UKH

Hi,

Next month I am planning to fly (Ryanair) to the south of France for a few weeks of backpacking. I know planes don't allow gas cartridges/ liquid fuel in hold luggage, but what about the used stoves themselves? From the older posts on here, people have said some airlines are funny about possible fuel residue and I don't fancy throwing away my stove at the airport for the sake of a £35 flight! 

(Still deciding between taking liquid fuel MSR WhisperLite or gas Trangia)

Has anyone had any recent experience taking stoves on planes?

Thanks

Just put it in your hold luggage, if its multifuel make sure its clean, gas powered head won't be an issue.

Gas stoves should be fine (just leave them out to vent so there's no residual gas smell).

Liquid stoves they can be very funny about because it's hard to remove all fuel residue.

I'd take the gas Trangia.

Maybe rinse with meths/alcohol to remove the fuel residue then rinse with water to remove the meths/alcohol residue.

Ethanol mixes with both  many organic liquids and water so it's a good intermediate step for getting rid of liquids (eg organic fuels & solvents) that don't mix with water. 

I ran into this years ago. The issue was the fuel container rather than the burner which I was told had to be 'chemically cleansed' if it was to fly after exposure to fuel. Nobody at the airline could define what that meant. It'd been boiled in soapy water but soap and water aren't chemicals apparently, who knew. They flew it as freight instead. Quite mad but it was a strange time.

jk

I was always told coke was good for removing fuel residues, personally I never bothered and have never had an issue travelling with my msr liquid fuel stove. Sometimes it  does seem a bit luck of the draw though.

I always covered up the fuel symbols on the bottle and took the lid off ready to claim it was a water bottle! Thankfully never challenged though.

As mentioned, use hold luggage and clean the bottles with hot soapy water.  Make sure you leave the lids off otherwise it encourages them to check the bag.  The stoves should be left out in the sun to dry thoroughly (don't use soapy water on these!)

With the above, I haven't had a problem yet.

New movie title?

Never had an issue with stoves in the hold, the policy is odd anyway when you look at all the flammable stuff sold in duty free. 

You might find this article of interest

https://www.andy-kirkpatrick.com/articles/view/getting_your_stove_past_chec...