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I have a bunch of partially-full Jetboil canisters from various trips, and I'm trying to figure out approximately how much fuel is left in each of them.

How much does a full canister weigh (fuel + canister), and how much does it weigh when it's empty (canister only)?

(For reference purposes, I think covering all canister sizes would be useful)

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This information is available under the Specs on Jetboil's website.

  • 100g canister: 100g fuel; gross weight 194g; empty weight 94g (51.5% fuel by weight)
  • 230g canister: 230g fuel; gross weight 356g; empty weight 126g (64.6% fuel by weight)
  • 450g canister: 450g fuel; gross weight 645g; empty weight 195g (69.8% fuel by weight)
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    I weight the canisters when I buy them and write the weight on the bottom with a permanent marker. I then reweight them before the next trip to get an estimate of how full they are. You need a scale accurate to a few grams to make this work.
    – Fred the Magic Wonder Dog
    Jan 21, 2015 at 19:05
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    I use the can weight to estimate the fuel remaining in a canister while in the field using a hiking pole as a simple balance: backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/104621.
    – Jan Miksovsky
    Jul 5, 2016 at 17:49
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    Additional data point: The 110g canisters have a gross weight between 210 and 212 grams, for an empty weight of 100-102g.
    – Ryan Cavanaugh
    Aug 31, 2016 at 16:35
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If you don't have a scale, you can still figure out roughly how much fuel is in each canister with a simple bowl of water. Drop a full canister in bowl of water and mark the water line. Then, drop an empty one in the bowl of water and mark the water line. This gives you your full and empty lines for reference.

Now you can drop each of your partially-full canisters in said bowl of water and mark the water line. Now you can estimate the amount of fuel in each one.

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    Yep, the MSR ones even added marks on the side for just this purpose!
    – requiem
    Jan 21, 2015 at 7:38

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