[pct-l] fuel cannisters

[msaenz at mve-architects.com (Mike Saenz)]

Ah....I haven't been following this thread.
My bad.

So now I'll add my two cents.

Melissa,

I've been made aware of the MSR/Gigapower incompatibility. I think I was
told of it some years ago.
Anyway, I've been interchanging canisters to whatever happens to be on
the shelf when I'm out buying `em.
Never had any problems.

This last weekend, I debated about going without a stove altogether. I
was trying to go as light as possible and since I was only going to be
out overnight, I figured I could do without a hot meal. Of course, I
decided against this and packed soup at the last minute.

What made me change my mind was that I had a left over Giga can that had
just a wee bit left inside. This can's been tossing around in my gear
for quite a while now as I always packed fresh cans on my trips. I
thought I'd kill this one off.

I think that the problem I had was two-fold: I was trying to boil 50%
more water than usual and the low pressure of the can from it's almost
depleted fuel.

Next time I'm buying cans, if the MSR small size is gone (they usually
are!), I'll grab a Giga can.
I've never seen one of the newer stoves flame up because of a bad fit.
By "newer" I mean since I was about 14 years old (many, many moons ago),
when my old Optimus "mousetrap" blew a nipple and flamed up on me. I was
able to pull the can off before my stove fried, and the flame went out,
but the gas kept spewing out creating a really neat ice sculpture!

Outside the weight, I'm not a huge fan of the pocket rocket. It seems to
have two settings: Turn-it-up-cuz-the-wind-is-gonna-blow-it-out and
"blow torch".
I really prefer to cook with my "Nova" white gas stove. But I rarely
"cook" in the backwoods anymore. I tend to simply boil water now. And
for that, the pocket rocket's "blow torch" setting is just fine!

HYOH, YMMV and DDBB (Don't Drink Bad Beer)


Michael Saenz ,  Associate Partner
McLarand    Vasquez    Emsiek   &   Partners,   Inc.
A r c h i t e c t u r e  |  P l a n n i n g  |  I n t e r i o r s
MVE          MVE    Institutional         MVE    S t u d i o
w  w  w   .   m  v  e   -   a  r  c  h  i  t  e  c  t  s   .   c  o m

-----Original Message-----
From: Tortoise [mailto:Tortoise73@charter.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 4:20 PM
To: Melissa Spencer
Cc: Mike Saenz; jamierae@letterboxes.org; pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [pct-l] fuel cannisters

One simple test to check your canisters is to weigh them before packing
and departing. If the weight is right then you at least know you have a
full canister, or how much left.  I've used Primus stove and cannisters
and weigh my cannisters before and after each trip to track fuel usage.

----------
Tortoise

I switched to Mac OSX rather than fight Windows Using Mozilla
Thunderbird  http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

Melissa Spencer wrote:
> Mike,
> 
> We all know that pressurized stoves don't perform as well at high 
> altitude and cold temps, I have had mine poop out in similar 
> conditions (and then work fine at home).  But, there may have also 
> been something was wrong with the canister.  At work, we are 
> constantly testing stoves (at room temp, sea level) and I have found
that as many as 1 in 30?
> canisters have problems.  The little moving part inside the threaded 
> part (that allows you to remove the stove and the gas doesn't leak 
> out) gets stuck slightly and either causes it to lose pressure slowly 
> or not work at all.  I have also noticed that they can sometimes lose 
> pressure if they have been sitting for a while (>6 months).  Also, 
> even though MSR stoves FIT on Snow Peak, Jet Boil and Primus fuel 
> canisters, I have heard of--and have seen--problems with doing this, 
> more than once.  In fact, Snow Peak issued a notice to retailers a 
> while back ago to tell people not to put Snow Peak stoves on other 
> canisters or Snow Peak canisters on other stoves.  They were seeing 
> that sometimes the connection was not perfect and fires were starting.

> I have seen it happen personally and it is very scary.  Some retailers

> don't know about that and will tell you that you can use any of the 
> fuels.  I would try to stick with the brand of the stove you have.
> 
> Melissa
>