I found this repair parts page on the coleman site, for the Xtreme.

Edited by ryanf on 12/30/2005 16:40:43 MST.

Great article Bill, thank you very much. If you were camping in warm weather, would you really need the casting at all? (that you did such a great job of machining down!)

MikeB

Thanks Mike, I am going to make an adapter that will allow me to use the Xtreme without the PowerMax and connect to a regular canister. The reverse of that has already happened. I have an adapter that will let me connect my old Rapid Fire remote canister stove to the PowerMax Canister.

I am not sure what you would save in the summer or warmer weather by going to a regular canister. The regular canister empty weigh is more than the PowerMax I think. I would defer to someone like Roger Caffin, Michael Martin or one our other smarter folks for that answer. If you want to use the PowerMax canister you have to use the casting.

Thanks. I had heard elsewhere that the purpose of the casting was to insure in cooler weather that the gas temp was not too low, hence the idea of not needing the casting for AZ in the summer.

Per your other note, where can we find out more info on using a PowerMax canister with an existing IsoPropane stove?

Thanks for the contribution,
MikeB

Mike B

MSR Stove-PowerMax Fuel

Edited by ryanf on 12/30/2005 21:11:21 MST.

By the way, if you're part of any nonprofit (they specify churches, scouts and schools, plus Red Cross and many others), you can get a smoking deal on an Xtreme stove directly from Coleman for $37.08 vs. the original price of $59.95
You can register at their non-profit site,(below) and they will send you the password for access to the nonprofit site.
They also allow "Civic Groups" (owners of Honda's?) and "Other" as qualifying groups.

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/promotion/youth_camping2.asp

Hope that helps!
MikeB

Edited by eaglemb on 12/30/2005 22:09:51 MST.

Thanks Mike, I have a Coleman Outlet Store near where I live and they sell the Xtreme for $40 or so. I have been lucky and have saved a little more during one of their many "sale" weekends.

Thanks Ryan F. for posting the link to the MSR to PowerMax information.

Bill-

Beautiful work! You're truely an inspiration to me.

It looks like those legs might fold up. If so, would you be kind enough to post a photo?

Best Regards,

-Mike

Edited by MikeMartin on 12/30/2005 22:54:28 MST.

Mike Asked?
"looks like those legs might fold up. If so, would you be kind enough to post a photo?"

Yes, the legs fold, you might say they are spring loaded and need something to help keep them folded like a rubber band. Sorry I didn't weigh the rubber band.

The stove will fit with a little extra space in my SP Ti 700 mug.

From Coleman:
===============================
NEW ADAPTER EXPANDS FUEL OPTIONS FOR X-STOVE OWNERS Coleman® Exponent® X-series stoves are getting new fuel canister alternatives. The ingenious Powermax® Fuel Adapter allows any X-stove to run on conventional, more readily available butane-propane fuel canisters. That gives traveling adventurers the option of powering their stoves with either Coleman’s proprietary Powermax fuel or standard, threaded butanepropane blended canisters.




The innovative new adapter also effectively converts the LP canisters into a liquid-withdrawal fuel system to mimic the performance advantages that the Powermax system and X-stoves delivered – namely consistent performance throughout the life of the fuel cartridge including strong performance at higher altitudes and in below-freezing temperatures. The Xstoves broke important performance barriers often associated with butanepowered stoves and conventional vapor-withdrawal systems.

The lightweight aluminum adapter attaches to an X-stove fuel connector and two swing-out legs provide a stable platform for the fuel canister. In a 180-degree departure from standard usage, the threaded butane canister is inverted and attached to the adapter upside-down to allow a liquidwithdrawal method of fuel-feed to the burner. (Historically, LPG canisters of butane or butanepropane blended fuel used in conventional upright position rely on vapor withdrawal. There is pressure inside the canister. When the stove valve is opened, it allows the vapor to pass to the burner for combustion. Colder temperatures decrease pressure and degrade performance. A liquid withdrawal system draws the blended fuel in liquid from the pressurized canister, carries it via a copper fuel tube to a regulator that passed above the burner, which heats it and converts it to a vapor before feeding the vaporized fuel to the burner. The system results in reliable performance when temperatures drop below freezing, and it is less affected by altitude than vapor-withdrawal systems.) The Powermax Fuel Adapter will be available for the ’06 season with an MSRP of $23.
===============================
The following is my comment on this product:
This adapter should open up a lot of possibilities for the MYOG folks. A comment has been made that it looks a bit over engineered. They should have asked us to help. The price is right and I hope to get one as soon as they are available.

Hark, is that the sound of a milling machine warming up? :-)

They at least deleted an unneeded leg and made it a bipod rig. I have to say, it's nice knowing you could now take a 450 g canister and an X-stove winter camping--at first glance an attractive proposition. We'll have to await the adaper's weight before crunching the total weights (e.g., 450 g cartridge + adapter versus two large Max cartridges).

However it plays out, my guess is the Max cartridge days are numbered.

Rick: Yes, but think about the difference in weight between the Steel standard canister and the weight of the Aluminum canister used on the PowerMax.

A bought a dozen of the large PowerMax canisters for $2.99 each. That gives me a good supply if Coleman decides to discontinue the PowerMax. I would save them for very cold weather hiking.

On a different note, there is a much eaiser way to adapt a standard canister to the Xtreme stove. I have done this without using the PowerMax "Mag" casting. I just went with a different canister control valve and gas line. Unscrew the PowerMax gas line at the Xtreme stove and screw in the replacement that is made to connect to the standard canister. The weight was even a little lighter.

The plot gets thicker. I made two stoves like Son of Balrog, one for the PowerMax and one for a standard canister. I will just take which ever I think I need for the Temp I think I will be in if I want a canister stove.

I am happy to see Coleman doing something new and I does give us more "parts" to play with. The best part is the price of the Coleman stoves. Most are less than the competition.

Coleman also has some really great pictures of this stuff.

This is neat - at least someone's thinking about different ideas - but I'd rather see the opposite: a way for screw-on canister stoves to run on PowerMax fuel. It's the lighter cartridge that I'm after - not more options on the same canister. I think you're right-on that this probably means the end of the PowerMax cartridges. I know a semi "secret" place that not only has them, but has them cheap. Might have to go clean them out.....

-Curt

I guess this is nice, but honestly I feel disappointed that Coleman seems to be backing away from their powermax concept. Not only is the liquid withdrawal method a more sound system, but the gas mixture is better for cold weather than the "other" cartridges. An MSR cartridge hooked to an Xtreme stove will make for easier access to fuel, but will NOT be as good as a powermax cartridge. Bill

I tried and failed to Google up even one retail source of Max cartridges. I'm sure they're out there, but it should be much, much easier. For that matter, I can't even find them on the Coleman.com website.

My local REI stocks them but rei.com does not. Their market penetration seemed to peak five or so years ago when Coleman was selling a line of Max-powered car camping equipment. I could even find them at WalMart.

They're the Betamax of camping fuel.

If I don't include the adapter weight, steel doesn't suffer too badly in the comparison--about 6.5 oz for the 450g canister versus about 3.2 oz for a 300g Max cartridge, which extrapolates to 4.8 oz for a 450g equivalent. The adapter weight definitely hurts the steel option.

Aluminum's easy field crushability is another big plus in its favor.

I would not use the adapter with one of my stoves if I needed a stove for cold weather. I would just go with a non-Coleman lighter option.

Edited by bfornshell on 01/30/2006 21:34:25 MST.

Our local Walmart had all the Powermax cylinders on clearance last week. The guy in the department said that he understood it was being discontinued by Coleman.

Craig Shelley

Curt writes:

>> I'd rather see the opposite: a way for screw-on canister stoves to run on PowerMax fuel.

I think we're unlikely to ever see this kind of adapter from Coleman because of the liability issues. Some Yo-Yo is sure to to hook up a stove with no pre-heat tube to the liquid-feed Powermax cartridge and turn his Pocket Rocket into a Pocket Rocket. ;-)

-Mike

Edited by MikeMartin on 01/30/2006 21:26:44 MST.

Mike, I don't know of any of the ultra-light "sit on the canister stoves" that has a pre-heat tube. No pre-heat tube/loop or what ever and you would not get the benefit of the PowerMax fuel. I think.