white gas stove question

[cbr]

Stopped at a flea marked tonight on the way home and bought a real nice cast iron pot with a lid for $5. Will make a great new lead melting pot for me. While I was there I saw a couple old colman stoves that were dirt cheap and the guy said they ran on "white gas". I assumed this was the same thing as coleman lantern fuel, but he says it is not. Does anyone know if you can burn coleman lantern fuel in these old stoves, or maybe even regular gasoline? Can you even buy white gas anymore? I am currently using a propane stove, but I might go back and pick one up if I can get fuel for it. Thanks

[44man]

Coleman fuel or what Wally world sells as camp fuel. Years ago we did use white gas that stations sold from a separate pump. It had no additives for vehicle use. No such thing to be found any more.
I think it is all naptha anyway.
Unless the stove is a multi fuel user, do not put gas in it. It will gum up the generator.

[Texasflyboy]

Does anyone know if you can burn coleman lantern fuel in these old stoves,

Coleman Gas = White gas = Coleman Gas

See the details at:

White Gas @ Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naphtha)

[David Wile]

Hey folks,

I did not understand much of what the Wikipedia thing was saying. I can tell you, however, that I have a Coleman 2-burner stove and two Coleman Lanterns that I have been using since the early 1960s. Back then you were supposed to use Coleman fuel or something called "white gas." My dad always said Amoco premium fuel was "white gas" because it was unleaded - in fact, it was the only unleaded fuel I can remember at the time.

Amoco premium was a lot less expensive than Coleman fuel, so that is what I used for years. When all gas became unleaded, I simply started to use any unleaded regular grade of gas. My stove and two lanterns continue to burn to this day even though I have exclusively used unleaded gas in them for 40+ years.

White gas? I don't understand what it is, but I know my Coleman stove and lanterns work just fine on unleaded gas.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile

[DeanoBeanCounter]

I have one of those old Colman white gas stoves. I've melted down a pot full of lead twice and it worked better the second time around. Just used regular unleaded gas. It seems to me the additives would help keep the generator clean since that is what they are suppose to do in an engine. Oh yes, there's still some fuel left and I only put about a gallon in. I don't have a thermometer but I got the lead so hot that it skinned over faster than I could scrape it off.
The Army uses unleaded gas in mess hall stoves and lanterns too.
IMHO your OK.
Dean

[Echo]

And it's called 'White' gas because, when the industry started putting tetraethyl lead in gasoline to increase the octane rating, it was a requirement that they put a red dye in the gas to identify it as being 'leaded' (otherwise known as 'Ethyl'). 'White' gas had no lead and so needed no red dye. It was the lead that gummed- or otherwise screwed-up the generator on flounder lights, blow-torches, or Coleman stoves.
And - the lead also lubricated the valve seats on the old cast-iron blocks. When lead was taken out of the gas, many older cars had extreme problems with valve seats sinking, and with hydraulic lifters, the slow deterioration in performance might not be noticed until things REALLY went South.
I would just buy regular gas to put in the Coleman...

[carpetman]

an old Coleman would not be marked Coleman fuel because Coleman fuel probably came out in the 60's and Coleman products a long time before that. Your generator will last a little longer with Coleman fuel than what they seem to last with unleaded gasoline---but buying a new generator every now and then is cheaper than the cost of buying Coleman fuel.

[JIMinPHX]

Some of the newer Coleman stoves are rated for multi-fuel use. They are specified for Coleman fuel or unleaded gas. Other new Coleman stoves & all the old ones that I know of are only rated for Coleman fuel. A $7 gallon of Coleman fuel lasts me well over a year. I see no reason to risk trying an unrated fuel to save $3, so I never did. As others have already said, Coleman fuel is white gas.

One thing about buying old camp stoves…
Watch out for a gas leak around the packing nut by the flame height valve knob. Those things usually get to leaking, then they go up in flames while you are trying to cook on them. That’s usually when the camp stove gets sold cheap. I bought mine for $3 & repacked the valve gland with butcher’s string soaked in silicone grease. So far it’s been working well since the repair. It was kind of exciting the first time I lit it & I got foot high flames shooting out of the two flame height knobs. I don’t want to do that again. I keep checking the packing condition every time I pull it out.

[cbr]

Thanks for the info! I knew some of you would have used these.

[44man]

I went the Amoco route long ago also with good results in my fishing lanterns but have messed up too many generators trying unleaded.
I finally bought a new one that will use unleaded gas.
I don't know if you can buy the new type generator for an older camp stove. Might be worth a call to Coleman.

[uncle joe]

Hey folks,

... Back then you were supposed to use Coleman fuel or something called "white gas." My dad always said Amoco premium fuel was "white gas" because it was unleaded - in fact, it was the only unleaded fuel I can remember at the time.


Best wishes,
Dave Wile

you are correct white gas is high octane unleaded, Amoco's premium usually had a higher octane than anyone else's preimum. I think it was 93 or 94. Burns great in my lantern and stove and has for years. I don't think we ever bought any Coleman fuel for ours
:-D

[Dale53]

The Coleman stove burns hot enough to melt lead. However, if you use a rather large container the wire support grille gets red hot, looses it's strength and will dump a pot full of melted metal all over the place. Yes, it happened to me. Fortunately, I was not burned. However, the grille was destroyed.

If you must use the Coleman stove, I suggest STRONGLY that you reinforce the wire pan holding grill so that you do not have an accident.

I would further suggest that you apply the "10 lb limit" to stay out of trouble with the original grille. That is a purely arbitrary weight limit but "forewarned is forearmed"...

Dale53

[missionary5155]

I came across an old floor heater cover that I plop on top of the regular Colman wire grill and cook away.... My stainless boiler that cleans wheel weights gets to 30 pounds+ ....

[montana_charlie]

you are correct white gas is high octane unleaded, Amoco's premium usually had a higher octane than anyone else's preimum.
This is no reflection on uncle joe, as he is just saying the same thing that others have said...using different words. But, what HAS been said doesn't square with my memories very well.

Tell me where I'm wrong when I say...

- White gas, back when it was available, was the cheapest type of gasoline you could find. That was because it contained no 'additives' to drive up it's value.
- Regular gas was the next most expensive, and (at least) contained a lead additive to lubricate the valves.
- Premium gas (also called ethyl gas) was different from regular because it contained additional additives to make it harder to ignite. It was intended to be used in the higher compression engines...which would 'knock' (detonate) if low octane fuel was used. The higher the compression in an engine, the higher the octane it required.

Since premium contained the greatest amont of 'extra stuff' (additives), and because it was available for those 'high performance engines' in rich folk's cars, it's price was well above that charged for regular.

Now, if the cheapest and least modified type of fuel (white gas) was so chemically similar to 'Coleman fuel' that it was used before Coleman even marketed it's own fuel when white gas started disappearing...

Why would anyone assume that high-octane gasoline (Amoco, or any other), the fuel with the greatest load of additives, would be the most suitable substitute for a product meant to duplicate white gas?

CM

[rbuck351]

About 20 years ago I bought a three burner coleman at Salvation Army store. It was old then, So old it has the copper colored tank instead of the red one. Since then , I have run 1 or 2 gallons of coleman fuel through it. the other 20 plus gallons have been unleaded regular with the alcohol that is added in our area. So far as I know it is still on it's original generator, and it lights easier and burns cleaner with pump gas. It's my belief that the lead is what causes the problem as it condenses out of the fuel inside the generator. rbuck

[uncle joe]

no reflection taken CM,
but By the time I was buying gas, early to mid '70's they were already removing lead from gas. Also additives in gas were the last thing on my mind at this time :-D. Guns and fast cars were it. I don't know why it worked but we always used Amoco preimum and it was the only gas you could get that was clear, thus the term "white gas". We used the heck out of lanterns and stoves, went camping for every vacaton we took. in FL IN JUNE, it was HOTTT
Maybe someone reading this can explain what the deal is with the "White gas" and coleman stoves.
found this while writing this reply.
http://www.businessfleet.com/fc_resources/bp-fuel-history.pdf
sort of a history and ad for bp

[DLCTEX]

The Army cook stoves that I used in the 60's used the regular leaded gas that we burned in the trucks. I did have to change the generators occasionally, and we had so many of them I don't know how long they lasted, nor do I have any experience with unleaded fuel to compare it with. I'm just saying it worked. The modern unleaded gasoline has additives that may clog generators eventually, but I would think it would be long intervals beteween changes. I guaged wells in the 70's and 80's and got "drip" gas( natural gas condensate) free from the traps on gas lines. This would be excellent gas for coleman type use. It caused my old pickup truck to clatter and ping (it was designed for leaded), but I burned many gallons of it as my daily route was hundreds of miles long. DALE

[montana_charlie]

I guaged wells in the 70's and 80's and got "drip" gas( natural gas condensate) free from the traps on gas lines. This would be excellent gas for coleman type use.
Maybe THAT WAS what they used to sell as 'white gas'!
It would certainly be cheap, as it could be considered a 'waste by-product' of just piping the natural gas around.
CM

[454PB]

I've never used anything but Coleman fuel in my Coleman stove and lantern, but I used to use unleaded gas in my plumbers pot for rendering WW's. It worked just fine.

My concern with using unleaded gas in a Coleman stove is that mine may sit for several years without use. We've all seen what happens to gasoline if it is stored for a long period of time.....it turns into a foul smelling mess. On the other hand, I just finished up a gallon of Coleman fuel that I bought 10 years ago, and it was still fine.

I was shocked to see that Coleman fuel is $8.25 per gallon now.

[jcwit]

I live up here in No. Indiana Amish country. The Amish have been using WHITE GAS for years for their lanterns & small stoves & heaters. If you would stop at one of their residences out back would be 3 fifty gal. barrels labled--KEROSESE--GASOLINE--WHITE GAS. The WHITE GAS is NAPTHA, here in my small town we can buy it off the pump, Yup they even have a special underground tank for it. If you would buy one of the old heaters be sure you can still purchase replacement pump leathers & generators for it. The Amish repair shops bought most of the generators yrs ago for their own use. These people are still repairing the old Maytag ringer washers that parts haven't been available for for years.

[jcwit]

BTY current unleaded gas is not the same as WHITE GAS, however Coleman now makes a small stove that uses "Dual Fuel", this is what I wue when casting. Available from Wally World for around $40.00.

[montana_charlie]

The WHITE GAS is NAPTHA,
I was going to argue. I was going to confidently state that naptha is 'lighter fluid'...not any kind of 'gasoline'.

But, having tasted my foot a little too often this year, I hit Google...which took me to (where else?) Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naphtha

You can read the whole thing, or just scroll down until you see the Coleman can...
CM

[kingstrider]

My camp stove will work with either white fuel or unleaded gasoline. For some reason the white fuel seems to burn a little hotter but costs almost twice as much per gallon so it gets plain ol' gas.

[Newtire]

I saw a blurb in Outdoor Life that in an emergency, you could use unleaded so for years now have been using nothing else. I now use an electric pot but the Coleman still is cranked up whenever i have to smelt down a batch of wheelweights.

[warf73]

Very good read good I learned alot (just a kid 35) on this post thanks.

This is why I love this site so much I learn something new every week it seems.

Warf

[LarryM]

I got tired of fooling with pumping the darn thing up and when the generator crapped out I got a propane adapter and 20# propane tank and never looked back.

[jmabbott888]

My Westernfield stove from the late 60's or early 70's is stamped in the bottom of the stove "burns any gasoline" I use the Coleman fuel & have used gas & it works fine.

[26Charlie]

The contents of a gallon of unleaded gas are unknown in any practical way, and vary by state since the environmental folks have stuck their oar in. I used Coleman stoves two summers ago while the kitchen was being remodeled, and gummed up the generators in two stoves beyond repair. I thought unleaded gas would be OK. I couldn't get the innards out at all; I had to find new generators. They weren't the same size stove, so took different generators. Finally found both. For what little fuel I use on the stoves overall, I decided to stick with the Coleman fuel and pay the $10 a gallon.
Fifty years ago all I had was a Coleman stove, iron pot, and Ideal dipper and cast a lot of bullets with that rig, using white gas.

[Pavogrande]

White gas, unleaded, now the new complication -- 10% ethanol unleaded - bad for packings and seals ? going to corrode tanks and fittings? life gets tedious don't it?

[JIMinPHX]

The contents of a gallon of unleaded gas are unknown in any practical way, and vary by state since the environmental folks have stuck their oar in.

According to a chemical engineer friend of mine that works for Exxon, the contents of motor fuel varies not only by state, but by season, by cost of ingredients & by what they have kicking around that they want to get rid of. There’s a reason that the pumps at the gas stations stopped saying "gasoline" & started saying "motor fuel" back in the late 70’s. I’m told that it is now common for typical motor fuel to be about 20% gasoline & 80% other stuff. All this hogwash about the price of pump gas being tied to the $130/barrel oil cost is bull. That’s just collusion between the big oil companies with a little protection from the politicians that they have in their pockets.

[JIMinPHX]

White gas, unleaded, now the new complication -- 10% ethanol unleaded - bad for packings and seals ? going to corrode tanks and fittings? life gets tedious don't it?

Once upon a time, I used to run a drag bike on alcohol. That stuff wakes up the rust like an alarm clock & eats away at anything rubber in short order. It also cuts your mileage way back. When I switched the bike over to alcohol, I had to just about double my jet sizes.

[leadman]

My Dad and Grandpa used white gas with oil added in their outboard motors. The spark plugs would get little tiny balls of what they thought was lead on the electrodes if leaded fuel was used. The lilltle balls would bridge the gap and the plug would not fire, so it must have been some type of metal deposit.

[DLCTEX]

A plant near me scrubs and compresses natural gas thriugh a pipeline. Most of what it scrubs is condensate (drip gas in oil field terms). It was producing 40,000 gallons of gasoline (condensate) per day before the recent enlarging (double capacity). It may get some additives before it goes to the gas stations, I don't know. 5 or 6 new plants have been built in our county in the past two years. So, not all gasoline comes directly from oil, and the Texas panhandle has the highest price in the state??? DALE