Real life experience with regular use of auto gas in msr stoves

Regularly fly out west to climb and one hassle we always encounter is getting gas for the stove before going to the Craig.  If we get there early enough it’s not an issue but often most gear shops are closed and it’s easier to bring the msr dragonfly and fill up at the gas station. The plus side is it’s easy to bring s funnel and put the remainder in the car before flying home.

The downside is I also go to alaska a lot and it would be a pain to have the stove crap out on the glacier due an o ring failure which I hear is more likely with gasoline than using white gas.

Curious if anyone has real world experience with any failures due to regular use of auto gas in a stove.

Debating getting a separate stove for flying Craig trips and dedicating that to auto gas.

The downside is I wouldn’t use my other stove as often as it’s nice to know the status of it before flying onto a glacier which is easier to do when u use it all the time. 

I’ve done this a lot in India. Gasoline burns dirtier and you need to do a lot more cleaning of the fuel line and the jet than with white gas. Mostly it’s a hassle. I’d recommend bringing along a full repair kit including an extra pump cup valve, o-rings, and gaskets. MSR makes an “expedition repair kit” that’s great for this.

really though Alaska is not the Himalayas and you can for sure get white gas there. It burns cleaner and you wouldn’t need as much. From an efficiency standpoint it’s totally worth buying the right fuel

I used my whisperlite international bike touring and backpacking for hot breakfast and hot dinner over about 300 days. Plus another 100 or so camping\climbing. 90% was gasoline from all around the world. I've replaced o-rings maybe once. Did a full stove maintenance session once or twice. Some of these days, after all the hiking, were below 0F or near 0F in the Adirondacks. Anyways, if i did a full tune up on my stove prior to alaska I'd be very confident in it running on gasoline. And bring a small spares maintenance kit for confidence. 

IMO regardless of what fuel you burn, it’s pretty silly to not test your stove before going on an expedition and equally silly to not bring a repair kit. Not having a working stove is an expedition-ender, especially on a glacier.

I’ve run a whisperlite for a month on gnarly blue-dyed kerosene in India and besides needing to clean it almost every day, the o-rings seemed okay. But we also replaced them just before going on the trip, I don’t know how older hardware would hold up. 

Unfortunately, I've had negative experiences with using gas. My whisperlite international stove got clogged after just a few days of use, I had a repair kit, cleaned it thoroughly, it worked for another day... And again the same thing happened. I henceforth resolved to use white gas and the stove still isn't working properly. Maybe some irreparable damage was done? Or perhaps it was an unrelated issue, which seems possible from reading the comments above... 

https://www.msrgear.com/on/demandware.static/-/Library-Sites-cdiSharedLibrary/default/dw32b17bb3/pdf/manuals/11774Dragonfly_Instructions_33-950_ENG.pdf If you scroll down to the section labelled "Fuel Information" it says "the use of Unleaded Auto Gas may shorten stove lifespan.". My own experience using unleaded gas in a Whisperlite is that it burns dirty, smokes and soots up my pots. I also found that gas station owners weren't too happy to see me filling an MSR bottle at their pumps. 

I have used a whisperlite international stove with gasoline over many years in Africa, South America, and USA. I’ve never had any issues or replaced an o ring, although I don’t think they put ethanol in the gas in most of those countries. I did shake it before/after every use and occasionally have to do a more thorough cleaning. I tried kerosene one time and it made everything sooty, so I never used it again.

But anyway, I think replacing an o ring is pretty easy. If you’re satisfied with how the stove functions using gasoline, then I don’t think you’re at significant risk of your stove becoming inoperable as a result. I’d still bring a repair kit if the stove was critical and there’s no chance to go back into town. 

I’ve used my Whisperlite on gasoline quite a bit (motorcycle touring), probably 50 days at least?  It’s never had any issues.  I do replace the o-rings occasionally, and I always carry the repair kit if I’m in a place where some failure would be problematic.  It does seem like there is more soot buildup on the stove with auto gas.

For climbing travel within the lower 48, I probably wouldn’t choose a whisperlite anyway, canister stoves are easier for camp use in normal circumstances in my opinion, and gas cans are pretty easy to come by.

Mostly unrelated, but I had a stove failure when I was unable to get a good seal between the stove and the pump due to some roughness on the bottle (nothing in the repair kit to fix that).  We were able to get it to working after aggressively scrubbing with scotch brite but it was finicky.  I guess the moral of this story is to keep an eye on the condition of your bottle, in addition to the stove itself.

If you’re just doing short trips, zippo fuel is white gas and is available at most convenience stores ($7/12oz).