is regular unleaded gasoline really that bad for a liquid fuel stove

When I burn unleaded in my MSR XGK-EX I get a very sooty flame that leaves an oily deposit on the fuel line and shaker needle. However, this residue is cleaned up very easily by occasionally pulling the fuel line and wiping it off and by unscrewing the nozzle and clearing the feeder hole. This takes five minutes a week using the tools that come with the stove.

I have used my stove for more than 300 days and have only had the pump cup swelt beyond recognition when I over pressurized the pump. Be sure to de-pressurize the pump especially when your altitude increases between uses. Also use the cheapest unleaded as it contains the fewest stove-fouling additives.

Between trips you can perform the more intensive stove and pump maintenance described in MSR's very helpful videos on their site. WD-40 is your friend…

As you point out, the difference in cost between white gas and unleaded is dramatic. After a couple of months, you can save enough money to buy a whole new stove. Another advantage of using unleaded is that it is available in discrete usable quantities, unlike white gas which comes in quarts (if you are lucky) or usually gallon (Coleman Camp Fuel in US) quantities. Another fun thing is leaving with 30 cents on the pump rather than $30.

Where are you? Last time I looked at an Osh hardware store in So-California Coleman Fuel was around $12 per gallon.

Also look for Walmart Ozark Trail, Chevron Blazo, Crown Camp Fuel, or other brands of white gas camping fuel.

Years ago I used unleaded in my MSR XGK and it gums up quickly- needing cleaning every few days. It also smelled much more toxic than white gas when burning. With Coleman Fuel it never gums up.

Just a few weeks ago I pulled out my SVEA 123 which has been sitting with Coleman Fuel in it for about 25 years, only used on a half dozen trips in that time. No gumming, runs like a champ.

For car camping or short trip backpacking in USA use a camping gasoline in your stove. For through hiking or foreign travel I would choose a different fuel type.

What is so super about the MSR fuel compared with Coleman fuel? My guess is that it is the same thing. They just hose you on price with the one quart size vs. a gallon. Same thing with denatured alcohol. A quart is 6 bucks, but a gallon is 14. Buy a gallon of Coleman fuel. It lasts forever if stored properly.

Yeah, Coleman fuel is $12 per gallon, but

How many lifetimes will that last? Most people will never use it all up.

And if gasoline gums up your stove it's not worth it

If gas was all you could find then it would be a different story.

Buy the gallon and be done.

"Buy a gallon of Coleman fuel. It lasts forever if stored properly."

Any particular recommendations on what proper storage would be? Minimize water entry?

I keep it in the original container or Sigg fuel bottles. Just don't leave the original container anywhere it could wet and rust.

one of the interesting things about the dragonfly is it does not have a heater tube to gum up. actually, when reading the instructions, "Cleaning the Fuel Line Valve is rarely needed and should only be performed when the number of complete turns of the Flame Adjuster has been reduced to less than 1 revolution." and cleaning the jet only takes ~2 minutes with a cool stove, seconds if i only have to use the shaker jet.

i also have a hard time believing that the same stuff that fits though those tiny fuel injector ports in my car is going to "gum up" the stove that badly, especially with the built in fuel filter in the tip of the line. most fuel injector ports are only a couple 1/10th of a millimeter in diameter. also, the fuel injector cleaner they sell at most stores is mostly kerosene, and i don't mind running a little kerosene though the stove once a year before changing out o-rings and stuff.

i don't mind it if the pot gets a little dirtier. it can't be worse than the stuff esbit tablets leave, and that will scrub off eventually.

lastly, on a road trip, i don't want to be carrying around any more flammable fuel that i need. i'd rather just top off a MSR bottle every couple days while filling up my car when using regularly.

Yes, but bear in mind that gasoline does not like long term storage. This is where the varnish and gumming up come from. Lot's of stories about people firing up white gas stoves that have sat for 20 years and work fine. Never going to happen with gasoline. But as long as you are using your fuel up at a reasonable rate you should be fine with gasoline. But like Jerry states earlier a gallon of white gas is a lifetime supply for some people.

As far as the fuel smell, a ziploc bag will not stop that. Another reason canister stoves took off like they did.

i don't understand why people would store gasoline. if i know the gas i've bought won't be used within a week or so, i'll just put in my car's gas tank, and wash/dry everything out. when i want to use it again, then fill it up with gas on my next trip.

i don't understand why people would store gasoline.

one word,lazy

Ted,

Yes, the additives in unleaded gasoline do not combust fully in a stove, and, yes, you could inhale some of those unburnt additives. However, I think that risk is fairly low if you’re cooking outdoors. Cooking in a hut or tent vestibule might be another matter.

The bigger risk to my mind is gumming up the works and fouling your stove. True, a DragonFly doesn’t have a generator (“pre-heat tube”), but it works on the same principle. The rigid fuel line leading from the burner to the “Cool Fuel” valve adjuster acts as a generator. Your fuel must vaporize before it is burned if your stove is to work properly. Just try running a DragonFly on full throttle without priming it — don’t actually do it, it would be dangerous. I mean that rhetorically. If you did run an unprimed DragonFly at full throttle, you would see that it really won’t work right until it heats up. Why is that heat needed? To vaporize the fuel in the DragonFly’s “generator” (the rigid fuel line running from the burner to the Cool Fuel valve).

The tricky part about the DragonFly is that it has no cleaning cable. You can’t run a cleaning cable down the fuel line of a DragonFly because of the “Cool Fuel” valve down near the burner. If unburned additives do deposit themselves in the fuel line and Cool Fuel assembly, cleaning them out will be much harder without a cleaning cable. I personally wouldn’t risk a nice stove like a Dragonfly, but YMMV as they say.

I will say that my experience with a DragonFly is that the more complex DragonFly clogs more often than the simpler XGK.

As for fuel costs, see my Fuel Price Survey. Walmart typically offers White Gasoline for less than $10/gallon in the US.

As for keeping your hands clean, using the flip stop technique can be very helpful. Otherwise gasoline tends to spray on your hands when you release the pressure from the bottle. The flip stop technique will also help purge the line which will a) keep your hands cleaner since fuel won’t drip out when you disconnect things, and b) keep the fuel line cleaner and make it less likely that deposits will build up in the line.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving