Who Makes All the Gas Canisters in the World?

[Hikin’ Jim]

So, I've been noticing over the last several years, that all gas canister production appears to be moving to Korea (except Coleman). Those brands that were produced elsewhere are now produced in Korea. The following brands appear to all be made by the same manufacturer: Optimus, Primus, MSR, Snow Peak, and Jetboil.

All the caps are the same on the various brands:

Snow Peak was the last hold out (except Coleman). They're now produced in Korea, and their cap is the same as the rest.

Old, left. Current, right

For Optimus, Primus, MSR, Snow Peak, and Jetboil:
All the canister weights (empty) are about the same, within a couple of grams or so.
The shape of the canisters is all the same.
The dimensions are all the same.
The caps are all the same (except for color).
The manufacturing process leaves the same raised area below the lip of the canister.

I was curious to know who this single manufacturer is who appears to be producing all the canisters for all the major brands.

I did a bit of digging. I found this blurb about Taeyang Industrial Co. Ltd. of Korea:

Taeyang Ind. is the largest portable butane gas cartridge maker in the world, dominating around 70% of global market share as well as 80% of domestic market share as of 2009. Equipped with advanced facilities covering everything from cartridge printing and coating to gas charging, the company exported its butane gas and cartridge more than 50 countries under the brand name 'SUN'.

Korea’s domestically produced portable butane gas cartridge, now the world’s best, can be used for portable gas stoves and torches. Customized to our clients’ needs, we produce the best quality products and export it to about 50 countries worldwide, including Japan, the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia.   [emphasis added]

Sounds like we have our prime suspect as to who it is that produces canisters for all the major brands (except Coleman).

If all the major canister brands (well, at least in the US where I live) are produced by a single manufacturer, what might the implications of that be for canister stove users?

HJ
Adventures in Stoving
Hikin Jim's Blog

[jimmer ultralight]

Looks the same as the others..

[Jerry Adams]

Where did you get Burton and how much $

I pay $3 at Fred Meyer – 230 g

[Hikin’ Jim]

It surely does. Max Burton isn't available in Southern California (that I know of), so thank you for posting that.

On another front, Brunton canisters seem to have disappeared from the shelves around here. I know that Brunton used to sell stoves and canisters under the Brunton name but is now selling everything under the Primus name. I presume that's why I no longer see Brunton canisters but now see Primus all over the place — where I seldom saw it before Brunton and Primus became "partners" (or whatever the proper term is) in the United States market.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving
Hikin Jim's Blog

[jimmer ultralight]

a few years ago, but I have not heard of anyone seeing them recently at Fred Meyers,especially for $3.

Jerry.How long ago did you buy yours? That's as good of a deal as you'll find on a 220g cannister!

I'll have to get some pics of the Grey Korean made Primus cannisters at Wally World
I don't recall them having any caps on the valve..

I thought Brunton was totally out of the stove business as of a few years ago.I would think their cannisters would have dried up on shelves by now..

[Jerry Adams]

I bought some a few months ago for $3

A year ago they were on sale for $2.50

[jimmer ultralight]

Good for you!

Does the Max Burton mix seem to have aby Isobutane in it?

[Bob Gross]

Just think what is going to happen to fuel if North Korea drops a nuke on South Korea. We might not have any butane for years. Of course, I don't think that North Korea has very accurate aim.

–B.G.–

[Stuart R]

Campingaz, bought by Coleman (I think), are not made in Korea.

what might the implications of that be for canister stove users?

I think you answered your own question:

The dimensions are all the same.

Standardization of the valve connection dimensions should mean stoves can be designed to work with all brands of canister.

I wonder if Taeyang Industrial use valves from Lindal or make their own copy?

[Hikin’ Jim]

Campingaz, bought by Coleman (I think), are not made in Korea.

Yes, Campingaz was bought by Coleman, and now Campingaz makes all Coleman gas canisters at their facilities in France. That is the one exception that I am aware of that is available in the US although there may be others.

Coleman by the way was bought out by Jardin. Jardin owns Coleman which owns Campingaz. Jetboil was bought out by Johnson Outdoor. Lots of consolidation going on.

Shortly after Jardin bought Coleman, Powermax canisters were discontinued, and Coleman rather abruptly got almost entirely out of the backpacking type stove business (I think they might offer one small upright canister stove).

Standardization of the valve connection dimensions should mean stoves can be designed to work with all brands of canister.

True. What I was referring to was the width of the canisters at the base and the height. Snow Peak, for example, used to be a bit narrower. Not much, maybe 0.5 mm. Coleman on the other hand is maybe 0.5 mm wider. But the five major brands in the US are now all the same height, width, shape, and weight. The shape is telling. The "dome" shape of canisters can slope at various angles. The older MSR canisters which were a darker red and had flat topped caps with a stiff pull tab sloped downward more than the current ones.

I wonder if Taeyang Industrial use valves from Lindal or make their own copy?

Good question. Don't know. If Lindal AG is smart, they've priced them reasonably so that companies won't have a strong incentive to simply make their own equivalent.

Now, with regard to this question, "what might the implications of that be for canister stove users?", here's my thought: We've known for some time that one can "mix and match" the various brands of canisters and stoves. Now, that appears to be yet even more true inasmuch as the're (almost) all made by the same manufacturer. The odd thing is that such dire warnings come with the stoves, literally threatening death, if one uses another brand of canisters, canisters that differ not a whit and are indeed all made by the same manufacturer.

The problem here is that when people start to understand that even the most dire warnings are in the main baseless, other warnings, warnings which are well founded, will be ignored.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving
Hikin Jim's Blog

[Jerry Adams]

I think Max Burton has a mixture of propane and iso-butane

All it says is "high performance fuel"

On the cash register receipt it said butane

I used it at 25 F – very slow – probably about the minimum it would go – even mostly used canister so I wasn't just burning off the propane – it must be iso-butane, not n-butane which wouldn't work at all at 25 F (or 35 F for that matter)

[Roger Caffin]

It's not quite that simple.

> Taeyang Ind. is the largest portable butane gas cartridge maker in the world,
Yes, but this refers to butane canisters – fly spray type canisters with 100% butane. That's a huge consumer market for table-top stoves – it swamps ours.

Yes, Taeyang also make our type of canisters for butane/propane mix, but they are not the only ones. Dae Ryuk Can of Korea make (or used to make) canisters for quite a few of our favourite (stove) brands. The Powermax canisters were made by a different USA company – who still make lots of hairspray canisters of course, and Campingaz of France have their own plant in France still. Who makes the Chinese ones – I have no idea. Probably lots of factories, of various qualities.

Valves – they are all called Lindal valves, after the original mfr Lindal Group of Germany, but I think the patents have long expired, and some of the Asian can companies now do make their own. The Korean valves seem quite OK, but some of the Chinese ones have at times had a bad reputation for leaking. That said, given the size of the internal Chinese market, I would imaging that there are good and bad mfrs.

The French Campingaz fuel is very clean in my experience. The Powermax fuel was also excellent. The Korean fuel is usually fairly clean, although it has sometimes had some waxes in it. That's only a problem when the canister is inverted. The Chinese fuel is notorious for carrying a very fine dust and waxes which block needle valves and jets something awful (and very fast) when the canister is inverted. I imagine the Chinese just don't bother refining their fuel as much as the French and Koreans – it's cheaper that way. Personally, I won't buy any Chinese fuel any more, regardless of the price.

Cheers

[D M]

I live away from stores, so when I'm at places that sell the backpacking stove canisters I usually buy two or three to add to my stash. Some I have are several years old and seem fine… I am wondering what is the reasonable longevity of gas canisters stored in a cool, climate controlled room?

[Bob Gross]

I've never had a butane canister go bad from sitting on the shelf.

If I had a concern, it would be if the environment had anything corrosive, like automobile exhaust, household bleach, acid, etc. Anything corrosive could corrode or rust the valve, and then it might leak or rust closed.

–B.G.–

[Hikin’ Jim]

I think Max Burton has a mixture of propane and iso-butane

I believe Max Burton is 80/20 butane/propane. An 80/20 mix would work mid-20's particularly if a user knew the tricks of cold weather canister use.

I used it at 25 F – very slow – probably about the minimum it would go – even mostly used canister so I wasn't just burning off the propane – it must be iso-butane, not n-butane which wouldn't work at all at 25 F (or 35 F for that matter)

That might be true if it were a matter of pure butane vs. pure iso-butane. But it's not pure. There's propane in there which drops the boiling point of the fuel mix quite a bit.

As for "just burning off the propane", that's not how gas works. If, for example, you have a canister of 20% propane and 80% butane and it's below the boiling point of butane, you won't just burn off 20% of your fuel. You'll burn substantially more. The propane does come out of the mix at a faster rate than the butane, so eventually you will be down to 100% butane and then your performance will be in the tank, but for something like 75% of the life of the canister you'll have at least some propane and therefore at least some improvement of butane alone.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving
Hikin Jim's Blog

[Hikin’ Jim]

> Taeyang Ind. is the largest portable butane gas cartridge maker in the world
Yes, but this refers to butane canisters – fly spray type canisters with 100% butane. That's a huge consumer market for table-top stoves – it swamps ours.

Yes, Taeyang also make our type of canisters for butane/propane mix, but they are not the only ones. Dae Ryuk Can of Korea make (or used to make) canisters for quite a few of our favourite (stove) brands.

Good point about the 100% butane cylindrical canisters.

I did have one more data point before I named Taeyang as my suspect. Take a look at the below photo. Note a) that it has the caps of our putative "single manufacturer of the majority of canisters" and b) that it is clearly labeled "Taeyang Industrial Co., Ltd."

Proof beyond a reasonable doubt? Of course not. But enough to be named as prime suspect I think. Perhaps more will be revealed.

Whether it is Taeyang or not, it sure looks like five major brands available here in the US (Primus, MSR, Snow Peak, Optimus, and Jet Boil) are all produced by the same manufacturer.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving
Hikin Jim's Blog

[jimmer ultralight]

I believe they are a front for…

DR EVIL…;)

[Jerry Adams]

I agree with what you said. "Burning off propane" maybe isn't a good description.

If you use propane/butane at cold temperatures, the percentage of propane goes down.

So, it's easier to determine if it's iso-butane or n-butane if the canister is mostly empty.

[Hikin’ Jim]

Hi, Jerry. That sounds right.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving
Hikin Jim's Blog

[Hikin’ Jim]

Three words for ya: World Stove Domination. ;)

"All your stoves belong to ME"   lol.

HJ
Adventures in Stoving
Hikin Jim's Blog

[Roger Caffin]

> what is the reasonable longevity of gas canisters stored in a cool, climate
> controlled room?
Oh, 20 – 40 years at least.

Provided that you protect the Lindal valve from corrosion! The Campingaz canisters are laquered so they do not rust – a superior French design. But a lot of the screw-thead canisters can and do corrode or rust. The rust wrecks the seal you make with the O-ring in the stove.

So IF you keep the Lindal valve dry – and maybe spray it once very lightly at the start with silicone spray if you want to keep it a really long time, AND you keep the plastic cap on it, and don't get any corrosion, then 20 – 40 years should be easy.

Cheers

[Bob Moulder]

I was doing some stove testing recently and used some partially-emptied canisters that were around 20 years old. One was a "Glowmaster" and 1 or 2 others were some old Primus canisters, grey in color but not with the domed top… more of a flat conical shape. Also used a couple of Snow Peak canisters that were perhaps 12-15 years old.

All of them worked fine.

If I'd thought about the possible significance of their vintage and provenance I would have taken some photos of them. ;^)

[Rex Sanders]

I've had poorly protected canisters show significant rust in 1-2 years, and well-protected canisters show no rust well over 20 years after purchase.

I'm more worried about gas leaking out of rusty canisters, and the gas potentially burning or exploding, than how well they seal to a stove – though that's important too.

— Rex

[David Thomas]

Inspired by Jerry's post, I got my butt into the Kenai, Alaska Fred Meyers. Max Burton 8.1 oz / 230 gram was $4. Versus Coleman 8 oz / 220 gram at $8. Half the price. I bought a bunch.

AK prices often seem higher than WA, OR and ID prices.

[Bob Moulder]

Hmm… interesting that the Coleman canisters don't have caps…

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