I was at REI today to pickup some fuel for an up coming trip when I saw the Primus PowerGas 450g canister. I thought about picking this one up versus carrying two 220g cans (to save a few grams) for my Snowpeak Giga Power Ti but since I didn't have any experience with a canister this large so I opted for what I know. Would a canister of this size lose pressure and become less effective the lower it gets? I could see this not being an issue if it could be inverted but thats not an option I have.

We used 4 of these for 10 of us for 10 days last year, and it worked fine, altitude from 6 - 10 k. Total weight savings for the 4 x 16 oz vs. 8 of the 8 oz. was about 13 oz. Both seemed to be able to drain their contents reasonably well.

MikeB

Two considerations for a bigger canister when compared to 2 smaller canisters, first, after using 1/2 the contents you can't dispose of 1/2 the dead weight by throwing one away. Secondly, if you don't use it all you might not want to carry a partly used canister of that size on subsequent trips.
But wow, congratulations on taking a trip long enough to consider one of those!

> Primus PowerGas 450g canister.

We used several of this size (Campingaz brand though) on each of our long trips in France, with a SnowPeak GST-100 stove. A little taller, so fractionally less stable, but they work just fine. Yes, they empty completely as expected. We found that one of these would last the two of us for a fortnight.

Cheers

I plan on buying a Snowpeak Giga power stove. Am I to assume I will be able to use any brand of fuel? This was not covered in BPL reveiw of canister stoves.

Hi Gary

> Am I to assume I will be able to use any brand of fuel?
You can use any brand of screw-thread canister with any screw-thread stove. Performance may vary, depending on fuel mix and temperature of course. You can safely ignore ALL the warnings from every manufacturer about having to use only their brand of canister with their stoves.

Exceptions:
French Campingaz stoves and canisters are not compatible with screw-thread.
Coleman Xtreme/Xpert stoves and Powerrmax caniosters are not compatible with screw-thread stoves.
LPG/propane gear with bigger hoses and connectors are not compatible with screw-thread stoves.
But you are unlikely to be confused with any of these!

Yes, but ...
I have a GP myself and 8 oz. canisters pose no problem. But I've had some problems with the 4 oz. canisters from Coleman and Primus. With the Coleman canisters, I could hardly get any gas out of the canisters. Currently I'm using Primus canisters, because they're the only ones I can find of that size, and while screwing the stove on the canisters, there's always a point at which gas starts to escape from the canisters before the stove is completely screwed on.

Hi Tom

> With the Coleman canisters, I could hardly get any gas out of the canisters. Currently I'm using Primus canisters, because they're the only ones I can find of that size, and while screwing the stove on the canisters, there's always a point at which gas starts to escape from the canisters before the stove is completely screwed on.

Yeah, so much for the official rules ...
It all depends on the little brass rod which sticks out of the screw thread. This goes into the canister and pushes down on the valve to let gas out. In theory ... there is a defined length for this rod.

I have been measuring the amount of rod needed to reach the valve for a whole range of canisters. Sigh. There is at least 1 millimetre variation between them. It is even worse when you include the Campingaz and Powermax canisters in the lot. The different brand stoves turn out to have slightly different length rods, to match.

So what to do? For the Coleman canisters - you may have to screw the stove onto the canister just that little bit harder. I do NOT like doing this myself because that leads to wear on the thread on the stove (not on the canister) and ultimately the stove thread strips and then the stove won't work at all. That happened to me in France.

For the others, where the gas starts to come out a little early ... well, at least you have gas ... For these cases I screw the stove on gently until I sense that the rod has contacted the valve. Then I give it a quick half-turn, to get to the sealing point quickly.

Cheers

Hi Roger,
what you suggested is in fact exactly what I already do with the Primus canisters. The small Coleman canisters I avoid entirely.
Strange how I only seem to have the problem with the 100 gram canisters. I have used the 200 gram canisters from Primus, Coleman and MSR without any problem. I guess this has something to do with the fact that the thread on the small canisters is shorter than on the larger ones but I don't know if that explains everything.

Edited by Woubeir on 01/10/2008 04:22:10 MST.

Hi Tom

Glad to help.

> Strange how I only seem to have the problem with the 100 gram canisters. I
However, I must admit I have never bothered to even buy one of these, so I dunno. Too inefficient for weight for me.

Cheers