of BTUs. Yet, because kero has more BTUs per ounce/mL than white gas, it should be about even. Have you tried wrapping a copper wire around the generator (tight, touching coils for a couple of inches) directly above the burner? This might help to impart enough additional heat to fully vaporize kero in a gas generator at the expense of additional warmup time... I haven't tried it but am guessing. Yellow flames are a sign of incomplete vaporization, or to put it another way, too much fuel flow for the current generator to vaporize at its current temperature. That's why kero works at low settings with a gas generator. Honestly, if you're looking to kero for fuel economy, then blending it with white gas/Coleman fuel at a 75% gas/25% kero mix ('Amish mix') will lower the total price of fuel and still let you effectively vaporize with the factory generator. Or, just run unleaded auto gas and be done with it... kero won't burn any cleaner. Use the money you save on fuel to buy carb cleaner and put a teaspoon in with every tank.
