High Sierra Topix

I just bought one at Safeway, and it was $10 for one!?!?!?!
Is anyone else paying that much? It seems like I used to pay $3-4$ a piece, which was reasonable.

Don't use them but I have seen one with a stuck valve in a campground near Tioga pass. Couldn't be fixed. The valve froze open in the 14 degree weather. Tried to fix it for the women who stopped next to us, but to no avail, other than a little freezer burn on the fingers.

https://www.amazon.com/Propane-Fuel-Cyl ... 5342&psc=1

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-Prop ... thena=true

Yeah, you overpaid. About $4-5 is what I usually find them at and I don't go looking for the cheapest deal. Never had one "freeze" open. That seems quite unlikely although the valve could get jammed with some foreign material.

Well, the women unscrewed it at 14 degrees and it stuck open. We just let it vent.
agree on overpaid.

rlown wrote: ↑Tue Feb 19, 2019 7:58 pmWe just let it vent.

That's a waste. Should've screwed it onto a stove and kept it like that. It's what I've done on the rare occasions that a backpacking canister has stuck open.

Oh well, it's just a tiny bit of petroleum. Got plenty more!

Fortunately there are a LOT of stores near me that carry both butane and propane cans. It has been my experience that the prices vary wildly between stores. I find that grocery stores are the highest. And between stores, some will have cheaper small cans, some cheaper big cans. In my local Big 5, the large butane cans are very reasonable, the smaller ones outrageous. I have had good luck at Big 5 and Sportsman's Warehouse. Got a good price on the green propane cylinders at Ace Hardware. Walmart has good prices but what they carry is spotty and inconsistent. They only carry Coleman butane. REI prices are about in the middle of the pack and very consistent year to year. At least I get the 10% back.

hmmm...I'd hate to see what they cost at Death Valley. A small can of lighter fluid was $14.99. We had a five gallon propane tank for our barbecue there so didn't check the small can price.

Our last green can purchase was at the Bishop Kmart a couple of weeks ago. With our previous purchase receipt, we got a random $10 off coupon when spending $10 or more. So we picked up a two pack of the green containers that was marked $10.49. That's all we bought. When we checked out the propane came up as $8.99 so we got change (!?!) Didn't argue about that...

longri wrote: ↑Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:00 pm

rlown wrote: ↑Tue Feb 19, 2019 7:58 pmWe just let it vent.

That's a waste. Should've screwed it onto a stove and kept it like that. It's what I've done on the rare occasions that a backpacking canister has stuck open.

Oh well, it's just a tiny bit of petroleum. Got plenty more!

I did try to screw it back to the stove. That's how I got freezer burn on my fingers. It wouldn't fit back into the threads. Then my friend tried as well and it still didn't fit.

There are some of them that are certified as refillable. There also are adapters that let you connect one to a standard 5 gallon cylinder and pour from the big tank to the little tank using a special stand that holds the big tank upside down at a higher level than the smaller one. Although the cylinders are certified as non-leaking, there are also brass caps you can put on them just to be sure. Refilling is way cheaper than buying new and disposing over and over.

There are also 1 gal and 2 gal cylinders (5 lb, 10 lb.) with the same connectors that a 5 gal container has. These can be refilled at hardware stores, etc. that you normally can get your RV propane tank refilled at. The 1-2 gal sizes are perfect for camping out of car, truck, van. You can attach single burner cookers to the top, also ceramic heaters, lanterns, etc.

Anyone wanting links to any of these things, just say so.

This episode was two women from Georgia. They didn't refill the can; it was just cold. If I could have screwed the can back in, I would have dumped luke-warm water on the valve and tried again.

And yes.. No to refilling the tank.