On 15/01/2011 22:17, robgraham wrote:
On Jan 15, 12:41 pm, Clive wrote:
On 15/01/2011 11:24, BartC wrote:

I shall stick with my Coleman lamp
and Optimus stove, both run on pump petrol, no fuss at all.

Now petrol, in or near a tent, I *would* have an objection to...

Decent petrol stoves are good. I can run mine safely in the bell end of
a small tent, although that's reserved for when it's ****ing down.

and Skipweasel

Bah - petrol's horrid stuff to have in a tent. Go for paraffin every
time.

Don't need to prime my stove :-)

I'd probably use neither for a big stove though - gas seems to be the
answer there.

As a traditional camper for the reason that camping was developed I
regard you lot as a bunch of woosies and poofters.

Electricity, televisions, computers - what a bunch of wasters.

Depends what you're doing. Many round-the-world travellers take
computers with them - I don't think I'd regard somebody who was riding a
bike across eg Siberia to be a woosie, poofter and waster :-) And if
you're near the car, why not? I'd avoid the TV, but the laptop can be
useful, especially in these days of 3G broadband.

And as for petrol in a tent, that is serious madness - I've seen
several near disaster accidents with petrol and regard it as the spawn
of the devil where stoves are concerned. Gas has it's hazard but at
least it it is contained within a container. And paraffin, bless it's
heart, if the stove is upset, all that happens is a very unpleasant
atmosphere of paraffin vapour and a hole in the groundsheet from the
flame spreader.

If you'd said petrol had to be treated with respect, then I'd agree with
you. But it's not madness, serious or even minor, to run a decent stove
in the bell end of a tent, taking appropriate care.

Respect includes things like not refilling the bottle in the tent, but
somewhere away from it, making sure the stove can't be upset (you'd have
to try really quite hard to upset mine anyway), not running it on a
groundsheet, and keeping an eye on the stove while it's running.

The petrol is contained within a well sealed container (*), same as gas.
I do wonder if you're thinking of older stoves - I remember having
amusement with some little ones back in the 80s, but the ones I have now
are rather different.

(* I've seen MSR stoves burning leaking fuel, and ISTR them having a bit
of a crappy design of seal on their bottles, but I prefer the coleman
equivalents anyway - no priming in the same way, can't overpump,
controllable.)