I've decided to move from coleman fuel to kerosene for my camping stove (Brunton vapor AF), since the former has gotten so expensive lately ($20/gallon vs. $10 for kero). Everywhere I read people say kerosene sucks for cooking, impossible to prime, sooty, clogs jet everytime, stinks and all that.

So what are your experience with it?

I prime with alcohol. Don't use kerosene for priming, it creates nasty ill-smelling smoke and lots of soot, which will cause your stove to need more maintenance (cleaning) than otherwise.

Kerosene (a.k.a. paraffin) burns nice and clean when burned in a stove designed for it and well maintained. I've never had issues with sooth on pots or bad smell.

Beware that kerosene comes in different flavors. Most of the stuff designed for lamps has additives to prevent soothing when burned in a kerosene lamp. These additives creates loads of problems when burned in a stove (a kerosene lamp and a pressurized kerosene stove is designed totally different). Avoid, avoid, avoid.


I have an optimus 00 that is pretty much bomb proof (in my hands, at least). I have also experience with the hiker 111 series. Kerosene all the way - among my friends, "white gas" is considered too dangerous for stove use. I know that isn't necessary true, but I've learned to do kerosene stoves and I think I'll stick with it (unless I come across an offer I cannot refuse on a Svea 123 or Coleman stove .... )

I have used kerosene just once - for about three weeks at altitude (8,000 to 15,000 feet). I did not pick the fuel or the stove, but it worked just fine.

Thanks. I just picked up some K1 grade kerosene and will test it, the smell isn't as horrible as people made it out to be.

I've been thinking of playing around with kerosene in my old Coleman 550B. I stumbled across the original kerosene generator, new in bag, a while ago.

BTW, I noticed the outrageous jump in price of Coleman fuel (and its generic variants). Where the heck did this come from? I used to assume that if I paid more than $5-6 for a gallon, at end of season, I was being fleeced. Weird.

Yeah eh? Even kerosene is pretty expensive now, more than what coleman fuel used to cost. Can't be crude oil price, gasoline didn't even jump that much.

Just a thought (not sure how practical unless you use a good bit), but you could see if your local municipal airport will just fill up a can with Jet A. Basically same thing as kerosene, and last I checked it was <$5 a gallon here.

I'm worried about the crap they add to the engine fuel with those, some of those are pretty toxic. Otherwise I could just burn unleaded gas, which ironically is the cheapest.

Thanks for putting up a new thread on kerosene! I was just thinking about asking for help with that fuel this morning on here. You did it so much better.

I know almost nothing about kerosene but am thinking of moving in that direction for prep purposes. Keep this thread going! I think a lot of people are like me & know what kerosene is but not how to select, keep or use it properly.

Klean Heat is supposedly odorless and claims to burn cleaner than kerosene. Thats what I plan to use in my Dietz lamp.

if you plan on using kerosine in a Dietz lamp, you might check out some of the recommendations on the W.T. Kirkman site...

Thanks, I test fired the stove last night. Self priming with kerosene is pretty hard, definitely could use alcohol priming. It doesn't "burst" into flames like other fuel does (extremely difficult to light with firesteel), but sort of going on a candle flame on only part of the priming pad, then after a while the entire pad lights up with a very sooty flame. Once going though it's pretty nice, though the flame on this particular stove is a bit yellow. Maybe the omnifuel with its exchangeable jet will cope better.

Going to need a few more practices before I can get the hang of it.

What he said.

Kero is actually one of the best fuels for stoves provided that you get good quality fuel (K-1 in the US and I think Canada), prime the stove well with alcohol, and keep a pricker handy.

Kero is much safer than white gasoline (much higher flash point, not prone to flash fires) and is available worldwide (whereas white gasoline is not).

On the other hand, if kero leaks in your pack, it'll leave a stain and a smell where as white gasoline will often dry up without a trace.

It takes a little bit of practice to get the hang of kero, but anyone used to using white gasoline shouldn't have any trouble.

HJ

In general, unleaded doesn't work as well as white gasoline for stove use, even on stoves that claim unleaded as one of the fuels that they are designed for.

Most of the time, unleaded will leave more deposits behind, and, at the very least, you'll need to clean your stove more often. If a given stove says it is white gasoline only, then I wouldn't even try unleaded. If a given stove says it can burn unleaded, I still would burn mostly white gasoline and only use unleaded in a pinch. YMMV.

The only stove I've seen that seems to have some credibility to it's claims of running equally well on white gasoline or unleaded is the Soto Muka which uses atomization to achieve a very clean burn.

HJ

How do you like your Brunton vapor AF? From the photos I've seen of them, they look like a really nice stove. Isn't the stove supposed to be adjustable for various types of fuel? I think that one adjusts the air flow, yes?

The Omnifuel with it's multiple jets should do pretty well for you on kerosene. The trick with kerosene is to use a smaller jet orifice so that the fuel/air mixture has more air in it which is necessary to combust a heavier fuel like kero. If you try kero on an Omnifuel, I'd be interested in hearing your results.

HJ

Leaked kero will also eat through an expensive jacket shell. Ask me how I know...

Ouch!

A tiny bit of kerosene in your food or drink will have a rather unpleasant effect on your digestive system. You will spend a few hours in the squatting position. On the positive side, you could say that you've had a hard core "detox" cure (for free).

Bottom line: Take care to keep fuel and food well separated.