Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
Don't try charcoal lighter fluid in a stove designed for what is commonly known as white gas or I prefer to call it Coleman Fuel because everybody knows what Coleman fuel is.
To be clear, I said to
test any fuel you might substitute at home where you can clean the stove if it doesn’t work.
While these can be confused, there really isn’t so much of a difference between the properties for the confusion to cause much of a problem. They are both petroleum distillates with similar properties and slightly different boilI got and flash points.
Most of the confusion comes from the fact that the vast majority of the population has no clue as to the chemistry of most anything. For example, the Wikipedia page on “white gas” says that white gas is the equivalent of “pure” gasoline for automotive use. I assure you that it is not. “White gas” has an octane rating of about 50. Put in a gasoline engine and the engine won’t last very long.
Charcoal lighter fuel has a flash point close to kerosene, near 100 degrees (F). I have tried charcoal lighter in a stove that could burn kerosene and it worked fine. I however only tried it to see if it would work in the event of an emergency, I have not used charcoal lighter on an extended basis.
Again, my advice is to try it at home to see if it works. If it doesn’t, no harm, no foul. Perhaps carrying a different jet would allow a user to extend the fuel range. Jet changes aren’t that difficult. Lighter fluid and mineral spirits (white spirits)
are not kerosene. The carbon molecules in lighter fluid and mineral spirits have 6 to 10 carbons per molecule while kerosene has 12 to 20 carbons per molecule. There are several other properties that would make the materials perform differently.
Again,
test it at home.
But Coleman fuel has a flashpoint closer to automotive gasoline, about minus 40 degrees.
No it doesn’t. People often see the word “gas” and immediately go to gasoline. “White gas” and “gasoline” aren’t even close to the same materials nor do they have the same properties. “White gas” has a flash point of 0°F (-18°C).Automotive gasoline has a flash point of -40°C (-40°F). “White gas” is flammable. Automotive gasoline is damned close to an explosive.
The generator in a stove for kerosene has to be much hotter than for Coleman fuel to vaporize the fuel. And Coleman fuel has a different ideal ratio of oxygen to fuel mixture than kerosene which is why some multi-fuel stoves use a different jet for each fuel type. Thus, a stove designed for Coleman fuel is not going to work well or might not work at all with charcoal lighter fluid.
Again, lighter fluid and mineral spirits aren’t kerosene. They burn differently. The boiling points are also different. Kerosene has a higher boiling point. And, yet again, test at home.