what last longer, white gas or propane?
- Thread starter roberto
- Start date
spressomon
Expedition Leader
Propane has about 90,000 BTUs per gallon. Gasoline has about 115,000 BTUs per gallon. And white gas (naphtha) has about 125,000 BTUs per gallon. At altitude an/or cold temps the differential grows.
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thebrassnuckles
Explorer
interesting...
which performs better at higher altitudes?
I have a coleman 3 burner that i just bought a conversion for, so i can have one fuel for my lantern, stove and if needed heater..
spressomon
Expedition Leader
Well it depends on what you mean by "higher altitudes". At say 12,000' I'd prefer a white gas burner with a pre-heat loop for the fuel. MSR among others make some great stoves designed to function very well at higher elevations. White gas offers the most bang for the buck IMO.
Having said that I use a JetBoil (IsoPropane) for backpacking these days and it does very well, albeit less efficient due to less pressure at higher elevations. 3-of us used it over a 5-day backpack trip a couple months ago in the high sierra. We made coffee, oatmeal for breakfast. Sometimes had soup and tea/hot chocolate for lunch and even fried up fresh trout for dinner three nights in addition to pasta, etc. I used 1/3 of the larger 450g fuel containers. I was impressed with how little fuel we used especially considering our elevation and # of meals prepped.
As with most things each choice has its positives and negatives. I do appreciate my backpack, clothing and everything else not smelling like white gas anymore ;-)
JimQPublic
New member
You will use less propane or butane than liquid fuel.
That's borne out by my own experience backpacking and car camping. The reason? Propane appliances are much easier to light and much less finicky about being throttled down. So you are likely to only run it when you need to, where with white gas or especially kerosene you are more likely to keep the burner going between courses, or boiling faster than needed.
For what it's worth, on a two week solo backpacking trip I boiled about six cups of water a day and only used 250 grams of fuel total! (Using a Jetboil stove and isobutane/propane fuel mix)
PS- Propane and butane perform better at higher altitudes because the gas pressure vs. air pressure goes up... but only if the temperature is the same. N-Butane isn't much good at cold temps because it doesn't vaporize much below freezing, while IsoButane will vaporize down to 11F at sea level. Propane vaporizes down to -40F.
That's borne out by my own experience backpacking and car camping. The reason? Propane appliances are much easier to light and much less finicky about being throttled down. So you are likely to only run it when you need to, where with white gas or especially kerosene you are more likely to keep the burner going between courses, or boiling faster than needed.
For what it's worth, on a two week solo backpacking trip I boiled about six cups of water a day and only used 250 grams of fuel total! (Using a Jetboil stove and isobutane/propane fuel mix)
PS- Propane and butane perform better at higher altitudes because the gas pressure vs. air pressure goes up... but only if the temperature is the same. N-Butane isn't much good at cold temps because it doesn't vaporize much below freezing, while IsoButane will vaporize down to 11F at sea level. Propane vaporizes down to -40F.
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Ray Hyland
Expedition Leader
This weekend we were camping along Whipsaw around 6000 ft, minus 8 celcius on Sunday morning.
Many of the propane stoves were easy to light but hard to use, including surging fuel, and dripping/leaky valves, resulting in a small fire on one stove.
The white gas stoves were a bit more tempermental to get going, but once going worked fine.
Not saying one is better than the other, but when it gets high and cold everything gets harder to use.
Ray
www.hylandadventures.com
Many of the propane stoves were easy to light but hard to use, including surging fuel, and dripping/leaky valves, resulting in a small fire on one stove.
The white gas stoves were a bit more tempermental to get going, but once going worked fine.
Not saying one is better than the other, but when it gets high and cold everything gets harder to use.
Ray
www.hylandadventures.com
xtatik
Explorer
Sounds like their may have been some maintenance issues (leaky valves?) that hindered the propane performance. At those temps and at just 6000' propane performance shouldn't be effected.
I have used both for backpack type stoves. What I did not like about propane was having partially empty containers after a trip. I always end up buying a new one to be sure I have enough, leaving me with many partial containers. With white gas, I can easily measure and bring the amount I need for every trip without waste.