[pct-l] Cooking with canned gas

[Dan Welch]

<<  The canisters I use do not have butane.  They are a mix of propane and
isobutane, which has a much lower threshold than butane.  >>


Ed -n You are quite right and I was probably a little loose with the facts.
Comes from going on recall I guess.  Everyone should be using
isobutane/propane canisters unless they are doing strictly warm season
camping.  Isobutane has a vaporization point of 11F which is quite low until
you realize that once it starts to vaporize, it produces a refrigeration
effect (that's why the canisters get cold when they are being used.)  So if
the canister is at, say 25-30F, the temperature of the gas will quickly drop
well below that.  If all you have in the canister is isobutane you are in
for a slow burn - that is where the propane comes in.  Propane has a
vaporization temperature of -44F.  In any case - the same principle applies
that I mentioned previously - try not to let the temps of your canister fall
below 40F when using.  To quote another website:

"The best cold weather blend for upright canister stoves is therefore
isobutane mixed with propane...  The problem with this blending arrangement
is that the higher pressure propane tends to boil off a bit faster than than
the isobutane. Toward the end of the life of the canister, all you have left
is the "lesser" (in terms of cold weather performance) of your fuels. This
is one reason why in cold weather you can get the dreaded "canister fade"
where your flame slowly fades out toward the end of the life of your
canister, and you can't operate your stove even though, when you shake the
canister, you can still hear fuel sloshing around in there."

So as Ed says - check your canisters to make sure they have isobutane and
not just butane (aka n-butane) and try and keep 'em warm.  You'll get better
life from them

Timberline