John in AR

When doing some work & re-stowing of stuff in the shop on Saturday, I decided to run a test on some old sterno type fuel that was out there. Not genuine sterno brand - the brands were ‘canned heat’ and ‘safe heat’. The canned-heat can was only probably a year or two old and was partially used from our recent campout. The canned-heat was a new, unopened, and very old can. I pulled it from a case bought at Sam’s that I know was bought pre-y2k; so at least 12 years old if not 13. It’s spent probably half its life in a climate-controlled environment, and the other half in a non-climate-controlled shop. I knew I’d be a good while in the shop, so I decided to set them inside a gas grill & light them to see how good they were, if at all; especially the old can.

I lit them at noon (give or take five minutes) and checked them occasionally as I went about the stuff I was working on. The partially-used can of canned-heat was no surprise; it died somewhere between 4 ½ and 5 hours after lighting, exactly as expected. It was relatively new & fresh, and partially used to begin with, so it performed just as it should have.

The very-old safe-heat brand did surprise me – it not only lit fine, it burned for a little over six hours; again, just as a new can should. What made it such a surprise was that the accepted rule of thumb tends to be around 6 to 8 months depending on brand; and even though this one was 20-25 times older than that, it performed as new. Since the can was undamaged & sealed, I halfway expected it to light & work for a little while, but I expected the fuel to be seriously degraded and get a much-reduced burn time. Definitely surprised that after 12-13 years, it still worked as well as a new & fresh can should.

Just thought I’d pass along what I found, for any that might keep some of this on hand for emergency use.

{edited to correct names of old & new brands}

Unalist

Thanks for the info.

It's always good to test out and rotate your stock.

DaRkWoLf

You're talking about the sterno-brand kind that uses denatured alcohol, ya?

That's good to know. I'd imagine they work as long as they're airtight and stored cool.

John in AR

Yes, but not genuine sterno brand. The sterno uses a pop-in lid (or at least used to), where the safe-heat and canned-heat brands use a screw-top lid. Not sure if that makes a longevity difference due to the different seal integrity, but I've reat that the actual sterno brand doesn't last near that long before going bad. Can't swear to it; just read it.

Also, I put the names wrong in my original post - I'll edit & correct it.