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Anne Elk
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Anne Elk
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PostFri Jul 31, 2020 4:13 pm 
pula58 wrote:
don't panic.....as a guy at REI told me "Let's not make stove fuel the new toilet paper."
I guess it's the new TP now - REI is officially out of stock. mad.gif I was shopping online for an upcoming trip and need to replace my defunct white gas stove. Was planning to buy an MSR Pocket Rocket, but all stores are now showing the fuel cannisters as unavailable. But if there's no fuel to be had, it's kinda pointless. Can anyone recommend a stove alternative using white gas? I'm not familiar with any of the "modern" ones. My dead one is an old Coleman Peak 1.

"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
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Ski
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PostFri Jul 31, 2020 4:21 pm 
Ohhhh.... really?? I think I've got a couple canisters here somewhere.... White gas stove: I run an MSR "Dragonfly" in the field. Noisy as hell when you first start it up, but they work great. A wee bit of a learning curve involved learning how to prime it and fire it up, but easy peasy once you figure out that part. They also make a "WhisperLite" but I've never used one of those. * wait... I might well have a SPARE Dragonfly here... let me dig around and look.... I think I ended up with an extra when MSR repaired one for me.... *

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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PostFri Jul 31, 2020 4:29 pm 
yeah... I have a spare Dragonfly and a whole mess of MSR bottles if you want to borrow this one for a while. you know how to get ahold of me. BK

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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Malachai Constant
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PostFri Jul 31, 2020 6:38 pm 
Dragonfly Designed for melting snow works great but is a real barn burner hot but difficult to throttle. Whisperlite a bit better and quieter more efficient. Old school Optimus, Primus, and Sveas work but more tricky to start and do not simmer. Coleman Peak 1 simmers well but heavy.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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PostFri Jul 31, 2020 6:44 pm 
^ I've simmered rice on my Dragonfly many times. It can be done. Not as good for simmering as the Peak1, but considerably lighter.

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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coldrain108
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PostFri Jul 31, 2020 7:21 pm 
Malachai Constant wrote:
Coleman Peak 1 simmers well but heavy.
Not really heavier than others, as the unit is the fuel, bottle, pump, hose and burner all in one. About the same as other white gas stoves of that ilk when you include all the parts and the fuel in the bottle.

Since I have no expectations of forgiveness, I don't do it in the first place. That loop hole needs to be closed to everyone.
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Anne Elk
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Anne Elk
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PostFri Jul 31, 2020 7:50 pm 
^^^Yeah, you could practically use those old Peak 1's for boat anchors. clown.gif I just got off the phone after talking to 4 different people at REI. I phoned the 800 number to find out if they could tell when more MSR gas cannisters would arrive. The CS rep could see that they had thousands of them floating around various distribution centers but that some glitch in the system wouldn't let him see fulfillment dates. He put me on hold and returned to say that their IT people were aware of the problem. He suggested I phone any of the stores directly about available supply, since what he could see probably didn't correspond to what was going on in the stores. The flagship store CS person confirmed that they were definitely out of all brands of gas cannisters, but she bumped me up to one of the guys on the sales floor. He said they'd gotten a shipment today and it disappeared almost immediately. "More could come tomorrow, but nobody knows for sure." He suggested I just order it online and wait on the backorder ( I have at least 2 weeks or more before I need it). So I tried that, but the online system wouldn't let me proceed to checkout with an item that wasn't available. So I called the 800 number again to see if THEY could backorder it. NOPE. So it is kind of like a TP problem. We'll have to keep trying our luck at the stores. Don't everybody all stampede in there at once at 9 am, eh. huh.gif

"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
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80skeys
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PostSat Aug 01, 2020 9:52 am 
Anne Elk wrote:
I guess it's the new TP now - REI is officially out of stock. mad.gif
For Pete's sake. And you know most of the people stocking up on those are never going to use them. All those canisters are going to sit unused in their homes for an "apocalypse" that will never come. And I'm flying to Seattle in a month, where I'm going to need to pick up some fuel before heading to Olympic NP. I don't know if you guys are talking about the same kind of fuel. I just use the little Coleman 250 canisters (70% butane, 30% propane) that screw onto their little Peak 1 stove. I've got some full ones here at home, but obviously can't carry them on a plane.

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Kat
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PostSun Aug 02, 2020 8:18 am 
Yep, any 110, 250g canister isobutane mix fuel is pretty much unobtainable. I ran into this a couple of weeks ago myself, and got lucky with a very kind person who posts on this site that helped me out. Also, looks like even denatured alcohol is unavailable for an alcohol stove - ?? When I was out looking the only thing I saw was a very limited supply of white gas in 1 gallon size, and those big green 16 oz Coleman propane fuel canisters. This is really nuts... I did see some horribly overpriced off brand canisters on Amazon, I think it was.

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neek
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PostSun Aug 02, 2020 8:30 am 
You don't need to cook while backpacking. I've gone 5 days without and it's fine if you plan accordingly. In some ways preferable even. Simpler.

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80skeys
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PostSun Aug 02, 2020 8:40 am 
Kat wrote:
Yep, any 110, 250g canister isobutane mix fuel is pretty much unobtainable.
That's discouraging. I might have an adapter to connect those tall 16oz green Coleman canisters to my Peak 1 stove. If I can find it and test it, then I'll take it in case I have to resort to that. If I were driving to Seattle, I'd just take the fuel I have at home. I've got several unused canisters that I've collected over the years because I don't get out backpacking as much as I'd like to. Each 4-5 day backpacking trip I do, I only use about 1/2 of those little Coleman 250 canisters.

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Kat
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PostSun Aug 02, 2020 9:09 am 
neek wrote:
You don't need to cook while backpacking. I've gone 5 days without and it's fine if you plan accordingly. In some ways preferable even. Simpler.
Cold coffee??? shakehead.gif that alone is worth bringing fuel LOL! But yes, good point - there are alternatives to cooking. And I've brought in frozen precooked meat that nicely defrosted by the time I got to my destination.

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EJ
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PostSun Aug 02, 2020 10:11 am 
I found 8 oz canisters of Sterno-branded isobutane at the Fred Meyer yesterday, the kind that look just like the MSR canisters (same color.) They are normally $5.99, but were a dollar off. The FM in Kirkland had 3 left, but I ended up buying 2 of them. I refill my 4 oz canisters with one of those gadgets you can get on Amazon. I also saw several cans of Coleman white gas at the Dick's Sporting Goods store in Northgate. No canisters to be had, however.

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Anne Elk
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Anne Elk
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PostSun Aug 02, 2020 10:46 am 
Called the REI flagship store today at 10:30 (Seattle). They had the 8 oz MSR cannisters in stock. You can order online for curbside pickup. Looks like you must pickup same day, though, as I wasn't given an option. They email you when it's ready. biggrin.gif

"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
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Kat
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PostSun Aug 02, 2020 11:55 am 
Sweet, looks like they haven't sold out yet at Seattle.

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