Small gas canister (50g)

Had some time and messed with this some more. Tried a different canister and it seemed to work. The QC on the horn canisters seems to be a bit off. Picked one that looked like it has a “taller” valve. I can get 9 1-cup boils out of it. It’s a bit tippy, so best to be careful or maybe dig a small hole to put it in. :)

several possible solutions.

A hole, stones, long stakes and this one to boot :

Love that one Franco! 🤓

John,

Sorry just to clarify: is that a kitchen torch canister you got to work or an air horn canister? If the latter, may I assume you discharged it and then refilled it yourself with butane?

Thanks!

I wonder if the cylindrical transfer valve (search Amazon  / eBay for “lindal refill valve”) would fit better down into that small well than the larger Gas Saver Plus version.

Hmmm.  Like “BRS-3000T”, the newer, cheaper version is now being listed under the old name.  The above more cylindrical style is now listed as a “Gas Saver Plus” for $8.82 (NewFrog) to $13 while what I knew as “Gas Saver Plus” – the boxier style sells for $30-40 Yankee dollars:

Great find on those air-horn canisters, John.  Thanks for persisting in the effort.  Guess I’m off to WestMarine and the boating aisle of Walmart (which is probably full of Halloween costumes now).

Nathaniel, that is a recreational horn “air” canister (safety device for boating and also found in sports sections). They are usually filled with 1,1-Difluoroethane which has a higher vapor pressure than butane.

I emptied the device and refilled with butane.

I still need to find a better/different brand – the ones from WalMart are the ones that the valves sit a bit low (had to ‘try’ a few).

I also still need to get the tare weight and delta for the contents. The seem easy to over-fill, which would be bad.

@David, I like that smaller refill valve. I’ve got to try and get one of those. :)

Note that the “net weight” of those air horn canisters is for liquid 1,1-Difluoroethane and while, yeah, it’s an ethane backbone, fluorine (two of them!) are heavy.  The density of liquid 1,1-Difluoroethane is 2.7 g/cc while the density of liquid butane is 0.6 g/cc.  So figure you can put 22% as much butane in as 1,1-Difluoroethane it came with.

e.g. the 5.5 ounce version could be filled with 1.2 ounces of butane.

Thanks David! That explains some of the weights I was seeing….I never would have thought it was more than 4x heavier.

I saw this post (Trek-Lite) and I thiught that you small canister guys would be interested:20 g of fuel

https://www.trek-lite.com/index.php?threads/worlds-smallest-gas-canister-stove-system-brs-3000-plus-campingmoon-t-1d15.11738/

Jon, definitely a cute looking canister. Seems pretty heavy for what it does though. 🤓