Empty gas canister weights

[Inaki Diaz de Etura]

I’ve been following all the different recent threads on gas stoves and there’s one thing that puzzles me about the weight of the empty canisters.
The canisters I’m used to (typical Lindhal valve, butane/propane; Primus, Coleman or Markill brands) weight around 160 gr. (5.8 oz) empty (I’ve weighted them all) for the medium size (the one with 220 gr. or 8 oz of gas). They’re supposed to be that heavy because they have to keep the gas under enough preassure to keep it liquid, right? This is a known disadvantage for canister fuel so one could expect manufacturers have tried to make the canisters as light as possible.

Then I see in the Modified Xtreme Stove thread in the MYOG forum the canisters for the Powermax fuel (which I’ve never used) are apparently far lighter: 100 gr. for the canister that holds 300 gr. of gas.

What’s the deal here? I know these latter are aluminium while I think the Lindhal valve canisters are usually (always?) steel but that doesn’t help. The question remains, how come the Lindhal valve ones are still that heavy if it’s possible to build lighter ones that work?. I’m sure I’m missing something but what? Is the fuel any different? As far as I know, Powermax fuel is also butane/propane, is the mix any different? Maybe it’s the design of the canister (more like a bottle for the Powermax)?

[Rick Dreher]

I don’t think you’re missing anything–aluminum is significantly lighter than steel, and the Coleman bottle’s shape is pretty weight-efficient as well.

If you look at the array of Lindal-valve canisters, the lighter ones are always narrower and taller (e.g., compare the 110g MSR and Snowpeak canisters), and the lightest per ounce of fuel overall are the largest available. I don’t have my weight chart handy but the most weight-efficient Lindal canister I’ve ever found is the old square-shoulder type Primus 450g canister. The newer one is heavier, but still relatively light per ounce of fuel compared to smaller sizes.

All these blended fuels have similar vapor pressures, so there seems to be no advantage of one brand over the others when it comes to the required container strength, including Max fuel.

It’s too bad that propane has such a high vapor pressure and requires such a heavy container, because the “ideal” canister fuel would be 100% propane. I’ve long thought that a lightweight, refillable fibre-reinforced propane canister would be the basis for the Best Canister Stove System Ever.

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