Spoke with a Coleman yesterday, who told me that the shelf life for their Coleman liquid fuel is 5-7 years if unopened and 1.5-2 years if opened.  If it smells like varnish or is gummy, then it's bad.  

Cabela's in Ft. Worth had Coleman fuel for $5 per one-gallon can.  They were a little dented but still looked good.  I picked up three.  Academy had probably 35, but they were running $6.50 or so per can.

My primary reason for calling was to see if the two-burner liquid stove I bought (which recommended Coleman fuel) is dual fuel like my small backpacking stove.  It is not.  So if the box does not say dual fuel, it isn't.

Anyone know the shelflife for the Walmart brand liquid fuel?

Thank you for presenting the coleman fuel life expectancy. Good to know. I'll date my cans and make sure the caps are on tight. I treated the white gas with Pri-G that I had transfered to a 5 gallon fuel container.

I have some thats 10+ years old opened sealed container smells and works as good as new fuel.

I dated mine for a general guideline and will probably use it up by then for scouting, etc.  If not, I'll keep it until it goes bad as the representative indicated.

I'll see what I can find out on Walmart brand.  I've got a can of that too.

The coleman fuel in my dad's old lantern must have been 15-20 years old and it still worked. It was a bitch getting the lantern going at first but it worked.

93 OCT. gas works great in Colemans. We used gas in are four over 35 years. The Dual fuel models came out so they could sell more lanters.