Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => Gear Questions, Information, Reviews and Competitions => Topic started by: suspectmonkey on April 22, 2010
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Ok, I've finally given in and bought myself a gas stove to play with. Ended up getting the Primus Express Stove (http://www.primus.eu/Templates/Pages/ProductSheet.aspx?ItemId=66864), because the Pocket Rocket is soooooo common :D Any way, I grabbed a Coleman C100 canister to go with it so I could have an obligatory brew in the back garden to test it out.
Question - is it normal to hear/smell a tiny bit of gas after the stove has been screwed to the canister? The instructions that came with the stove got me a bit paranoid, because they seem to imply there may be some kind of nuclear explosion if you so much as look at the stove the wrong way. Swedes, eh! However, after screwing the stove to the canister I could hear a very faint hissing noise and a slight whiff of gas (no funny comments). Just to reassure myself I followed the instructions to check for any leaks by smearing some soapy suds over the connections to make sure there are no bubbles showing a leak. Nothing showed up. So I went ahead and lit the stove any way and it all seemed to work fine. Had my cuppa tea ready in a couple of minutes and a nice clean pot afterwards. After I shut the valve off and the stove had cooled down though I could still hear the faint hissing noise. So I'm not sure if there is a tiny leak, or if this is totally normal and I'm being utterly paranoid.
Thanks :)
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Its usual for a small amount of gas to escape when screwing the stove on and off.
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Its usual for a small amount of gas to escape when screwing the stove on and off.
To be honest, this is more like a sustained hissing sound rather than gas escaping when its being screwed on/off. When I took the stove off the canister I heard the puff of gas escape which I gathered was normal as you've said. But its more the fact that even after the stove has been attached to the canister for 5-10 minutes I can still hear this faint hissing noise.
Kinda hard to describe though, so maybe will let one of you fellas pass your judgement next time we are out together!
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It should just let a very small amount escape as the stove breaks the canister seal before you screw it home. Make sure the valve on the stove is fully to the off position before you put it on, I can't see it being that big a problem as you'll only ever be putting the stove on to ler gas escape and set it on fire! although you'd prob have a case for an exchange if you can be bothered.
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What about trying a different canister incase it was faulty
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What about trying a different canister incase it was faulty
Yep, turns out it seems to be the canister. On my way home I picked up a new canister and its fine. The canister I bought last night to go with the stove was a Coleman C100. This one is a Go-System canister. No hiss, no smell of gas.
Question now is, does my wee Primus Express stove just not like Coleman canisters very much, or have I just been unlucky and got a canister that isn't sealed quite right. Guess wont know unless try another Coleman canister, but dont really want to waste another £4 on one. Maybe I can try it out on someone else's cart at the upcoming overnighter to see if it seals ok on other carts.
Speaking of which, I bought the Coleman 100 in Tiso for £4. This afternoon I bought the Go System 250 cart from Surf Mountain for £3.25. Not sure if it makes any difference but the Coleman carts are butane/propane whereas the Go System carts are butane/isobutance/propane. Not sure if that affects performance but given the price difference will be buying them from Surf Mountain from now on.
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I usually find the coleman ones are the best, I used a few go systems ones and they seemed to loose pressure near the end faster than the coleman ones. You prob just got a bad one, sometimes they can sit on the shelf for ages, and depending on how they are stored the threads can corrode a bit.
There's tons of different combo's of butane/propane every kind of pane! I dont really think it matters that much but as far as I'm aware propane can cope better in colder weather.
Other than that its plan sailing mate! If you're anything like me you'll soon have tons of half empty carts abou,,t that your not quite sure if they'll last a weekends camping or not but refuse to let anyone throw them out!