@The Warrior , they have had issues of over heating the valves and running loose, they have also had an issue of the generator because of the way it wraps kind of around out from the burner and is not directly over the flame of then cooling to much and you lose the flame and you have a liquid build up in the bottom of the burner, and out of the air vent. Coleman had so many issues with them that once they had the 502 developed they discontinued the 501.. now with all of that said they are a prize for the collector, because of the issue and because of the limited number that were produced… If my understanding is correct Coleman had a re-call on these.
Coleman wanted everybody with a 501 to bring em into the dealers, they would hand you a new 502 and take a hammer to the 501. My understanding (just hearsay of course) was that the generators would fail and then there was no way to shut em off, since valve was on the downstream side of generator. I don't have the foggiest the difference betweeen the 501 an 501A, they changed a few things trying to fix their issues.
Saw this article on that stove @John P. Jordan Coleman 501 Camp Stove « Sklcolorado's Blog (wordpress.com)
@Remus1956 , if you look at the pictures in this article, and look at the pictures of my stove you can see the change in the valve, the 501 had a valve that looked more like the pricker control handle on a stove, while on the 501A of mine you can see the black plastic handle making it easier to grasp and turn off.
It's a very interesting stove you have.. Never seen one. I have a pair of 502 stoves but that one is pretty cool... Had me googling it to learn more
@Remus1956 , a friend had this one, and he could never get it to light correctly, he knowing I am a collector of GPA and have several different stoves asked if I would trade a 502 for it, and I having several 502’s took him up on his offer, that’s how I came by having it. Gotta love friends who think about you when stoves and lanterns come up…
