Kerosene shelf life?

G

Gadget54

Joined
Apr 19, 2002
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A simple question but how long will Kerosene last in my containers in the garage?

Gadget54
 
without treatment, 6 months to a year is as long as I would want to store kerosene from commercial tanks pumped into my kerosene container. If you are buying factory sealed tins of kerosene or coleman fuel or whatever there should be a date on the container, probably representing a very safe date for manufacturer's safety, with a bit of grace period after that ranging somewhere between 5% and 500%.

If you are buying kerosene to store in your containers for longer than this, you can get various stabilizers to add to it. I have heard good things about Sta-bil and others, some more than others, but I have not had a chance to test it long term yet. Either way, I doubt that you can get better than 5 to 15 years no matter what you do with it.
 
Thanks Grommit,

I ask because I have 10 gallons in two cans in the Gargage. I bought these in 99 but have used very little in the Kerosrene heater.

Maybe I'll just pour them on the next Bonfire and get new stuff.

Gadget54
 
using them in a heater is much less demanding than in a generator or vehicle. Worst case, the heater will not burn well and the wick will clog. As long as it is continuing to give acceptable performance, why knock it? If it is giving ok performance still, you can still add some stabilizer to bring it back up to complete snuff and add a couple more years to its life.
 
I love kerosene. Since I started using it in lanterns (wick type and presssure)my heater, and my latest addition, an MRS dragonfly packstove, I have used it a lot. I still have stuff from 1999 that I use and I notice no diffence. I have added so (expensive) stabilizing junk but I'm not sure it matters. I have studied everything I can find on this issue and there is no go answer. More importantly not once have I seen anyone offer a clear case of their kero going bad. I should do an experiment myself. I actually leave my kero outside and it gets over 100F here for weeks at a time. I've yet to see any noticable degredation. Now, there was a spell (in 2000, I think) that I was going through a lot of wicks on my heater. I think it was a certain batch of kero that I got from the hardware store. I blended it away and haven't had real problems since. Of all the kero appliances, the heater, with it's big wick is the most sensative. The Petromax pressure lantern, I think could burn a kero/water mixture (exaggurated). My plan has always been to use the old kero in the lanterns (both pressure and wick) when I noticed a performance loss in the heater. But as I said, I haven't yet noticed any loss. I did get a special funnel that removes the water, if it happens to get into it, but since it's so dry here, even that I haven't needed. I think your kero is still good. Buy a lantern from W.T. Kirkman and start using it for fun.
 
My father has some from the 1980's and it is still good in his small heater. Not sure if he put in a stabilizer.
 
I didn`t even know this was a problem. I`we used kerosene, which had been stored in a plastic can for several years, on my Optimus stove without any problems.
The can was bought on a local gas station. Maybe they already had added stabilizers to it ?
 
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