OK, so for an update:

After a bunch of other home projects got in the way of my fun tinkering, I've finally finished rehabbing the propane stove (which promises to be the much easier of the two stoves). Mostly, there was grease on it, and the rusted burner rings, etc. I cleaned all that, and spray-painted the burners, etc. with a high-temperature metallic engine block paint, then cured them in the oven.

Careful reassembly, hooking everything up and testing the connections with soapy water showed no leaks, so I fired it up and success - flame on the burners and no explosions.


So, not bad for $11 and some elbow grease. Of course, getting the list of cleaning supplies and paints recommended in the tutorial has ended up being something like $35-$40, but a lot of it is stuff I'll end up using on other projects - carb cleaner, Simple Green, etc.

A few more questions for the peanut gallery: Upon reassembly, I noticed that my propane stove has the burner bracket, but not the stovetop (basically the plate that catches the grease under the burners). Can anyone see a reason why that would be a big concern, or something I'd need to replace? [As I was typing this up, I searched Coleman online and found that the stovetop is only for the 5410A700, and mine's a 5400A700 - they share the paper instruction booklet].

My next question - I see written on the small propane canister and other places that you never refill the small propane canisters, and yet I have seen adapters for refilling the small canisters being sold. Is this the incredibly bad idea it seems like it could be, or a great way to save money and the public is being warned away from the practice by overcautious legal staff at Coleman, etc.?

Finally, is there a better/best adapter set for running a small stove like this off of a grill-sized tank? I've only seen adapters at Wal-Mart, and while they look kind of expensive to me, I also don't want to be buying expensive junk if there's a better alternative.

Soon, the rehab will begin on the Coleman fuel grill - a much bigger, more involved job than this one was.

Thanks all

Dave