FlipFuel

many threads about this

this one is cheaper:

make sure you don’t put too much in the canister or it can burst.  empty 4 ounce canisters are about 3 ounces.  weigh the canister and make sure it’s not more than 7 ounces when full.  or 5 ounces/13 ounces for 8 ounce canisters.  Or, better to weigh an empty canister to get a better empty weight…

I’ve used that some.

More than that I use:

and use a:

to transfer to a canister

that fuel is about 50% isobutane and 50% nbutane which is good down to about 32 F

pure isobutane (e.g. MSR Isopro) is good about 10 F colder

same thing – weigh it and make sure you don’t overfill

that’s weird, if you click on those it doesn’t take you to the product on amazon

they’re

Jeebel Camp G007 Butane Fuel Canister Refill Adapter

GasOne Butane Fuel Canister (12 Pack)

Adapter Gas Refill Adapter Butane Refill Adapter Filling Butane Canister Adapter for Backpacking Camping Stove

if you go to the Korean grocer you can get those cans of butane cheaper

That’s cool. I totally missed this topic before. I have a pile of 100g canisters with like 15-20g of fuel remaining in each. This way I can consolidate them. Neat.

another thing you can do is take just what you need

like, if you use 1 ounce per day, and you’re doing 3 days, then put just 3 ounces in the canister.  Plus another ounce for safety margin.  Maybe one more ounce because it really slows down when you’re using the last ounce in a canister

A known feature of BPL forums for the last few years is mangling Amazon links – sometimes.

I recommend burying links under descriptive text. Copy the link, highlight the description, click the “Insert/edit link” button circled below, paste the link into the field, then click the blue “Apply” button.

With some tedious poking and prodding, Jerry’s mangled links become:

Amazon Jeebel Camp G007 Butane Fuel Canister Refill Adapter

Amazon GasOne Butane Fuel Canister (12 Pack)

Amazon Adapter Gas Refill Adapter Butane Refill Adapter Filling Butane Canister Adapter for Backpacking Camping Stove

Some people are not fans of refilling “single-use” stove canisters.

Check out a stove-canister to lighter-refill adapter. A mostly-empty canister can refill lighters many times.

Or hook a partly-full canister to a small flamethrower for use around the house and car camping.

Both are way down my wish list. And cheaper options might be available.

— Rex

I just started consolidating fuel canisters using this method about a year ago.  I belong to a local hiking/backpacking/outdoors club.  Just about everyone uses upright canister stoves these days, and everyone seems to struggle with the partially used canisters.

Some fuel canisters, like the ones from MSR, have a “gauge” on the side that lets you determine how much fuel is left if you float the canister in water, but many do not.   And because many do not, I think a lot of my friends struggle with how to manage their partially fuel canisters.  Even when going on weekend trips, people seem to like bringing a full canister just in case something unexpected happens.  Maybe a hiking friend gets cold and they have to prepare some hot water bottles to sleep with.  Maybe somebody shows up at the trailhead and forgets their own stove and fuel.  Whatever.

Because of this, partial fuel canisters tend to accumulate.

I find it very gratifying to consolidate fuel canisters and be able to grab a full one without much thought about my meal plan, “what if” scenarios, etc.

thanks for those workarounds Rex

hmmm… you’re trying to get me to buy that lighter refill adapter…

$13.  But I don’t buy lighter butane refill canisters very often so this may not make financial sense

I use many stove canisters so consolidating or refilling from cheap cartridges makes more financial sense.

Still, it’s so easy to click “buy” on amazon…

you can buy 16 ounce MSR isopro canisters cheaper, and use to fill your 4 ounce canister

4 ounce canister – $6

8 ounce canister – $7

16 ounce canister – $11 – that would be $2.75 per 4 ounces

All of this sounds great and I’m going to give it a try. Question….all of these canisters have various component gas mixtures that burn off at different rates, depending on newness of the container, temperature and probably some additional variables. Does mixing and matching partial containers affect usage characteristics?

The dregs in a canister will be a lower vapor pressure blend than it was when full (but not as dramatically as folks who haven’t studied distillation seem to think).  Then, combining those dregs and burning off most of them will leave you with an even lower vapor-pressure blend.

Moulder Strips, flick your Bic, pee on it, sleep with it, use a reflector, place in a bowl of warm water, etc.  Or use it in the summer.

Refilling, however, transfers a liquid, so there’s no change in composition.

Just ordered the jeebel G007 on Amazon.  $9.95.

Glad I found this thread! Thanks everyone

I just transferred the remaining contents of six 100 g canisters into another partially-full canister, perfectly topping the latter off. Pretty slick. I kept the transfer valve on the recipient canister and placed that in the freezer for about 20 minutes, and then screwed the donor canister to the top and opened the valve. I would occasionally warm the donor canister by holding it in my hands and gently swirling. The final weight of the donor canisters ranged from 99 g to 104 g, indicating that I was really able to get almost all of the fuel out of the donors.

Yea… I put the receiving canister in the freezer and the donor out in the sun for a while…

the donor out in the sun for a while…
I have been known to use a hot air gun very cautiously myself. I imagine a hair drier could also be used. But CAUTIOUSLY!

Cheers

OK, I was thinking about this.  Doesn’t it make sense to out BOTH canisters in the freezer?  Here is my reasoning.  Let’s assume that the canister that you want to fill is empty.  The donor canister has a mix of Propane/Isobutane and the propane will remain a gas.  With the donor canister inverted, the propane will force the liquid isobutane out quickly.  If you use a room temperature donor canister, the isobutane/propane mix would have to flow into the empty canister and then the isobutane would have to freeze (liquify) and the propane would eventually equalize between the two canisters (sort of) .  Am I missing something?

Hi Jon

The donor canister has a mix of Propane/Isobutane and the propane will remain a gas.
Not entirely correct. A smidgeon of propane will be a gas; the rest will be a liquid owing to the high pressure in the canister.
Yes, the propane gas will force the liquid propane/butane mix out of the top canister into the bottom one, but the liquid going down will be the mixture.

Cheers

Jon: Your thoughts on what gas is in each phase reflects a common misconception about one-pot distillation.  What’s above the butane-propane liquid mixture is a butane-propane vapor only somewhat richer in propane than the liquid.  That’s why in an oil refinery or lab bench, distillation to achieve a separation is a large series of such vapor-liquid equilibrium states.

N-butane’s vapor pressure is 1 atmosphere at 30F.  Its vapor pressure is a tiny bit less at 29F and a tiny bit more at 31F, but that’s only relevant if you have a open pot of liquid butane at 1 atmosphere.  At 29F, it’s a VERY volatile liquid with lots of vapor escaping.  Add more heat and it will all boil away at 30F, never reaching 31F.

Inside a closed container with, say, 80% butane and 20% propane, the vapor pressure at any particular temperature will be, roughly, 0.8 of the v.p. of butane + 0.2 of the v.p. of propane at that temperature.

Just cool the receiver canister and have the donor at room temperature or warmer.  Since 98% of the mass is in the liquid, you’ll get no change in composition during the transfer.

Be ware!  I bit the bullet and bought a transfer valve through Amazon.  Guess what?  The valve doesn’t work; there was no shut off – gas free flowed out of the canister.  Needless to say, this could create a dangerous accident.  I contacted Amazon for a return and guess what?  Returns were not allowed for this product!  I messaged Amazon and got a full refund.  Now, I’ll try and take the valve apart to see what the problem was.

OK, I torn the valve apart and found a manufacturing defect.

This is one of the gas ports leading to the valve assembly.

This is a view of the valve body housing and what you can see is a residual burr that was left in the main chamber.  The burr was large enough to prevent the valve from closing, it actually felt like a hard stop.  I was able to use a large drill to break the the burr free, however; you can feel it when the o-rings slide over the spot.  Long term, I would not rely on this valve.  My 2 cents.

Thanks for the heads up, Jon.

Deleted as upon re-reading an earlier post mine was stupid!

I contacted Amazon for a return and guess what? Returns were not allowed for this product! 
A lot of Amazon products are like that. Even ebay has better quality control.
In my experience, most Chinese vendors on ebay will fall over themselves to keep you happy.

Cheers

I’ve been refilling my canisters for more than a decade with a MYOG contraption cobbled together from valves and tubing.  I just recently purchased one of the FlipFuel devices as it seemed much more elegant than my home-brew stuff.

I haven’t tried it yet, but it seems like an elegant design.  With my original device, I’d purge the tube before connecting the “recipient” canister to get any air out of the system.  The FlipFuel has  “vent” hole, but I’m not sure how it works or what its intended purpose is.  Is it for purging prior to filling?  If so, how exactly does it work?  Is there an internal valve?  Maybe for over-pressure relief?

Anybody have any guesses?  Roger?

Thanks.

Cheers,

-Mike

I doubt there is any difference between the FlipFuel and a Chinese ebay equuivalent – except for a far lower price on ebay (<$4 vs $35) – and a bright red colour. In fact, one review on the web says this explicitly:
the team at FlipFuel doesn’t seem to have invented anything with the Fuel Transfer Device, as you can find a handful of nearly identical units on Amazon, AliExpress, and elsewhere, though we’d not seen any of them until digging around for this post. What FlipFuel offers for a premium is a custom-anodized version of the device and a US-based company to interact with for warranty issues and other customer service requests.

The Amazon approach of labeling them non-returnable is, sadly, all too common on Amazon.

Will the FlipFuel be free of any bugs? The surveyed quantity of one was not. My track record of ebay items has been far better.

As for the technical details, they are very simple devices. A block of aluminium extrusion gets a few passes through a CNC, a little valve is made on another CNC, O-rings are added and there you are. The burr shown in the photo is a common occurrence with a used not-very-sharp drill bit. I have to check all my stoves for such burrs before assembly.

Now, the vent hole. To be honest, I can’t see what it can do (safely). It is not going to vent the inlet side, and it is not going to vent the outlet side, so . . . ?? The mind boggles. And the web site does not offer any explanation.

I have a bridge for sale if you are interested.

Cheers

Hi Roger-

How have you been?  It’s been a while since we’ve chatted.  Are you still hiking in NB shoes? I finally retired from my engineering career and have begun spending my kid’s inheritance.

Yeah, the vent has me puzzled as well.  I suppose it could be some kind of over-pressure relief, but I don’t think there is any kind of mechanism inside the device, which appears extremely simple as you’ve said.  And, I can’t fathom the conditions under which an over-pressure situation might occur…

I suppose the main needle valve may have a “stop and waste” function like that of a buried frost-free water valve that would open the vent at a particular orientation of the valve handle.  If so, it might serve a useful purging purpose as the handle is rotated from closed to fully open. But I suspect that it’s just a simple needle valve, though.

Cheers.