What Do You Do with Almost-Empty Fuel Canisters?

[Valerie E]

I know many folks use esbit/alcohol stoves now, but I'm usually in areas with a total fire ban, so I'm limited to canister stoves.

Over time, I seem to accumulate vast numbers of nearly-empty canisters, and I'm hoping that someone has a better idea of what to do with them than the "usual" ideas (1. pack several on the next trip and use each to empty; or 2. break out the camping stove at home and cook up some dinner until the fuel is gone).

I'm at a loss…does anyone have any other ideas?

[Jerry Adams]

Drive to near the trailhead and camp out one night before backpacking. Then you can use all your almost empty canisters.

[Ken Thompson]

If the canister is so empty that I won't risk taking it on an overnighter. I either use it in my lantern when car camping, or just hook a stove up to it and run it empty.

Puncture and recycle the now empty steel can.

I have an old Optimus stove canister scale that when screwed on all the way will let you vent off a canister without burning the gas.

[Michael Gunderloy]

Our Boy Scout troop does a lot of car camping (and I wish I could get them hiking more!) so that's where I end up running near-empty canisters down to nothing. Silver lining, I guess.

[todd]

Use the canister stove to make charcloth. Fun and useful!

[D S]

Doesn't seem to be very dangerous.

[Jerry Adams]

don't over-fill

adventures in stoving has details

I would consider this somewhat dangerous, it could burst, then there would be a potential for a fire-ball/explosion

Maybe make sure and weigh it afterwards and if there's too much fuel, let some out until it's the right weight

if you had two part full canisters, and by weight knew they together weren't more than one canister, then put the "to" canister in the freezer. When cold, take the warm canister and put it on top to let all the fuel go into the cold canister.

[Dale Wambaugh]

Car camping cooking and lantern.

[Mobile Calculator]

…

[Marko Botsaris]

[David Thomas]

Exhaust one of them and weigh it. Write the "tare weight" on all other canisters of the same type. Now you can know within a few grams how much is left in a canister.

Pro-tip: record weight before and after a trip and you'll quickly get a sense of how many grams you use per person-day of summer or winter camping.

If you have an adaptor between two of the same canisters, you can connect two canisters with the fuller one below and pre-cooled in the freezer. Invert the less full one on top, having heated it to some upper-reasonable temperature (120F). Open the value. The pressure difference will transfer virtually all of the fuel to the lower canister. However, few people have such adaptors (Hiking Jim and Roger being the only other ones I can think of).

Even trickier is to refill it with a mix of cheap butane from Japanese table-top butane stoves and propane (from the BBQ tank). Don't try that at home, kids! Careful weighing and record-keeping is a must.

Otherwise, yeah, as people have posted, use one around town, at the trailhead, during power failures, during stove tests, instructing the kids, etc.

[Roger Caffin]

> However, few people have such adaptors
But they are commercially available from Japan, where they don't seem quite as frantically paranoid.

Normally I would refer you to http://www.alva.ne.jp as the prime source, but their web site seems a shade dead today. Alternately you can try http://tumekaekun.com/, as they seem to stock a lot of the same things. However, a warning: both web sites are in Japanese with no options for translation. And I don't know any more than that.

Yes, I have my own MYOG adapters. Tricky stuff, unless you want to cannibalise two old stoves to make something. Mind you, some of those Real Cheap Chinese stoves on eBay might work for this.

Cheers

[Jerry Adams]

"unless you want to cannibalise two old stoves to make something. Mind you, some of those Real Cheap Chinese stoves on eBay might work for this."

That might be cheaper than buying the adapter, which is sort of expensive – very few people buy that, many people want cheap stove.

[peter vacco]

" make creme brûlée and Carmelize the sugar on top of the custard. "

for Roger, David, Delmar, and the creme brulee crowd … concerning the Hone Depot Torch.

for those who use the very popular BernzOmatic torch, and the tank is blue, that i believe is propane. there exist s yellow tank called Mapp gas, and if you want (make sure this is Really Really what you are looking for) MORE heat in the flame (about 250%), then use the yellow tank.
however, the instructions caution you to never ever use the blue torch-heads on the yellow tanks.
here is what is going on ….
blue tanks make a lot pressure than yellow tanks, and inside the torch-head there is a small check valve inside the phallic like device that enters the tank valve.
one can remove that phallic thingie with a small wrench/socket driver, shove a paper clip into the end of it and press out the valve/spring/filter plug. and cut maybe 3 turns off the spring. re-assemble.
you blue tank torch-head will now function wonderfully on yellow tanks.

as with so many things peter, the caution is … ymmv, but it has worked for me over a long time, and i am not dead yet.

[robert van putten]

I've never owned or even used such a stove because of the expense and waste of the canisters, but I have friends that do swear by them.

But decades ago my friends and I discovered the very best use for those partially empty canisters ( and propane canisters and spray paint cans ).

We set 'em up downrange, light a road flare and set it nearby ( for an ignition source ) back off a safe distance, illuminate the targets with the spotlight on your truck ( you do have a spotlight of your truck right? And of course we're doing this at night )

Now open fire and enjoy the fireballs. You get to learn just what kinda destructive power you really are humping along in yer pack, sharpen your night shooting skills and if your lucky really piss off and intimidate the neighbors.

Heh, we stared doing this when we were in the service and since we worked swing shift we naturally were blowing the things up after work at about 1 or 2 in the morning in an empty lot on the side of some highway down in Arkansas.

Hey it was Arkansas, didn't seem unreasonable at the time. But a extraordinarily fat cop did show up and proceeded to try and bully us around. Even called me "Boy" despite the fact I was still wearing my sergeants uniform at the time.

But we were MUCH better armed than he was and even though he called it in but nobody could find any laws to nail us with so he had to leave us alone. They did try to pin "jack lighting" on us, but that was pretty absurd, even for that fat jackass of a southern cop.

So we went back to happily blowing shit up.

[Jerry Adams]

You could throw them in a fire.

Stand way back, take video,…

[Jeffs Eleven]

+1 on shooting them.

Fun target, then you can recycle them

Ps: one of mine had some fuel left in it. Man you should have seen the nothing that happened. It was … Nothing. Except for the holes. Even my propane bottles didn't do anything but fall over. Of course all i was shooting was a .22 and a 12 ga.

12ga didn't even penetrate the propane bottle until it had weakened from multiple shots of bird shot and a few .22 holes

[Gary Dunckel]

And say, "Hey, Bubba, watch this!"

[Roger Caffin]

> You could throw them in a fire.
Really, really dangerous. BPL strongly recommends you do NOT do this.

For more information, read our article on exploding canisters

Stay safe!
Cheers

[Valerie E]

Yeah, thanks Roger — obviously you realized that I was trying to ask a genuine question here….

So far, the only possibility that appeals to me is trying to find a Boy Scout (or Girl Scout) troupe that would want them.

I have a dedicated car camping stove (2 burners!), I have a creme brulee gun, and I rarely car camp at the trailhead (well, once a year maybe). Not into shooting, burning stuff, and the phrase "That blowed up real good" is just not in my lexicon. :^)

[robert van putten]

Jeff,
Yeah, all you'll do is let the gas out by shooting them. Only in Hollywood to things blow up when you shoot them. Which is why you need to set a lit road flare on the ground near the tanks yer gonna shoot. Then they go BOOM!

Ahem.

Valerie, now you know why I have never used a canister stove. The expense, waste and disposal of old canisters is a drag.

[Jerry Adams]

I was, of course, joking about throwing in fire. I just use it up. Do occasional car camping.

If you do car camping and have mostly empty canisters, use them instead of your two burner. Or just put burner on and release the fuel.

Expense of canister is small compared to other expenses like driving to trailhead, gear,…

They're a bit wasteful, but if they recycle the metal it's not as bad.

[David Thomas]

>"now you know why I have never used a canister stove. The expense, waste and disposal of old canisters is a drag."

I felt that way for a decade until I took the plunge. It wasn't the recycling issues of steel that swayed my (white gas comes in steel cans, too. And steel is pretty cheap (low energy costs) to refine). It was the relatively high cost per gallon / cost per BTU that galled me.

Instant on, instant off, no fuel wasted for priming, no eye-brow-singing flare ups, and that I can let my 9-year-old use it, instead of waiting a few more years to teach her white-gas use all swayed me once I tried a canister stove. Now I have a fleet of them to rival my SVEA, Optimus, and numerous MSRs.

[Glenn S]

" "That blowed up real good" is just not in my lexicon."
Ok, well you're not allowed to use that phrase unless you first precede your actions with the introductory statement of:
"Here, hold my beer"

Now as far as canisters go, I've never used them, but seems to me… A scale should be used, not only to weigh the empties as mentioned, but to do a few burn tests and get a general idea of how many grams of fuel it takes per burn. I know they list how many boil estimates for the cans, but mileage variances and all that…

So anyway, seems the only way to know if they're worth toting along or not. Might have a bunch of partials lying around that would serve fine for a weekender and not even be aware of it due to the unknown factor.

[Bob Gross]

If you want to get an exciting introduction to this sport, take an ordinary BIC lighter and throw it in a campfire. Then instantly jump behind a tree. Ka-blow!

You know, you could probably put an eye out doing this.

–B.G.–

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