I spoke too soon. Finally had my first failed/leaky Powermax cartridge. I "plugged" in a new/unused but how old (?) Powermax cartridge into my Exponent mini lantern. This just refills the reservoir of the lantern, kind of like refilling a butane lighter. After I refilled the lantern and pulled the Powermax cartridge off I noticed a smell coming from my supply box. Pulled out the fuel cartridges stored in it an notice the Powermax cartridge I used was hissing gently. Took a closer look and it appeared that some black rubber material had pulled loose and was stuck in the neck of the cartridge. Kind of looked like a slice off an O ring. I need to take one of these cartridges apart but it appears that there is a black O ring around the inside of the cartridge neck and a reddish rubber piercable gasket across the opening of the cartridge. To "save" the cartridge, I just plugged it into a Powermax lantern I have and it appears as long as the cartridge is plugged in, it doesn't leak. So for the time being that lantern is doing BBQ light duty. When the cartridge is empty it will be time to whip out the dremel tool and see what makes the valve work. Stay tuned for info or a burn report. Jim Henderson
dday, that's not fair ! Man what a deal - I have done the same thing, try to hord this powermax fuel, but can't find it cheap anywhere , wow, man I would have bought everything they had. If canisters hold up , propane/butane mix is about as stable as it gets - let's see natural gas is over 75 million years in the ground, can't get much more stable than that - Also I read that Coleman fuel has a shelf life of about 5-6 years ? I wish I had never seen this topic Man what a deal Tom
Tom- Go up this page to the link to my fuel shed... thanks partly to people believing the "shelf life" story, I have about 30 gallons of Coleman, Crown, MSR, and Ozark Trail camp fuel. (I've added about 10 or so gallons since the pictures) I suspect the shelf life is actually more like 50 years as long as it remains uncontaminated. JMHO
Oh, I found where you read the 5-7 year shelf life info... http://www.coleman.com/coleman/faq/faqreturn.asp?question=38
They wouldn't do THAT?....would they???? Hi Tom, The discussion of how long Coleman type fuel and kerosene will last has been carried on a few times on here. If you go back and read older postings you will find that a few of us have used "old" fuel with no problems. I have used very old kerosene in a "kerosun" wicking heater with no problems. Haven't had trouble with old "white gas" fuels yet either, but haven't burned nearly as much of that yet. I anticipate no problems unless there is contamination. Your mileage may vary! (another famous American marketing term...) Best, Randy
Hi Hydro, Matukat is right. I have used coleman fuel that was 15-20 years old and saw no difference in flame or heat. I hope your right about the powermax fuel as a few weeks ago I went back to the hardware store that I had bought the 10.6 oz powermax cartridges from and offered the manager 50 cents a can for the smaller cans which are somewhere around 6 oz if my memory serves me right. He said that he just wanted to clear the shelves of them and I bought all eight cases that he had. $48 bucks wasn't bad for 96 cans. So now I have alot of powermax fuel with only two stoves to burn it in. Now I have a reason to buy the single burner and the little re-fillable coleman lantern that uses powermax fuel . These powermax cartridge purchases just re-inforces the point that it never hurts to ask about a reduced price. In this case it worked pretty well . If your ever in NE Ohio and need powermax fuel, look me up and I'm sure I can spare some. Have a good evening, dday
dday, As long as those aluminum cans hold up that fuel will never degrade, well not in your lifetime or anybody on the planet living now for sure ! Almost worth flying to NE Ohio for what i paid for my cannisters, embarressed to say actually - enjoy your booty - oh that expedition stove is great , fastest stove in the west, less than a minute and my is up and running, have both the two burner and and three single burners, but I use them sparingly now, wonder why ??? Tom
Rather than my usual long winded treatise, I will just show the URL for my warning on these cartridges. https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/27736 Since this is a safety issue I thought I would poke at this old thread since it specifically asks about Powermax cartridge life. The short of it is, that I am having increasing leakage issues with my NOS (New Old Stock) Powermax cartridges. So there may indeed be a limited lifetime and I presume most if not all cartridges in our hands are approaching that. Jim Henderson
