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Camping Stove

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UK and Europe
Published
5 May 2004
Last activity
8 May 2004
Original author
Richard Bates
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  1. [Probably more useful to post to uk.rec.camping or some such
    group but I don't lurk there so don't want to post]

    I've been thinking about my two stoves recently and how
    environmentally unfriendly they could be.

    Stove 1 runs from a disposable butane/propane cylinder. Gas
    is /relatively/ clean but I have a problem with empty gas
    cyclinders. Can they be recycled safely? Or even (although
    designed to be disposable) can they be refilled in a
    similar manner to it's larger brothers (too large for
    carrying on a bike).

    If when the cyclinder becomes useless for cooking, the valve
    is left open for pressures to equilibrate, can it then be
    assumed to be safe for recycling?

    Stove 2 runs from either unleaded petrol or coleman fuel.
    Unleaded petrol is not good for the environment, and coleman
    fuel which claims to be "clean" also leaves me with a metal
    container to dispose of.

    Which is the lesser of the two evils? Or is there a better
    alternative (short of an open fire made of salvaged wood).?

    Love and flames from Rich x

    --
    Young Musician of the Year 2004 was a fiddle

  2. Richard Bates said:

    Which is the lesser of the two evils? Or is there a
    better alternative (short of an open fire made of
    salvaged wood).?

    Gas is probably the better of the two, but I use a Trangia
    which burns alcohol (meths).

    --
    Guy
    --
    May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
    chapmancentral.co.ukchapmancentral.co.uk

    Victory is ours! Down with Eric the Half A Brain!

  3. Richard Bates said:

    Stove 1 runs from a disposable butane/propane cylinder.
    Gas is /relatively/ clean but I have a problem with empty
    gas cyclinders. Can they be recycled safely? Or even
    (although designed to be disposable) can they be refilled
    in a similar manner to it's larger brothers (too large for
    carrying on a bike).

    They can't be refilled AFAIK, or at least not under simple
    domestic circumstances. Recycling may well be possible
    through certain channels: MEC take back cartridges for
    recycling, for example, which is handy if you're near a MEC
    store (but since they're all in Canada, you're probably
    not...), I think Camping Gaz take back certain cartridges
    and so on. As to whether anything else is possible, probably
    speak to your local council's relevant department.

    Quoted message said:

    Stove 2 runs from either unleaded petrol or coleman fuel.
    Unleaded petrol is not good for the environment, and
    coleman fuel which claims to be "clean" also leaves me
    with a metal container to dispose of.

    Coleman fuel is pretty clean as it has none of the additives
    designed for modern internal combustion engines. The metal
    container can go straight in the metal skip at the local
    dump though. My main problem with Coleman fuel is it's an
    insane price in the UK, plus there's the great joys of
    priming a small turbojet.

    Quoted message said:

    Which is the lesser of the two evils? Or is there a
    better alternative (short of an open fire made of
    salvaged wood).?

    Trangias will burn on alcohol, so no fossil fuel depletion
    and no metal containers, but there will be plastic ones.

    Pete.
    --
    Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext.
    33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177
    Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
    dundee.ac.uk~pjclinch

  4. In "]news:[email hidden],
    Richard Bates <[email hidden]> typed:

    Quoted message said:

    [Probably more useful to post to uk.rec.camping or some
    such group but I don't lurk there so don't want to post]

    Stove 2 runs from either unleaded petrol or coleman fuel.
    Unleaded petrol is not good for the environment, and
    coleman fuel which claims to be "clean" also leaves me
    with a metal container to dispose of.


    What's so bad about unleaded petrol? And even if it is bad,
    does your using at most 5 litres of it on a few weeks
    camping amount to a hill of beans when there's so much else
    being used in the world?

    A

  5. In article <[email hidden]>,

    Ambrose Nankivell said:

    What's so bad about unleaded petrol?

    Benzene. My MSR Whisperlite predates the versions that
    officially burn unleaded, but actually does. I avoid it like
    the plague, using either Coleman fuel or French ``Essence
    C'', because exposure to Benzene is not wise.

    Quoted message said:

    And even if it is bad, does your using at most 5 litres of
    it on a few weeks camping amount to a hill of beans when
    there's so much else being used in the world?

    My worry is about using the stove at close quarters. Benzene
    is nasty stuff.

    ian

  6. Ambrose Nankivell said:

    What's so bad about unleaded petrol? And even if it is
    bad, does your using at most 5 liters of it on a few weeks
    camping amount to a hill of beans when there's so much
    else being used in the world?

    Moving from politics into practical considerations, unleaded
    petrol has lots of additives that are put in to make current
    internal combustion engines work optimally. All very well in
    an internal combustion engine, but in a camping stove they
    just tend to leave [censored] which accelerates the maintenance
    schedule considerably. Camping stoves simply don't work as
    well on unleaded as they do on Coleman fuel.

    Pete.
    --
    Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext.
    33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177
    Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
    dundee.ac.uk~pjclinch

  7. John Hearns said:

    See the Aldi Stuff thread. We already have Peter Clinch
    carrying plastic bottles of tonic. Fuel it off gin and
    we'll have some nice G+Ts at the end of the day.

    On a bothy weekend once someone showed up with a bottle
    claiming to contain Welsh Whisky. It may have been that, but
    one thing it wasn't was nice to drink, so we ended up
    running the Trangia off it, not particularly efficiently but
    it did work. You could run one off Bombay Sapphire, I'm
    sure, but it would be a terrible waste...

    Pete.
    --
    Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext.
    33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177
    Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
    dundee.ac.uk~pjclinch

  8. mae <[email hidden]> wedi ysgrifennu:

    Quoted message said:

    On a bothy weekend once someone showed up with a bottle
    claiming to contain Welsh Whisky. It may have been that,
    but one thing it wasn't was nice to drink, so we ended up
    running the Trangia off it, not particularly efficiently
    but it did work. You could run one off Bombay Sapphire,
    I'm sure, but it would be a terrible waste...

    news.bbc.co.uk3398831.stm

    <abstract> Lovers of malt whisky will soon be able to look
    outside Scotland for a bottle of their favourite wee dram.
    On St David's Day, 1 March, the first whisky to be distilled
    in Wales for more than 100 years will go on sale. </abstact>

    --
    Rob

    Please keep conversations in the newsgroup so that all may
    contribute and benefit.

  9. Richard Bates said:

    Stove 2 runs from either unleaded petrol or coleman fuel.
    Unleaded petrol is not good for the environment, and
    coleman fuel which claims to be "clean" also leaves me with
    a metal container to dispose of.

    Coleman fuel in the Netherlands comes in a plastic bottle.
    Which then has to be disposed off...

    Roos

  10. Robert Bruce said:

    <abstract> Lovers of malt whisky will soon be able to look
    outside Scotland for a bottle of their favourite wee dram.
    On St David's Day, 1 March, the first whisky to be
    distilled in Wales for more than 100 years will go on
    sale. </abstact>

    The stuff I'd come across was distilled in Scotland but then
    had various Secret Recipe stuff done to it in Wales in order
    to render it even more ghastly than Shyte & Mackay, if you
    can imagine such a thing...

    Pete.
    --
    Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext.
    33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177
    Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
    dundee.ac.uk~pjclinch

  11. Robert Bruce said:

    news.bbc.co.uk3398831.stm

    It just doesn't have the same appeal.

    As an aside, if you click the 'Low Graphics Version' link on
    a BBC news page, it takes you to the low-graphics news
    index, not the low-graphics version of the story. If you
    then search in news from the low-graphics index, it takes
    you to the high-graphics results page, where links go to high-
    graphics stories. It's therefore impossible to find any
    story in low-graphics mode which isn't linked to the low-
    graphics news index (ie, recent news only).

    Unless you know to replace 'hi' with 'low' in the URL, of
    course. But why doesn't the BBC just insert that into the
    'Low Graphics Version' link and point to the mirrored page?

    Has anyone noticed this? Coz I have. Perhaps I should just
    write to Beeb.

    --
    Witty signature.

  12. In article <[email hidden]>,
    [email hidden] says...

    Quoted message said:

    news.bbc.co.uk3398831.stm

    <abstract> Lovers of malt whisky will soon be able to look
    outside Scotland for a bottle of their favourite wee dram.
    On St David's Day, 1 March, the first whisky to be
    distilled in Wales for more than 100 years will go on
    sale. </abstact>


    I'm dubious of that claim, there was until a few years ago a
    distillery in Brecon, just up the road from where this "new
    " one is now.

  13. mae <marccdimspamremovedimspamto [email hidden]> wedi
    ysgrifennu:

    Quoted message said:

    In article <[email hidden]>,
    [email hidden] says...

    Quoted message said:

    news.bbc.co.uk3398831.stm

    <abstract> Lovers of malt whisky will soon be able to
    look outside Scotland for a bottle of their favourite wee
    dram. On St David's Day, 1 March, the first whisky to be
    distilled in Wales for more than 100 years will go on
    sale. </abstact>


    I'm dubious of that claim, there was until a few years ago
    a distillery in Brecon, just up the road from where this
    "new " one is now.

    From news.scotsman.comscotland.cfm

    "The Welsh have had a chequered past when it comes to whisky
    production. Five years ago the Scotch Whisky Association
    prevented a Brecon firm from naming its drink Welsh Chwisgi
    (whisky), claiming it was not a whisky and cashed in on the
    reputation of Scotch and Irish whiskey. "

    --
    Rob

    Please keep conversations in the newsgroup so that all may
    contribute and benefit.

  14. In message <[email hidden]-
    berlin.de>, "Just zis Guy, you know?"
    <[email hidden]> writes

    Quoted message said:
    Richard Bates said:

    Which is the lesser of the two evils? Or is there a
    better alternative (short of an open fire made of
    salvaged wood).?

    Gas is probably the better of the two, but I use a Trangia
    which burns alcohol (meths).

    I was about to suggest he bought my old one...

    --
    congokid Good restaurants in London? Number one on Google
    congokid.comcongokid.com

  15. In article said:

    Which is the lesser of the two evils? Or is there a
    better alternative (short of an open fire made of
    salvaged wood).?

    My first thoughts would be a Trangia or hexy-block stove, if
    you don't mind black pots and hands.

    If you're flush an MSR stove run on kerosene[1] bought from
    a hardware store that will refill a can for you rather than
    sell you a five litre bottle is probably your best bet.

    Regards,

    -david

    [1] If you can get it, jet fuel (JetA) is the Best Fuel
    Eva(TM) for optimus-type stove.

  16. "Richard Bates" <[email hidden]> wrote an interesting question (as
    usual) in message "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:

    [Probably more useful to post to uk.rec.camping or some
    such group but I don't lurk there so don't want to post]

    And thet group is mostly dying. Very slowly.

    Quoted message said:

    I've been thinking about my two stoves recently and how
    environmentally unfriendly they could be.

    Hmm.

    Quoted message said:

    Stove 1 runs from a disposable butane/propane cylinder.
    Gas is /relatively/ clean but I have a problem with empty
    gas cyclinders. Can they be recycled safely? Or even
    (although designed to be disposable) can they be refilled
    in a similar manner to it's larger brothers (too large for
    carrying on a bike).

    Refiled, no, unless you want to fill them with water and
    scam some innocents (not recommended).

    Recycle, yes, they are pretty much pure steel.

    Quoted message said:

    If when the cyclinder becomes useless for cooking, the
    valve is left open for pressures to equilibrate, can it
    then be assumed to be safe for recycling?

    That's the idea. Although I would not want to be the one to
    throw it in the melting pot.

    Quoted message said:

    Stove 2 runs from either unleaded petrol or coleman fuel.
    Unleaded petrol is not good for the environment, and
    coleman fuel which claims to be "clean" also leaves me
    with a metal container to dispose of.

    The fule may be clean but the production makes an
    impressive mess.

    Quoted message said:

    Which is the lesser of the two evils? Or is there a
    better alternative (short of an open fire made of
    salvaged wood).?

    For someone who likes to tweak things (and who amongst us
    here in URC does not?) I recommend a read of
    backpacking.netmakegear.html

    Happy tinsnipping,
    --
    Mark South Citizen of the World, Denizen of the Net <<Tiens!
    Ce poulet a une grenade!

  17. Ian G Batten said:

    In article <[email hidden]>,
    Ambrose Nankivell
    <[email hidden]> wrote:

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    What's so bad about unleaded petrol?

    Quoted message said:

    Benzene. My MSR Whisperlite predates the versions that
    officially burn unleaded, but actually does. I avoid it
    like the plague, using either Coleman fuel or French
    ``Essence C'', because exposure to Benzene is not wise.

    What's wrong with kerosene, aka paraffin? Very cheap and
    available as a "fill up your own container" which avoids the
    disposable container problem.

    Incidentally nobody has mentioned another advantage of
    liquid fuel stoves. If something goes wrong with the stove,
    you've still got a container of combustible liquid, which is
    rather more useful for making other kinds of fire than a
    canister of compressed gas.

    --
    Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
    IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
    ["]http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

  18. In "]news:[email hidden],
    Chris Malcolm <[email hidden]> typed:

    Quoted message said:

    Incidentally nobody has mentioned another advantage of
    liquid fuel stoves. If something goes wrong with the
    stove, you've still got a container of combustible liquid,
    which is rather more useful for making other kinds of fire
    than a canister of compressed gas.

    Depends how quickly you want to cook the food 🙂

    Maybe you could disperse the gas in some moss or something,
    in an emergency.

    A

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