G Works Gas Saver Plus

This is a follow-up to Alpine1's review of the FlipFuel device and others like it.

The concept of these devices is clever. They work (for a while), and the device will eventually pay for itself.

Two things Alpine1 did not point out is there are a handful of different brands of these things, and they're not all equal, and it is very easy to overfill a canister.

First, the FlipFuel device in particular—the threads appear to be aluminum, which will be its weak point. Aluminum threads will strip out easily rendering the device worthless. If you're serious about using one of these things for a long time, seek one that has brass threads.

Right now on Amazon, the FlipFuel retails for $35. Alternately, the "G-Works" device retails for $30 AND has brass threads. Plus, it's made in Korea (that's a good thing). The FlipFuel is made who knows where.

I've refilled canisters no fewer than 30 times with the G-Works device. As an FYI, I've managed to reuse the same canister around 10 times before I unwittingly over-filled it.

This brings us to the second thing to bear in mind. You can very easily over-fill a canister—I've done it twice now. 

You can partially refill a canister when both donor and receiver are at room temperature, but to completely refill one, the receiver canister does need to spend an hour or two in the freezer, or the donor canister needs to get warmed, but that's a bit risky.

The two canisters I compromised occurred when I transferred around 130g of fuel. There's a reason the little canisters only come with 110g. It's easy to exceed 110g, and most of the time I end up with 115 -120g when refilled. The only times the canisters bulged is when I pushed it to 130g.

It will take some trial and error time to get this process dialed in, but it's a great way to save money. I opportunistically buy the big 16-oz cans and use those for the donors.

Background

Close to 8 years, and at least 30 canisters worth of fuel.