it seems that refilling fuel carts has caught on lately.it started from filling camping carts from the cheaper cans made for the Asian table stoves to this gizmo,the plastic tube put me off from the get go.my fear is that someone will blow them self and everything around to bits and adapators that can and do work are taken off the market.

I hear you, but strictly speaking, there aren't any backpacking canister refillers on the market now. No company with a legal presence in the US dares sell them; the potential liability is just too great. You have to buy them over eBay. Good luck suing an individual seller who lives in China or the like.

HJ

I don't know if the seller on eBay knows how dangerous his product is. I wrote him but got no answer. I also reported the item to eBay. The item is still there this morning. I really hope no one gets hurt because of this thing. It's not instant death, but it is an accident waiting to happen.

HJ

My guess is that the margin of safety on the Butane cannisters is adequate. Hook one up to an air hose and see what pressure causes a failure. You can control the resulting pressure by controlling what temperature your fill bottle is at.

I have not heard of one blowing up inside a hot car in the desert.

As IlBob said, is this a real problem? Yes, there is the potential for an explosion, but I don't know if the risk warrants trying to take this product off the market. We really don't know what the actual risk is, other than propane does a higher pressure which may lead to problems. But without actual data or testing, is this really a cause for concern?

I wonder what was this product advertised to do? And were there any instructions on how to use it properly and warnings how to prevent over pressure? I'm not usually in favor of banning items based on assumptions, unless there was a real danger in normal use and no attempt to warn consumers of the potential dangers or evidence of problems in the field.

I would hope in a well designed system, the seal will fail long before the container strength is an issue. That being said, I still wouldn't use this product because the cost savings just isn't worth it unless I was burning through canisters every day. The few dollars a year I might spend on fuel is just the cost of the hobby. But other people might have a legitimate use for this.

I understand the issue with refilling canisters such as these is not over-pressurizing them with gas, per say.

The issue is when you go and fill them 100% with liquid, leaving no headspace. When this is done, even a slight thermal expansion of the liquid has no gaseous buffer to expand into, splitting the container.

The safety of butane canisters is most definitely adequate. On butane. Put 100% propane in that same canister, and you're very likely to have some serious problems.

Yes, but again, those are properly filled with a butane blend. This guy is selling a device which fills with propane.

Tell you what, buy the device, put it in a hot car in the sun on a hot day, and stand WAAAY back with a camera. When you've the video posted on YouTube, let me know.

HJ

Would you over inflate your car's tires by more than double their rated strength? Perhaps there are circumstances where your tires might not burst, but would you do something that extreme?

This is that extreme.

HJ

Not everyone should play with things that go BOOM. The easy part is just don't buy it. Don't whine about the guy selling it.

This product, however has some applications. There are many appliances that fail to function in the bitter cold and high altitude. Butane stoves are in that class of limp wristed products that need to be understood. At -20 deg F, this solution may work fine.

One application involves adding other liquids and gasses to the stoves bottles other than its original intent. The problem always always involves figuring out the plumbing. This guy has helped out with a turnkey product!

Here is some other fodder. Take your empty propane bottle and remove the valve by unscrewing it. Pour some of your fuel of choice into the bottle - gasoline, alcohol, Ronson, etc, etc. Now replace and seal the valve back on. Take it down to your local propane dealer and have the tank topped off. You now have YOUR CUSTOM mixture for your Butane stove.

If you want a custom mixture for your propane weed burner, add styrene packing beads and diesel before you top off the propane tank. The "NAPALM" will stick much better to the brush and grass.

Well, Cliff,

Maybe so, but most people would have no idea that it has the potential to be as grossly unsafe as it is. Perhaps at the very least my blog post will serve to educate.

100% propane in a backpacking canister actually would be fairly safe at -20F. At -20F, 100% propane would be at about 11.5 psig. Backpacking canisters should be able contain at least 100 psig (although you're starting to push it there). You'd have to be really danged careful you didn't forget and bring it in the nice warm house after your trip. But I still wouldn't use this el cheapo rig with aquarium tubing to try to transfer propane.

If you get one, let us know how it goes.

HJ