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kimgraves
Dec 13, 2005, 5:39 PM
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Hi Gang,
I'm about to buy a multi-fuel stove (MSR Dragonfly - which will burn almost anything) and am wondering about the advantages of different fuels. Which fuels burn hotter? Which fuels are safer - lowest flash point? Which fuels are the most efficient in terms of weight/btu? Which fuels create maintenance problems
Thanks, Kim
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trenchdigger
Dec 13, 2005, 5:46 PM
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In reply to: Hi Gang, I'm about to buy a multi-fuel stove (MSR Dragonfly - which will burn almost anything) and am wondering about the advantages of different fuels. Which fuels burn hotter? Which fuels are safer - lowest flash point? Which fuels are the most efficient in terms of weight/btu? Which fuels create maintenance problems Thanks, Kim
Well, white gas will burn the cleanest, spills evaporate quickly, and it burns nice and hot. How the heat output, etc. compare to other fuels, I don't know offhand. Kerosine is probably the second most common fuel (especially internationally). It burns hot and efficiently as well but stinks, doesn't prime quite as easily, and is a dirtier fuel. Other options like gasoline, diesel, etc. are dirty as well and tend to clog the stove faster. I'd stick with white gas when it's available, and use kerosine when it's not available. I believe I read somewhere that kerosine will give you more btu output per weight, but I don't remember where and I'm too lazy to search for it now.
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billl7
Dec 13, 2005, 6:06 PM
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In reply to: Well, white gas will burn the cleanest, spills evaporate quickly ....
So as for kerosene, slower evaporation means that stinky smell sticks around longer. Leaves me wondering if kerosene's reputation for being stinky is not so much that it smells worse than white gas but just that the odor lasts longer.
So far, that (longer lasting odor) is what has dissuaded me from using kerosene - that is, obtaining white gas has not been a problem so far although I have only used camp stoves while in the US.
As for weight/btu, be sure to compare something like burn-time-to-boil for same volume of water, and fuel-use-per-burn-time - since this takes into account stove inefficiencies. Something like that.
"Safer" is an interesting point. White gas might be considered less safe because it ignites more easily. On the other hand, white gas spills evaporate more quickly and so are more likely to be gone before one might inadvertantly ignite the spill.
Just some arbitrary thoughts here - the best choice depends on your application.
Bill
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baigot
Dec 13, 2005, 8:13 PM
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look. Iīm from Argentina and I have a XGK II and i run it with white Gas always i have it avaiable.
Never use Kerosene īcause if the bottle opens inside the pack...forget it. I know what iīm saying...jeje.
I used unleaded car gasoline in Patagonia once, for about 15 straight days cleaning well the stove every 3 days. Work OK and now, 10 years i didnīt replace any part of the pump...
Better use white gas...cleaner and odorless and more energetic than any other fuels. Work Great at any altitude (i used at 6000 mts. in Argentinian Andes many times). Here we call it "Solvente Industrial" (is diferent form "Thinner" a solvent more heavy and it clogs the stove).
Ahh, i forget it, In Cordillera Blanca in PERU, buy "Bencina". is the same as White Gas. Is in every Hardware Store there.
Good Luck.
Vicente
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pico23
Dec 14, 2005, 10:56 PM
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white gas evaporates cleaner and faster. burns that way too. if your fuel bottle leaks i'd rather it be white gas. my friend was taking his stove and he prefers to leave the pump attached to the fuel bottle, since he was borrowing my pack for transport I insisted he dump the unleaded gas and fill up with white gas. not suprisingly his bottle leaked all over my pack but at least it was white gas (and a beater pack).
it burns hotter too. problem is the dual fuel stoves use a wider valve and thus the performance drops overall regardless of the fuel. i don't have the specs but I'd guess the Dragon fly doesn't outpeform the whisperlite white gas model (there are/were two models).
the whisperlite white gas (not international) burns about as hot as any stove, hotter than the international. i was going to buy the conversion generator a long time ago before I noticed this. In north america it's not particularly hard to get white gas so I never had a need for it. I figure if I was going elsewhere I'd buy a second stove.
coleman fuel (whitegas) is like $3 a gallon and last for months of frequent use. never had a problem with it and you can find it at any store in the camping section. MSR makes there own for about the same price but it's for a quart of gas. I used that one time early on and can't say my stove worked any better or worse.
something more modern like the jetboil might be good for a fast weekend or as a bivy stove but they are expensive to run and can't melt the quantity of water a WG stove can. You can get about 15-25 person winter days of WG snow melting for $3. A cannister might cost you $12 to run each weekend.
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sixleggedinsect
Dec 17, 2005, 4:22 PM
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as far as im concerned, the *only* reason not to burn white gas in an MSR stove is if it is not available.
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