Hi outdoor mayhem
I have used a 533 single burner for years and invested in the 424 double this year. Ok, you can't just turn a knob and light-and-go like you can with gas, but the time you spend pumping and waiting for the generator to get to temperature is more than compensated for by how quick the water's boiled for your morning cuppa
Searching the internet you will find a lot of articles extolling the virtues of liquid fuel versus gas and it cannot be denied that liquid fuel gives you more 'burn for your buck'. However, at the risk of starting a debate about noxious fumes and fire risks in tents like it has on many other sites, I would like to say something about the fuel...
Firstly Coleman Fuel is very expensive in this country; around £7 for a half litre = £14 per litre = ~£70 per gallon ouch!!! Which is why a lot of people use unleaded petrol instead, which is what I did for years on the 533... but that was because I was only using it on full blast to boil a kettle of water because I cooked on gas. When I got the 424 this year for cooking on I found that the bottom of the pans got a bit sooty when you run at very low heat and the fumes in an enclosed space were unpleasant... not to mention poisonous, but let's not go there on this thread.
Plain fact: unleaded petrol is designed to make your car run properly, which means it has lots of additives which your car needs and your stove (and you!) do not... plus it stinks! If you read the Coleman technical blurb it says that if you must use unleaded, use the lowest octane because the higher the octane (i.e. super unleaded) the more the additives and the quicker your generator gets fouled up. Enough of the negative, what's the answer? Well...
Coleman Fuel is almost pure Naptha, which in this country is the stuff car spray shops use to degrease panels before painting under the trade name: Panel Wipe. Panel wipe can be bought for about £15 for 5 litres compared to £70 for Coleman Fuel. However, although I have used panel wipe and it looks, smells and burns just like Coleman Fuel it is not sold as fuel and (just in case not all panel wipe is pure naptha or additive free) I don't want you all to rush out and buy that. Instead, there is something which is sold to burn, does not contain nasty additives and is about £12 for 5 litres... Alkylate Petrol.
Alkylate petrol is marketed as a 'green fuel' for use in garden machinery and the like and the most readily available trade brand I found is Aspen 4T (not 2T... that's for 2-strokes and it has oil added to it). I won't copy the URL here as it's so easy to find from Google etc and you'll also find lots of forums discussing its use for liquid fuel stoves. The important thing is that it is designed and sold as a fuel, it comes in handy 5 litre plastic cans (like engine oil does) and it burns clean without fouling up your stove generators... plus it's got to be safer to handle and burn than unleaded petrol which contains lots of nasties... and, lastly, it doesn't stink like petrol
Hope that helps - I might copy this into a new thread if that's legal on the forum to help others.
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