Pressurized Fuel Stoves

[Petrol & Powder]

Another thread reminded me of my love for all things mechanical. One of those weird little side interests is my love of pressurized fuel stoves that use gasoline, naphtha, kerosene, etc. While propane equipment is largely replacing the old liquid fuel stoves; most Americans are at least vaguely familiar with the old Coleman "suitcase" stoves and some of the similar pressurized fuel devices.

My pressure stoves that are configured to run on kerosene, never get anywhere near lead. Those are strictly for cooking.
However, gasoline stoves....well that's a different story. Pressurized gasoline stoves such as the ubiquitous Coleman "Suitcase" stoves are a dime a dozen. Many people are discarding those older units and turning to propane powered stoves. I picked up a like new, never been lit, Coleman suitcase stove at a second hand store last year. It went on the shelf next to my older units and has still never seen a flame. I was happy to add it to the collection.

The skill to run pressurized fuel stoves or lanterns is becoming a lost art. It is sort of like putting a teenager in front of a phone with a rotary dial. They still know it's a telephone but they don't quite know what to do with it. What was once a common skill such as driving a manual transmission with a column shifter (three on the tree) has become a bit rare. I actually enjoy repairing and running that old gear. It's too hot right now to be playing with that stuff but that old gear will always be on my shelf; ready to cook, melt, boil or heat something.

I know lots of casters use pressurized fuel stoves for various tasks but I think we may be one of few groups keeping those old blue flames lit.

 

[Spindrift]

A huge advantage with the pressurized fuel stoves is, they work in harsh cold. The butane- based stoves stops working somewhere around 0 F. When you’ve camped in a tent at -40F, you really learn to love (and care for) the pressurized fuel stove keeping you warm

 

[Joshua]

I have 3. The two older ones are reserved for ingot melting. They cost 5 and 8 dollars a piece. The newest one was a wedding gift in 2000, it’s a camping/food only stove.

Both of the older ones were “broken” when I got them. A little oil on the pump and cleaning out the junk in the generator tube got them going again.

There is a forum dedicated to these appliances. They get pretty serious with their collecting and rebuilding. Sorta like the antique tractor guys, but it can all fit in a suburban garage! I’m not a member but have done a little lurking. They know where all the parts sources are.

Coleman Collectors Forum

www.colemancollectorsforum.com

Josh

 

[Petrol & Powder]

There's something about the simplicity and reliability of those devices that I really admire.

If you're interested in history and an amazing true story about leadership, courage and discipline; there's a book by Frank Worsley that should be on your reading list. The book is "Shackleton's Boat Journey" and it recounts the efforts of Sir Ernest Shackleton to save his men. One of the items they took with them on their journey to Stromness, South Georgia was a Primus stove. That stove was eventually discarded and probably remains on South Georgia to this day. It worked until their fuel was exhausted and helped save the lives of those men and all the men that were counting on them.

 

[jordanka16]

I've kept mine because my normal casting has been for minie balls and BPCR projectiles that weigh as much as 550 grains, a little 10lb electric pot empties too fast. I can run a batch of 50 lb of alloy in a cast iron pot and never have to fill it. That and I cast outside only so I would have to run electric cords all the time and I don't want to do that. I do wish the fuel was a little cheaper though.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

You can run the "white gas" stoves on unleaded gasoline. People will swear that if you don't run the Coleman Fuel you'll destroy the gas generator. That may be true but:
1. The money you save by burning unleaded gasoline instead of "Coleman" fuel will more than pay for a new generator; or 3....
and
2. I've been running unleaded gasoline for years and I've never had to buy a new gas generator.............

 

[JonB]

I got a pile of coleman gasoline cook stoves, Love 'em for melting lead and many other uses. The Coleman sure can develop some high BTUs. I use automotive gas, non-oxy style, just gotta clean the generator once in a while...
...BUT we've had this conversation before

 

[oscarflytyer]

Love Coleman stoves. Wore out a 1 burner backpacker and prob 2-3 or 4 (me and Dad combined) over the years. I now have one for lead casting, one at home for cooking and one on the RV. Also have a good one and parts one from '50s/'60s, just because!

PS: Another VERY cool thing, sorta along the same lines, are carbide lamps for me! Have a couple of those too.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

Yep, I have a carbide lamp ! They are cool !

The pressure stoves can almost always be fixed. There's just not much to them. Leather cups need to be oiled occasionally, the check valves sometimes will go bad, a gasket here or there.....
And they cost very little to operate.

I've got a couple of single burner Coleman's. One nice one dedicated to kerosene and one El-cheapo used with gasoline for small batches of lead. That cheap stove has always run on unleaded gas. It starts and runs every time. The Coleman two burners are also used for lead, mostly when I want to keep the dirty stuff out of my bottom pour pot.

I've got an Optimus 200P lantern (kerosene) that I need to repair. It needs a cleaning needle and jet. Not something I'm going to fool with until winter but I think I can put it right.

 

[oscarflytyer]

Forgot the Lanterns! They are the BOMB too!

I grew up far back as I can remember with Coleman stoves and lanterns! I will die with probably a "six pack" of them, at least!

 

[RicinYakima]

I have my Mountain Safety Research multi fuel stove from the 1970's. Developed for survival gear for B-52's, it will burn anything from olive oil, JP4, alcohol and leaded gasoline. Used it for packing into remote mountain lakes when I was killing trout and grayling, only thing was you had to flush it with unleaded gas when you got home. Not a big deal and only weighs about nine oz.

 

[Rally]

I'm still using a Plumbers pot to smelt my wheel weights. I'm afraid to use gasoline in it though, but we had this discussion and I may use premium unleaded in it someday, mainly because Coleman fuel is $11.00 a gallon at Wal-Mart now. I'm not sure how many single and double mantel Coleman lanterns I have, the kids keep borrowing them for camping trips. I've also got a single burner stove I take along on the snomo, just to have a cup of hot chocolate along the trapline once in awhile. Always tastes better in the bush!

 

[RBHarter]

I could never get enough heat out of the gasoline stoves . I suspect it has something to do with altitude ...... 4 k at home and nominal camps at 6000 ft . The lanterns always worked though and made nice tent heaters .

The beauty of all the gasoline appliances is , in spite of their best efforts to fix then , they are repairable , restorable and generally reliable .

 

[Hawk]

I've got two Colemen pump stoves, but always used Coleman fuel.
I am thinking you can burn denatured alcohol in these stoves and lanterns, is that correct?
It's a lot cheaper than Coleman fuel!

 

[oscarflytyer]

The beauty of all the gasoline appliances is , in spite of their best efforts to fix then , they are repairable , restorable and generally reliable .

I will always buy an old Coleman that I see. Can usually repair/restore. If not, always good for parts.

 

[Rick H]

I have a Coleman double burner camp stove, a Sears clone of the same, and a single burner. Love them all. Actually prefer the cabinet on Sears to the Coleman, but the working parts are interchangeable. I have an old double mantle and single mantle lantern too.....wish I would have bought a couple more of the single mantles.....give off the same usable light with half the complication.

 

[blackthorn]

I have a few old stoves that I still use on occasion while hunting or when I run out of propane at the cabin. Last year I sold about 50 old Coleman lamps and lanterns to a guy who sells at flea markets. I still have several for "just in case". We seldom have a power outage here, but when we do our house is lit-up like a Christmas tree. First time we had to do that here, we had calls from the close neighbors asking how come we had power and they did not. Wound up with company for coffee and cookies.

 

[Missionary]

Down here in Peru there are any pressure kerosene stoves and lanterns still in use in the villages and new neighborhoods .
I use a two burner Coleman to do my smelting when up north in ILL-nois

 

[Petrol & Powder]

Kerosene is a remarkable fuel. It you keep it dry, it stores well. It is capable of producing a lot of BTU's for a given weight or volume. It is actually very clean burning if your equipment is in good order and you know how to operate it. And it is still readily available and relatively cheap.

The downside for some people is there is a bit of a learning curve. It's not horrible but some folks are just a bit more mechanically inclined than others.

I'm sure we've all seen people that can operate some device but they have no idea how it works. That's fine, you don't have to know how the copying machine works in order to make copies. But I think it's just a little easier to operate something (stove, tractor, boat, gun, etc. ) if you have some grasp of how it works.

 

[RicinYakima]

D2 Kerosene is very popular up here in the high steppes, as most houses have converted to heat pumps for the saving in air conditioning costs. However, we still get 10 to 14 days of zero or less days in the winter. The "emergency heat strips" in the heat pumps will not keep a house warm, so many people keep a kerosene heater as the new ones are smoke free even for the least handy folks. And it is a lot cheaper than keeping LPG gas for just two weeks a year.