The power goes out. What next?

And Yikes!

I just checked the price of Coleman brand premium kerosene and found it for sale on Amazon.  Just out of curiosity I checked for it price--$10 per 1/4 (32 oz.), or $40 per gallon!  That makes gasoline, kerosene, diesel, or some mixture of the previous three look a LOT better!

Eric

The normal Coleman fuel that I use in my stove goes for $18 per gallon at local hardware stores. I don't know what the deal is with the premium Coleman fuel.

Jeremy VanGelder wrote:Hey Eric, if you are thinking about Coleman stoves, you might consider their old school kerosene stoves. You have to pump them but there are a few advantages:

1. They are user-serviceable.
2. They haven't really changed the design since World War 2. You can stick brand new seals and pumps on a 50 year old stove or lantern and it will work perfectly.
3. They are technically all multi-fuel. You can run on kerosene, white gas (which is just kerosene without contaminants) or unleaded gasoline. The additives in gasoline will gum it up a bit faster than white gas, but it will still run. I think you clean the lines out with pipe cleaners.

The modern Coleman stoves marketed as Dual Fuel have gas generator pipes that are a little bit larger. So it takes them longer to gum up when using gasoline.

Whether you go with propane so some other kind of stove, I am sure you will be happy with it whenever the power goes out.

I have some safety concerns here. Ex-backpacker talking, with a wide collection of liquid fuel stoves (Coleman, MSR, Optimus).

Using white gas/Coleman fuel (which is basically gasoline without additives) in a kerosene stove is a significant fire hazard. While the guts of the multi-fuel stove remain the same, the jet must be changed to control the amount of fuel entering the mix and burn zone. All my multi-fuel liquid stoves came with two separate jets for the user to install based on the fuel to be used  (gasoline-family or kerosene-family).

A very correct point: all gas or gasoline appliances carry a potential danger, especially when a person is in a stressful situation; once a gas burner caught fire in my hands and I would not want this to happen to a woman or child.  A safe and effective solution is a trench candle.  This is a can of cans containing corrugated cardboard impregnated with wax or paraffin, which allows you to prepare food, illuminate the room and keep warm.  If there is a need for emergency heating, connect 2 square pipes 60 cm long and place them on top of the jar.  the fire from the trench candle will heat these pipes without soot coming out.  On top of the pipes, cuts are made that can be bent and a pot or kettle of water can be placed.  A supply of trench candles does not spoil, is not so expensive and is very safe and to make it you need wax or paraffin, corrugated cardboard, empty tin cans and 2 square pipes.  Trench candles can also be used during evacuation.

Douglas, everyone,

Your warnings about using gasoline are warranted.  I did check the website for one of these Coleman stoves and gasoline was actually one of the allowable fuels, though as I have stated, that is not my first choice.  I would think that mixing a small amount of gasoline with kerosene might make the flame burn with fewer contaminants and it might light up easier.  Still, I am extremely leery about using gasoline inside my house.  

All of this makes me think that the propane stoves are the better option.  One of the little propane bottles can give several hours of burn time.  A full sized propane tank would get through just about any emergency.  And if we run out of cooking gas from a propane tank, then we probably have other problems as well.

Eric

If we are so desperate for fuel that we run out of a full tank of propane, then maybe some little wood-burning camp stove like the one mentioned HERE:

https://emberlit.com/products/emberlit-titanium-backpacking-stove-multi-fuel-collapsible-wood-burning-stove

is more appropriate.

The little stove is a folding style backpacking stove made from titanium.  It should be completely resistant/overly resistant to warping from any heat source that we are easily able to find.  Obviously, it could only be used outside, but it would be heat.

Eric

The only fuel's I'll use indoors is natural gas propane and wood,even then the way their suppose to be used.all other type of fuel's,I won't use indoors,on account I consider them as unsafe for indoor use. I've been doing a better job of preparing for outages since February 2021. I've pretty well got heat covered. I'm now looking into the propane camp stove/oven setups.and hopefully I'll find one that's indoor safe. That way I'll be able to cook and heat the place at the same time.

Jim,

Propane has very similar properties to natural gas.  It definitely heats hotter that natural gas, but from a safety standpoint it is pretty much identical.  It is a very clean-burning fuel.

I do have a propane fireplace that we use for both aesthetics and for supplemental/emergency heat.  I really pumps out the heat!  Typically we only use it at the lowest setting.  If we are without power (we have heat pumps) then we might turn the propane fireplace to the full setting.  It easily puts out enough heat to heat the whole house.  The only drawback to using the fireplace as emergency heating is that without power to run the circulation fans, some parts of the house get nice and toasty warm while other parts can stay pretty chilly.  That's what blankets are for!  Not long ago we put a second propane fireplace in out basement and that fireplace nicely heats up the entire basement quite well.

Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:If we are so desperate for fuel that we run out of a full tank of propane, then maybe some little wood-burning camp stove like the one mentioned HERE:
https://emberlit.com/products/emberlit-titanium-backpacking-stove-multi-fuel-collapsible-wood-burning-stove
is more appropriate.
The little stove is a folding style backpacking stove made from titanium.  It should be completely resistant/overly resistant to warping from any heat source that we are easily able to find.  Obviously, it could only be used outside, but it would be heat.
Eric

Wow! Only 6 oz in weight and it comes apart and reassemble without any tools! At $80.00, it is a bit pricey for me, but when you consider that it will never rust, so essentially last forever, you can pass it on as a heirloom to your kids.
And since we are getting close to Christmas, if you have an ardent backpacking fan, that would be a great present. They even have a smaller one, but that is really small.
The size feels small, especially if you are going to have a large pot on it [like for a family] at 5.5" x 5.5" x 6", but for one person, it is more than adequate. [6" is the height.
I can't wait to see if they can make a slightly larger one, for a whole family?

The Coleman stoves I use have a honeycomb matrix in the vapourizer tube that works well with Coleman fuel but gums up with car gasoline, which is a witches brew. The only solution used to be replacing the vapourizer or running carbuerator cleaner through it. Perhaps they have solved that problem -- I haven't checked out the latest models.

Note that gasoline is more volatile than Coleman fuel/white gas, hence more dangerous.

Please do not mix fuel families. A stove is designed to operate on gasoline variants or kerosene variants. A mix of the two risks either incapacitating the stove or lighting the whole mess on fire.

Personally I would NEVER use a liquid fuel stove indoors. I have seen too many close calls outdoors, including inexperienced people lighting the whole surface of a picnic table on fire.

As for propane, have you noticed how the cost of those little 1-lb. cylinders has gone insane? I hoard a few since they never go bad, but I'm not paying that. And I would not bring a bulk cylinder with an adapter hose indoors.

The only stove I would use indoors is the butane stoves used extensively in Asia. These are relatively safe if supervised and they have some safety measures built in. Cylinders are cheap if purchased at an Asian grocery or market, and they don't go bad. One of these little dudes: we use it for Korean bulgogi meals on the kitchen table.

A very long time ago, when I was living in France and went camping, we noticed how so often German folks used kerosene lamps and stoves inside their tent with disastrous results. I was maybe 10 and didn't know why this was happening. My dad told me they are using kerosene inside a tent. I never knew why using it *inside* a tent was bad but not outside. Then one of our German neighbors cooking outside also caused a fire. I've never trusted kerosene.