They are all pretty much the same thing.Originally Posted by Hikes in Rain
Time is but the stream I go afishin' in.
Thoreau
Charcoal lighter is sometimes alcohol. It's not as volatile as white gas. On a recent Scout campout, we had about half a gallon of white gas that had been sitting in our Scout shack (storage shed) for at least 10 yrs. We decided to burn it up in fires. It turns out it's much more volatle than charcoal lighter fluid. Charcoal lighter fluid seems to burn longer, while white gas burns fast.
Time is but the stream I go afishin' in.
Thoreau
My troop calls it Girl Scout Water. Boy Scouts don't need it to start a fireI used to carry a can of Ronson's Lighter Fluid on my boy scout troop hikes to use to start campfires.Totally not in the Boy Scout Handbook, but very useful in a pinch.
The scoutmaster even borrowed it one damp day to get the fire going!
We called it "Boy Scout Water".
Time is but the stream I go afishin' in.
Thoreau
No, it's a form of kerosene/mineral spirits.
"Boy Scout Juice". Name applied to ligther fluid, Coleman fluid, kerosene, or gasoline when used for fire starting in my youth. My fondest recollection of its usefulness, is from the time Tailgunner and I, having grown tired of building fires after camping for several days, tried something new. We poured coleman fuel in the middle of a sandy dirt road, waited a few minutes to let it soak in, and threw a match. We were roasting our hotdogs over an invisible fire when a jeep drove by, too incredulous to stop and talk. Best hot dogs ever.My troop calls it Girl Scout Water. Boy Scouts don't need it to start a fire
Cabelas sells the Zippo brand. I use Coleman fuel without any problem.
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When the Trail calls you,
its not on your cellphone!
i came across mine last year and used them while watching the boy play soccer in near freezing temps in february. they still worked, but look like they need the elements replaced. i've had a couple burns last 8-10 hours and they work extremely well if you can put them in pockets that are close to your chest. if you use them without the cloth bags, they will burn you up quick.
Old post - yup - folks
O White Gas is Gasoline without additives
O Charcoal Lighter Fluid is Kerosene
O Zippo Fluid is Butane
O WD-40 is Mineral Spirit and considered a cleaner and lubricant.
Last edited by Wise Old Owl; 11-13-2013 at 00:23.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
Zippo sells Butane for their Butane powered lighter.
The Zippo fuel you need for the hand warmers is the Premium Lighter Fluid and that is a type of naptha , similar to the Coleman fuel.
I have the Zippo hand warmer(I believe made by Peacock) I use Shellite, the local version of your White Gas/Coleman fuel.
For a young boy, there was something magical about those hand warmer's, the soft silk like sack they came in, and about the name Jon-e. My older brother had one back in the early 50's, and he got upset with me when I would take it out of his drawer.
Funny. In our Boy Scout Troop, we called it "Girl Scout Water", based on the well known fact that Girl Scouts couldn't start a fire without itI used to carry a can of Ronson's Lighter Fluid on my boy scout troop hikes to use to start campfires.
Zippo fluid is not butane. Zippo fluid is naptha, as is white gas. (zippo does sell butane as well, but it's in a pressurized container) Auto gas is similar to naptha (being a petroleum distillate), but has additives. Interestingly coleman fuel is only about 55 octane, so it's not useful to use in a car except for dire emergencies.
Time is but the stream I go afishin' in.
Thoreau
And ,BTW, who in his right mind would want to use WD 40 as fuel for a hand warmer or a lighter ?
Apart from the fact that is a lubricant, it costs several times more than the correct fuel plus how could you put up with that smell?
Ok, so I am on another boat. I am headed south, it is really cold. I found my old hand warmer just like this in my junk box and it is in my hands right now.
how much fluid do the instructions recommend I put in it? I think I just hold the flame to the wick to light. It right? I have noT used this since I was about 12....
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Favorite quote;
I recently resurrected my regular size Jon-e handwarmer (gift-Christmas '64). I was looking here and other forums for information about fuel. Wow! Lots of vague and contradictory information—here and elsewhere.
I used to use Jon-e fuel and found later that Ronsonol Lighter Fluid worked the same as the Jon-e. I was hoping to find a simple way to choose a suitable, cheaper fuel. The whole idea of using of something described as 'naphtha' is not at all descriptive. The term "naphtha" is borrowed from the Greeks—who used it to describe any petroleum derivative, from crude oil on up, and has historically been used as a generic name for any petroleum product. The specifications (actual makeup) of a 'naphtha' varies greatly. The mention of "paraffin" content worried me at first—it sounded like the presence of candle-like paraffin wax which would not vaporize easily and would maybe deter the catalytic action of the platinum on the element. A quick chemical refresher reminded me that paraffin merely refers to an aliphatic hydrocarbon where the structure is of an open ended straight, branched or ring nature. If the structure is a ring with alternating single and double bonds it is deemed to be "aromatic". Benzene is such a structure and aromatic compounds of all sizes are often referred to as "benzene rings".
Liquid petroleum products are most always merchandised as a combination of several different chemicals which are either created that way in the cracking, distillation (or other) processes or they are combined to create the desired attributes (boiling point, flash point, viscosity, toxicity, etc). It seems that the bottom line for fuels for handwarmers with platinum catalyst heating elements is that most all of the fuels mentioned will work if they lack components other than fairly low molecular weight aliphatics (no other additives) which may inhibit the catalytic action.
As regards the use of Coleman Stove fuel; I looked up the MSDS (material safety data sheet — http://www.coleman.com/uploadedFiles...y/lantern.pdf— and it lists five aliphatic components with from 5 (pentane) to 9 (nonane) carbon atoms. [The more carbons (in general) the heavier the molecule, the heavier and the more volatile, flammable, etc. it is.] It appears to have no kind of additives for anti-corrosion, lubrication, or otherwise. They would have to be listed in some fashion in the MSDS, even if proprietary.
Someone stated in a blog that CF burned hotter and worked fine in their handwarmer. I always use it in my Svea 123/Sigg Tourist cook set and in my Zippo Lighter when at higher elevations and/or cold weather. It is the most volatile fuel for handwarmers that I’ve seen mentioned anywhere. My problem has always been keeping the thing lit, so I decided to give it a try. Since I ran a batch of Ronsonal first, some of that may have remained and I may not have gotten the full effect of the lighter CF but it did run hotter although it was not much, if any, better at staying lit. I know that the things need oxygen to operate and I have always tried to make sure there was sufficient but I have never ever been able keep it lit in any pocket. In addition I found them worthless at altitude. I tried to use it ~20 yr. ago when I was doing a lot of +10k ft. skiing and while it would start it was, of course, even worse in a pocket. My current problem is probably due mostly to deterioration of the element. It barely glows in a few spots and is nothing like the overall rosy glow I remember from when it was new. I’ll probably see if I can rig up some kind of replacement.
WD-40 is not a lubricant. It is a rather lousy lubricant and it's lubricity is lost as soon as soon as it begins to dry. It was designed as a water displacement compound which was used to dispel moisture from aerial bombs and other munitions hence, W(ater) D(isplacement) (formula)40. It is great as a penetrating oil to loosen frozen nuts & bolts. You can safely spray everything under the hood of a car to retard corrosion and to restore electrical flow where it has been leached away by moisture (esp. in aging, cracked ignition wires). I used to hang at the 1 ft. deep river crossing on the Santa Ynez River crossing above Santa Barbara) in the spring when people would race across the concrete ford at high speed and the water spray would snuff their motors. I would offer to get the cars running for $5 a pop, collect first, then spray my 'secret spray' from a generic spray bottle and never had one fail to start right up. Most probably believed it was some kind of ether based starter fluid. ~ $100/hr. was long dollars for a college student in the early 70's. One should never use it on locks, except as a very last resort, just graphite. It will collect dust and begin the end the life for most locks.
Hmm never seen or heard of these before . How does it work ?
I forget where I got this - and I have each and every one of these in the basement metal storage cabinet. Thanks - I can see I wasn't clear.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
Mark,
Yes I am aware* that WD stands for Water Displacement (and 40 happens to be their 40th attempt at the formula...) , I used lubricant as a quick (lazy) way to describe it because my point was that I cannot see how anyone in his right mind would think of using that inside a hand warmer simply because of the cost and smell, nevermind the fact that it isn't the right stuff anyway.
* I looked that up years ago when I thought of using that as a bike chain lubricant. ( no it isn't...)
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