How timely. I've often wondered about that.

Blake

www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Jim,Thanx Alot for the info,That should be made a Sticky,Very valuable info,Indeed!

Interestingly, there aren't that many easily used figures out there on white gas consumption.

These numbers are my numbers based on my style and my equipment. They're going to vary by individual, with the conditions, and with the stove employed.

HJ

Just another data point-

I've used Coleman Peak 1 stoves for backpacking and jeep camping.

One year I was curious about how long the stoves (I had 2 at the time) would run. So one winter day I filled them up and ran them full blast.

Both lasted 45 minutes on full output.

Note that there is inefficiency in the startup/warmup phase so for actual use with several start/stop cycles on that tank of fuel one wouldn't get 45 minutes output.

I use pre-heating paste to soften the startup flares an minimize warmup time.

There are a lot of stoves out there that can burn unleaded. Most people see "can burn unleaded" on a stove and assume that the stove will burn unleaded equally well as white gasoline, which is typically not the case.

Unleaded contains additives which help a high compression, high heat engine such as the one in an automobile run well. A backpacking stove doesn't operate with that kind of heat and compression. The additives in the gasoline will be left as deposits in the generator and jet. Your stove will generally clog more often, and you may also need to replace the generator.

Also, as someone mentioned, the ethanol added to gasoline may degrade over time the seals of a backpacking stove.

In the short run, unleaded will work; you'll just have to be prepared for more frequent clogging. In the long run, you can create problems for your stove.

Generally, I recommend white gasoline or kerosene (K-1 grade) for stove use. If you have to, then sure, use AV gas, unleaded, jet fuel, etc, but if white gas or kero are available, always pick those first.

HJ

Once I left some unleaded gas (with ethanol according to pump) inside a brunton bottle, in two days time the plastic cap (including threads) became soft enough I can easily make impressions with my fingernail, freaked me out and I've been extremely wary of gasoline since.

With kerosene it has been over two months without problem. Although kerosene isn't good for simmering from my experience, turn it down too much and there isn't enough heat feedback to vaporize (the type of generator that pass though flame may fare better).

"I've noticed that I use something on the order of 1.5 fl oz (44ml) of white gas on a solo trip per day. For two people, I find my usage is something on the order of 2.25 fl oz (67ml) per day."

I have limited experience with Coleman fuel stoves. But on one summer 2-week trip with 12 people in our group, we used 3 Whisperlite stoves at meal times (breakfast and supper, dinner was a simple snack). We packed roughly 2 oz per person per day but since the bottles need airspace it worked out to about 1.2x that amount. Each of us was assigned a 33oz bottle. (Some of the gals "lost" their fuel bottles in the guys packs with our consent.) I fugured we carried about 330 oz for the group or roughly $40-45 of fuel. We ended up with 3.5 bottles of fuel at the end. So we probably only used about 1.4 oz/day/person including stove priming. And with so many rookies with white gas stoves, I figure that usage is on the high side as we probably wasted fuel in the priming stage.

That's quite a bit more efficient than if we had packed alcohol stoves but less efficient & less expensive than if we had used canister stoves.

Presumably, we gained efficiency with such a large group vs. your average with 2 people.

Yipes!!


I've stored white gas and kero in stove fuel bottles for multiple years at a time. No problems. I would not try that with unleaded. The unleaded may a) eat your seals and b) is not stable and may do some separating.

HJ

Generally, the more people sharing a white gas stove, the more efficient it's going to be on a per-person basis. A certain amount of fuel gets wasted on priming and start up. A certain amount of fuel gets wasted on shut down. That amount is about the same whether 3 people use the stove or 1. If you spread that waste out over three different people, the per person amount is reduced.

It's also generally more efficient to heat three cups of water at one time than it is to heat 1 cup three times.

All those things add up to greater efficiency with a shared white gas stove. This is why I don't say something like "bring 2 fl oz per day per person." A group is typically more efficient. If you bring per person the amount you'd bring when you just go alone, you'll likely end up with a lot of leftover fuel.

HJ

As we did... 3.5 bottles left over! If we had been better organized and skilled with the stoves it would have been at least 4 and possibly 5 bottles left over. I had a few complaints about the way our trip was organized. I won't mention the organization but in terms of equipement -- we had heavy 4 season tents, superfluous group gear, extra training gear that got little use, 3 partial bags of food left over including some CANNED food that I didn't know about, gorp that nobody could stomach, kayaks that needed repairs, 60-lb 72 litre backpacks that nobody knew how to adjust except me and a couple of people that were all-out jerks.

But enough of that... we were discussing quantities of white gas.
Rules of thumb can be used. I still think a XX oz./person/day rule is as good as any. If one uses 2 oz/day for one person to 1.75 oz/person/day for a group of 4-5 and 1.5 oz/person/day for larger groups is a good a starting point as any. Then factor in personal habits of whether people have a late coffee/tea, whether they have a hot or cold breakfast, the season (cold weather camping may require snow melting), use of boiling to sterilize water, what type of dish washing is done and whether the group chooses to abstain on cooking on the last day.

You could calculate a similar number when using other types of fuel like alcohol or cannister stoves.