coleman white gas

today i bought a whisperlite internationale which is my first liquid fuel stove. i got a 22 oz fuel bottle to go with it, and a gallon of coleman brand fuel. nowhere on the bottle does it say "white gas", so i want to know if that's what it is. it says it's for coleman stoves (the car camping type), so i would just like to know. if it isn't, where is a good place to buy white gas? i will try local gear stores, but is there anywhere else?

luke

I was told that "white gas" is gasoline w/o lead or any other additives for automotive fuel. Coleman is also called naphthalene (is that a word?) [Editor's note: Coleman fuel is not naphthalene -- see Teejay's very comprehensive post below], I think, and it works in any white gas stove.

Coleman is the stuff you want. Make sure that you seal the cover tightly on the colemen can, it can absorb moisture and go bad if it is left for long periods with a loose top.

BTW, to state the obvious, make sure that you try out the stove at home before your trip, for some reason some people wait until they are on the trail to try the stove for the first time !

From Coleman's web site:

What is Coleman fuel?

Coleman fuel is basically petroleum naphtha with a bit of rust inhibitor. It has an octane rating of 50 to 55 and none of the additives found in gasoline. It has a lighter molecular weight than gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuel and cannot be used as a substitute for any of those fuels. The flammability of Coleman Fuel is comparable to gasoline but it cannot be used in gasoline engines. It will burn out the valves.

Coleman uses the term Coleman fuel and white gas interchangeably.

Highly refined

I was told that White gas is Gasoline, more highly refined. It has fewer impurities and therefore will not clog a white gas stove. Unleaded works but after a while it begins to clog a white gas stove.

Your "Internationale" is designed to handle White Gas, Kerosene AND regular unleaded gas, so you don't need to buy coleman fuel, just stop at the gas station. The Internationale is about 30 bucks more than the whisperlite so I would take advantage of that convenience and savings.

Mike

Years ago I remember a local gas station had a sign out that said "white gas", kept in a barrel with a hand crank. My father used that in his coleman two burner green camp stove, and we always believed it to be the same as today's Coleman fuel. That stove still works.

ahhh, thanks for the knowledge. it's good to know that i won't be gunking up my brand new stove with the same stuff that semi-trucks run off of. i got the internationale for conveinience in a pinch, but i've heard that white gas is still preferable with this, and most other liquid fuel stoves.

luke

One and the same far as I know. 22 oz bottle is way overkill. A little white gas goes a long way.

rondak46 said:

Your "Internationale" is designed to handle White Gas, Kerosene AND regular unleaded gas, so you don't need to buy coleman fuel, just stop at the gas station. The Internationale is about 30 bucks more than the whisperlite so I would take advantage of that convenience and savings.

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Unleaded may work in the stove, but you don't want to breath some of the additives. Stick to Coleman fuel (or kerosene if you cannot get Coleman fuel).

I have 2 stoves about 30yrs old. Never burned anything other than Coleman fuel in them. Never clogged. Never had to clean the fuel lines or jets.

Doug

be careful!

I have a Coleman "Feather 400" (yeah, right, I'd like to see the bird that has such heavy feathers!) that I use primarily for winter trips, and it burns white gas. Never clogs, works great. But the stuff is so volatile it can fill the basement with vapor in no time flat. Best to fill it outside. Good thing is, spills evaporate in just a few seconds. And Gris is right, one fuel bottle lasts a real long time- never used more than half a one, even on a 3 day winter trip. I bet in summer it would last me a good 10 days unless I spilled it.

Oh, am I going to date myself with this one.

White gas and Coleman fuel are actually not the same, although for the purposes of backpacking stoves they're close enough. (See International Fuel Names.) I dimly recall an intimation from my youth, confirmed by the link above, that the latter is safer than the former.

And here's the really old, now obsolete, knowledge: White gas used to be sold regularly from pumps in Minnesota and elsewhere to fuel outboard motors as well as Coleman appliances. This went on waaaay back in the last millennium (well, a little way back). Been there, seen that.

sardog1 said:

Oh, am I going to date myself with this one.

White gas and Coleman fuel are actually not the same, although for the purposes of backpacking stoves they're close enough.

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Kind of fits my memory too... Although I couldn't remember the details.

Doug
On his way to the old climbers' home.

Coleman fuel, petroleum naphtha, white gas are all distillation cuts obtained from the refinement of crude oil. What is a distillation cut? After the crude oil has been cracked to break the high molecular weight hydrocarbons into smaller molecules, the mixture that is left is distilled. As the distillation temperature is raised different liquid "fractions" boil off. These fractions are collected based on their boiling points. The lower boiling cuts are useless as motor fuels because of their high volatility and low octane numbers. My guess is that Coleman fuel is mostly the cut referred to as hexanes, having a boiling point of around 70 deg. C. I also suspect that what is sold as white gas is a somewhat higher boiling cut.

Coleman fuel will absorb a very small amount of water from the air but nowhere nearly enough to affect its use as a stove fuel. Any container used to store it should be kept tightly closed. Not to keep it from absorbing water, but to keep it from evaporating.

Coleman fuel is very highly flammable. Its vapors are heavier than air. Filling a fuel bottle in your basement is, politely, foolhardy. In truth, suicidal. It has a flash point way below 0 deg. C. What this means is that at any temperature above that, the vapors above the liquid mixed with air are potentially, and at normal indoor temperatures always, EXPLOSIVE!!!!!!!!!

Coleman fuel is relatively "pure" in the sense that it contains very little non-volatile material, has been well filtered to remove particulates and is consistent from can-to-can.

Naphthalene is something else. It's the simplest of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

teejay_afka_a_chemist

teejay said:

Naphthalene is something else. It's the simplest of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

teejay_afka_a_chemist

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Oh, that naphthylene! I like to think that I earn this duncecap every day.

Don't feel too bad, Afka.

Until just now when teejay used "afka_a_chemist" I never realized what "afka" stood for. Of course I'm familiar with AKA, but not AFKA (also formerly known as - I presume?).

carry on

by the way, if you do use the other fuels (e.g. kerosene) don't forget to use the appropriate jet that comes with the Internationale.


spencer

spencer said:

Until just now when teejay used "afka_a_chemist" I never realized what "afka" stood for. Of course I'm familiar with AKA, but not AFKA (also formerly known as - I presume?).

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Close: "Artist Formerly Known As," ala' Prince and the unpronounceable symbol, etc.

While I am the artist formerly known as bob, I go by the pronounceable symbol "#," or "octothorp."

Nice chatting with you, Spence

One advantage of Coleman fuel over gasoline is that if your canister of Coleman leaks into your pack, it evaporates much faster than gasoline, and leaves minimal odor. If the Coleman fuel absorbs too much moisture, that could be a problem in below freezing temps.

No, Bob,

it's this naphthalene.

teejay

VTLuke,
For the rest of your question, I usually buy a gallon of white gas at Walmart - cheapest I have ever found. A gallon used to last me 2 years, but now with my pepsi can stoves, I am still on my last gallon of coleman fuel from 5 years ago.

You can buy smaller quantities at EMS, but you will pay a premium.

When flying cross country I generally use auto fuel in my internationale, filling it when I tank up the rental car (nost stations have an old funnel lying around to help you get it in the fuel bottle, or brig your own small fuel funnel).

I have heard automotive gasoline is a more explosive than white gas and it has a tendency to clog or leave a varnish like residue. Though I haven't had any problems with using autofuel on and off in 12 years. You can also smell the difference between the two immediately.

Also, I have heard that white gas and gasoline both bad/stale or lose some heat output over time. Again, I haven't had a problem with some of my older fuel - it lights right up (except at 20 below) and the stove always seems to work fine.

I have also taken my stove completely apart a few times and have run it through the dishwasher (When my wife is gone, naturally) to get it completely clean

I did use a gallon of white gas once in my truck when I was coming back from the ADKs in July 1995 after the microburst, when power was completely out across upstate NY (couldn't pump gas, but I could buy a gallon of white gas off the shelf and add it to my 1/4 full tank) and couldn't tell the difference.

I wonder - Has anybody ever run into problems with old white gas or old auto fuel??

Rick said:

I wonder - Has anybody ever run into problems with old white gas or old auto fuel??

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New or old, I'd avoid auto fuel--poisonous additives.

Doug