How Can Cheap Butane Canisters be Modified to Work With Canister Stoves?

[Roger Caffin]

And you get to reuse those canisters as well rather than throwing them away. Good stuff.

Cheers

[Brian G]

Yep.  Huge value to me in that aspect.  I’ve only purchased a very few traditional IsoButane canisters over the last decade because I treat them carefully; inspect them when empty/almost empty; and refill them as above.  Ditto the Coleman green one-pounders (which are refilled from my BBQ 20-pounder, which is in turn bulk refilled at the local U-Haul from their giant tank).

The only real expendables are those tall Butane canisters.  But I pierce then when empty, pull the tops off (not too hard); toss the metal parts in the metal recycle bin and the plastic vent pipe in the plastic recycle bin.  Hopefully something sane is done with those bits down the line…

[Jeff McWilliams]

That’s pretty cool.  Never thought of “mixing my own” using similar percentages of Propane and Butane from cheaper sources.

[Jerry Adams]

the problem with mixing butane and propane is that as you use it in cold weather, the propane preferentially evaporates.  As you get 1/2 or 3/4 empty canister, it will be mostly butane so not as good at cold temperature.

If you use isobutane, it won’t do this – good at cold temp all the way to empty

Or, just take and extra ounce or two of the butane/propane mixture.

[Brian G]

the problem with mixing butane and propane is that as you use it in cold weather, the propane preferentially evaporates.  As you get 1/2 or 3/4 empty canister, it will be mostly butane so not as good at cold temperature.

If you use isobutane, it won’t do this – good at cold temp all the way to empty

Or, just take and extra ounce or two of the butane/propane mixture.

All true.

An exception to the “preferential evap of the Propane” problem would be if you used a liquid-feed (upside-down canister) stove. If I understand the theory correctly, the blended pressurized liquid-state Propane and Butane would remain at the as-mixed proportions until the canister is empty. The canister pressure would feed the consistently-blended liquid into the stove, which would convert the liquid to gas via the heated feed-pipe loop.

Me, I don’t have such a nice stove, so I just take the extra ounce or two of fuel, as Jerry suggests.

The uselessness of pure butane at cooler temps is real. Several times I’ve gone glamping/car camping and tried to cook on my pure butane big-burner/big pan Coleman stove (the kind I’ve seen used tableside in Korean and Vietnamese restaurants) at mid-40s F temps. The flow from the canister quickly chills the canister to close to the butane’s 30+ boiling point, and the stove sputters out. So I shift to my backpacking burner and the blended fuel and things go swimmingly.

Or, if with one particular camping buddy, maybe he will have with him his ancient, heavy burner that screws on top of a propane bottle. That thing could feed us at temperatures that none of us (including Roger Caffin *heh*) would likely ever find ourselves camping in.

 

[Jerry Adams]

yeah, liquid feed inverted canister doesn’t have that problem of propane evaporating preferentially

lots of previous threads about this and other techniques to operate at cold temps

what’s good about upright is the evaporation.  Any bits of metal or wax will remain in the canister unnoticed.  As opposed to liquid feed where the contaminants can get into the valve.   But then it’s more difficult to operate at cold temps.

[Roger Caffin]

As opposed to liquid feed where the contaminants can get into the valve.
They can. I filter the gas when transferring from one canister to another, through a Whatman chem lab filter paper. That works well, except when I don’t bother . . .

Cheers

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