I'm terribly sorry to have made such an outrageous suggestion. What was I thinking?

Remember! Lawyers know more than you do about the outdoors. DO NOT consult people who have experience in the outdoors. Lawyers are always your best guide in all areas of life.

Yes, I had to think about it too. But consider:
Canisters have Lindal valves. What else has a Lindal valve? Well, hair spray, Lysol, spray paint, etc, etc. What's the propellant? Often it's... wait for it... a hydrocarbon. Butane in other words. So those valves are in all kinds of "canisters" in use every day. How many times is a valve used in a can of hair spray?

Or consider this: How many times is a valve used on a 450g canister of gas. Probably at least four times the number of times on a 110g canister of gas. That tells me right there that the valve on a 110g canister of gas is good for at least four refills. But now consider usage. Some people are soloists who just boil water. They're going to hook up and unhook that valve dozens of times compared to someone who is cooking for a family and is doing "real" cooking. In other words, those valves have to accommodate a wide range of uses. Those valves are very rugged. Using one 12 times in refilling is fairly conservative.

Now consider this: In canister failures, what usually fails? Well, the bottom inverts (goes from concave to convex) first. In other words the base of the canister is the typical point of failure, not the valve. That valve is actually quite robust.

The main thing I'm worried about is rust or corruption getting into the valve, not the valve itself per se. I visually inspect the canister, and I always keep the lid on the valve when the canister is not in use.

HJ

For what its worth, I have had the valve in a 110g canister fail. Probably used it half a dozen times, and after the last time (still half full), it wouldn't close. Tried reattaching the stove to try and re-seat the valve, didn't work. Luckily I was at home, so I just set the can away from everything until it emptied itself. Not a huge deal, if I was camping I just would have left the stove attached (inconvenient, but would have saved the gas).

Yep. Like anything mechanical, they can fail. I had one stick open on me one time too. However, out of all the gas stoves I've used, I've had one and only one failure, and it wasn't on a canister I had refilled.

Putting it into perspective: Maybe I'll post photos some time, but I've had at least a dozen failures with pumps on white gas stoves, one of which resulted in a fire.

Gas stoves are WAY more mechanically reliable than liquid fueled stoves.

HJ

I've got a camping gaz refill adapter from the same seller in Japan. I started refilling from the butane cans as the CV270 canisters are now impossible to get where I'm at and there are times when a CV470 is too big.
I think Jim has written out quite extensively the hows and whys and the safety precautions. I've not had any issues so far.

You make an excellent point. The last time i had to resort to a campfire for meal preparation was the result of pump failure on my backpacking stove.

Which raises the issue - How about using the traditional non-pump enabled Sveas or Primuses (Primi?) As I remember, the instructions say to preheat them either with body heat or a separate alcohol priming solution. Of course, we never did that - just sloshed a very tiny bit of white gas into the priming cup and lit'er up.

But would a properly primed Svea be safer than a pump unit? I suppose the greater question is - what is the safest, most fool proof backpacking stove. Of course, safety is relative here, since we are literally playing with fire....

Yeah, like day and night. And Mon - Fri and weekends. lol. I think the 450g CV470's are too big to carry on all but extended trips. And maybe for snow melting. Those suckers are BIG.

Thanks.

HJ

Oh, boy. Tough question.

In terms of safety, I'd say hexamine (e.g. ESBIT) stoves are probably the best. They can't spill, they aren't super hot, and you can just blow them out. Of course hexamine is the most expensive fuel, has limited heating power (it's kind of weak), is very vulnerable to wind, leaves some sticky goo behind on the bottom of your pot, and there's no adjusting the flame (it's either on or off).

For new users, say a young Boy Scout or Girl Scout, I usually recommend a canister gas stove. In terms of safety, they can't spill, there's no priming, and they're very reliable mechanically. In terms of ease of use, they have relatively good wind resistance, they have good power, and the flame is very adjustable.

Gas stoves are pretty good, but you can do screwy things with a gas stove. Like too tight of a windscreen (although I generally don't recommend windscreens to new users). Or say you've got the whole troop cooking. Together. On one picnic table. All those stoves so close together, radiating heat to one another. That could be bad.

And there's always cross threading. And very reliable still isn't 100% reliable. I've had a gas canister valve jam open when I removed the stove. NEVER CHANGE CANISTERS NEAR A HEAT SOURCE OR WHEN THE STOVE IS STILL HOT.

After gas stoves, kerosene stoves. If you're going to use liquid fuel, kerosene is definitely safest. It's actually hard to get kerosene to burn. Kerosene stoves are basically like white gas stoves but with a safer fuel.

After kerosene, alcohol stoves. Alcohol stoves don't burn very hot by comparison to petroleum base fueled stoves, but you can still burn the heck out of yourself. Alcohol stoves can and do spill, and that can be very bad. Most alcohol stoves have no way to be shut off other than burning themselves out. And a lot of people have gotten burned by the invisible flames. Particularly dangerous is adding fuel when you think the flame is out but it's not.

Then white gas stoves. You can really screw up priming, and it's possible to over-pump a stove. Stoves like a Svea 123 or Primus 71 don't have a pump, but the flame is mere centimeters from the fuel. Generally, I think the remote style stoves are a bit safer (like a Whisperlite) because the fuel is separate from the flame, but then again a Svea 123 or Primus 71 doesn't have a pump, so maybe that's something of an equalizer.

Last place is wood stoves. You have to feed them. Mostly that's done by hand. You're hand is made out of flesh. Flesh burns. This is not a good combo. I've also had a number of injuries just breaking up wood for the fire. And of course, depending on your set up, there's the risk of burning the whole forest down.

So, there you have it, HJ's off the cuff take on stove safety.

Summary (in order from safest to least safe):
1. Hexamine
2. Canister gas
3. Kerosene
4. Alcohol
5. White gas
6. Wood

I think those are all the major fuels, although maybe I should include yak dung and other exotics.

HJ