Where do you usually buy gas cartridges while traveling?

Bike Tech and Kit

I'm certain that I would easily purchase it if I were staying in the city, but I prefer camping in campsites or the wilderness.

in bikepackingby Zoltan_Balaton

60%

15d

_MountainFit

15d

Edit: it's actually HEET no idea why I had H.E.A.T in my head. Anyway, HEET is available at any supermarket, convenience store, gas station, etc. Sorry for being stupid.

This is why I use an alcohol stove. I used to think they were stupid but they actually are great for basic water heating which is all I do.

Hear me out on why.... H.E.A.T...Available at most gas stations around the country and probably world.

I start my trips with pure denatured alcohol but that last a few days (I mean I could take as much as I want, but I take like 8oz or so). I refill with H.E.A.T at the gas station. Works almost as well. I've done test and it's close. Not as hot burning but you won't notice it unless your timing it.

Other advantage is the whole setup is really small and modular. Packs down tighter and smaller. Probably lighter. I suppose I could even use collapsible bottles for the alcohol/H.E.A.T

pancakedrawer

15d

Love my trangia. They are bulletproof. I guess that’s why the Swedish army uses them.

MaksDampf

15d

What does H.E.A.T. stand for? Google finds lots of unrelated stuff? just curious. In my country we call it Brennspiritus, but every country has a different name for ethanol which is why trangia has a list.

Btw, little tip from a longterm alcohol stove user: If the alcohol is too diluted to burn or its so cold that it is hard to light it: Just add a little piece of toilet paper as a wick. it can even run on vodka like that. Less heat probably, but the pots stay cleaner too due to the evaporating water preventing smoot buildup.

_MountainFit

15d

FML... It's HEET.

HEET

MaksDampf

15d

Ty, seems to be a NA thing, never seen that here in Europe at gas stations. But nice to know that works too as a fuel!

_MountainFit

15d

Could be because it doesn't get cold enough in most of Europe. That's just a guess as someone who hasn't been to Europe but does have a general sense of climate. It's just generally a lot more temperate in most of Europe. also now that I think about it, not sure if I've seen this in the southern US as freely as it's available in the northern US. So perhaps I jumped the gun saying it's available everywhere. But any climate that has winters that regularly see temps in the -15C range will have it. That's pretty much the entire northern US and Canada.

Alternatively, if you have a liquor store, you can just use everclear or a similar near 200 proof alcohol. Or go to any hardware store and buy denatured alcohol.

To me, all of these options (and they are all options) make alcohol stoves great options over canister stoves where you have one option... Find a canister (or cold soak.)

Whatever you do avoid isopropyl alcohol. It doesn't burn that hot and causes a lot of soot.

carbon_space

14d

HEET is Methyl Alcohol. Sold as a gas-line antifreeze.

If you can find it buy the yellow bottle vs the red bottle which contains isopropyl alcohol. I’ve never had to buy a bottle on the road but learned the hard way that the HEET bottles are not leakproof so I pour them into a fuel bottle.

Zoltan_Balaton

13d

It's good to hear that you use an alcohol stove, although it's completely irrelevant to my issue. Thanks anyway. ;)

_MountainFit

13d

Right. But the reason I switched to alcohol (which I thought was kind of a niche sort of thing that only weirdos used) was that it turns out it's super easy to find fuel. So yeah, I didn't solve your particular issue but I did give you a much better alternative to consider moving forward that eliminates the issues you face.

And you are welcome!

R2W1E9

15d

You are not going to find them in wilderness, but campsites and gas stations will almost certainly have them.

whatcolourisgreen

15d

It might be wise to consider an msr whisperlite international. Those things run off anything, camp gas, gasoline, diesel, isobutane. Hell it’d probably run off moonshine. Theres a primus stove like this also.

Matt-Bikes

14d

I love mine! Used them in my high school outdoor ed class and later bought one for myself. Figured it’d last me forever if it can stand up to years of abuse by inexperienced teens, including myself at one point; I forgot which way to turn the valve and the flame was like 3 feet tall before the teacher came running over and turned it off. Another group in my year didn’t tighten their fuel bottle enough leading to the entire device getting covered in fuel and catching on fire. Both stoves worked flawlessly afterwards

[Image]

Here’s mine on its first (and currently only) trip, that’ll be changing this year as I’ve reduced my work schedule for the summer

Also I’m pretty sure they explicitly say jet fuel is an acceptable fuel to use

Zoltan_Balaton

13d

No, but thank you regardless. :)

pervertedpapaya

14d

In Europe, every Decathlon has them. And Decathlon is all over Europe.

zenslakr

15d

the ultra lightweight ones you don't find everywhere, mostly just towns that have a lot of camping activities or are known for being tourist towns. you can have them shipped ahead of you to post offices and RV sites, etc.

Zoltan_Balaton

15d

that is a good idea with a post office, thanks

MaksDampf

15d

On my recent trip to albania i was shocked that i could buy different gas cartridges on many occasions but it was almost impossible to find ethanol for my trangia. After very expensive drinking grade alcohol we eventually found some 70% ethanol in a pharmacy for a reasonable price. 1 Liter is enough for several weeks of coffee and dinner cooking.

I used to think you can get alcohol way easier anywhere in the world, but in albania apparrently gas cartridges are also very common in mini markets, hardware or utility stores.

Still i'll keep my 1970ies trangia since the whole package of pots, pan and kettle is still the most compact, lightweight, practical and robust that i have encountered yet.

chickpeaze

14d

In small towns in Australia, you can sometimes find the backpacking ones at hardware stores