Life's A Gas

[MauriceMynah]

Hi all, I'm thinking of swapping over from Butane to Propane. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of such a swap.

[Viking23]

You get more therms per £1 with Butane, ie heat more water, but marginal.

Propane works when outside temperature is close to freezing or well below, butane does not. 

The propane regulator that bolts to the propane bottle, being brass to brass doesn't always seal that well, so excess force may be needed, as on butane there's a rubber washer that seals better.

I have bought a propane regulator that has a rubber washer, with a wheel adjusted clamp, so no spanner required. This has solved the gas leak, but to be fair, not sure if BSS approved. No leaks must be better than having propane wafted around though.

 I also keep a spare butane regulator to hand, in case there is only butane gas available.

You have to be competent to fit regulators, I have a gas leak spray to test my pipework etc, that's how I found the propane gas leak.

Hope it helps.

Propane for us all the time now.

Richard

Edit to add. gas regulators have a limited life, so not a bad idea to replace them now and again. 

[SueH]

We always use propane (the light weight ones) in the caravan as use the can all year.

Propane works in cold conditions.  We haven't had it freeze on us yet in over 35 years of caravanning.

[Viking23]

Forgot to add, re swapping Calor gas, you can exchange propane for butane if in the same range of bottle sizes.

Unfortunately not all dealers know this, so insist they call their Calor supplier on the day.

[Polly]

Swapping to propane solved my cooker woes, Calor is muckier. Winter users prefer propane too, from what I have noticed.

[quo vadis]

I prefer the red one never did like blue 

[Malanka]

We use propane but don't forget you can use Flowgas which is a mixture of the two. 

We have two bottles permanently connected and an auto switch set up. Works really well. Big jobs mind none of your namby little bottles. 

Flow rates are higher with propane so the BTU per volume doesn't add up as equal as like for like Butane has more energy but a quick check will reveal that propane regulators have a much higher flow rate than butane ones. Propane tanks and butane cookers will melt the pan stands ( I jest not) the jet in the cooker is important too. MM as you winter cruise too I would go propane.... every day of the week ... 

[teadaemon]

Strictly speaking, what is sold as both propane and butane is a mixture of the two (not to mention a number of other gaseous hydrocarbons), and what varies is the ratio of that mixture.

As far as I'm aware, cookers can generally be supplied with burners suitable for natural gas, (mostly methane) or LPG (either propane or butane), but burners designed for LPG will produce an acceptable flame pattern and be perfectly usable with either propane or butane, providing they're connected via the appropriate regulator. This is why bottle connections are different for the two gases, but getting around that can be done if you're irresponsible enough to try, either by using some sort of home-brew adaptor, or by refilling bottles with the wrong gas. Please do not take this statement as any kind of encouragement to try either though, as both have a large potential for danger to both the person carrying them out, and others who might be near them. As with many things in life, just because you can, doesn't mean that you should.

[MauriceMynah]

I did realise that I would need to change the regulators on Nyx to do this change over, and no, I wasn't planning on trying to "Get around that".

I had two concerns. Firstly would my cooker need any adapting / replacing and second, Value for money for the gas itself.

[teadaemon]

Just now, MauriceMynah said:

I did realise that I would need to change the regulators on Nyx to do this change over, and no, I wasn't planning on trying to "Get around that".

I had two concerns. Firstly would my cooker need any adapting / replacing and second, Value for money for the gas itself.

If your cooker has an appropriate burner for use with butane (which would appear to be the case), then (barring any specific advice in the owner's manual to the contrary, which would be unusual) I would suggest it should be fine with propane at the appropriate pressure.

To be honest, unless you're calculating the cost of boiling the kettle to the exact penny, I doubt you'd see much difference in value for money between propane or butane. As others have suggested, as you cruise all year round, the cold weather performance of propane is likely to be the most obvious difference. 

[grendel]

I have used both with equal success with both the caravan and with the gas barbeque. I tend to go for propane now so I can use it on colder days. (though I do believe I have one of each at the moment).

[Vaughan]

I agree with Teadaemon but would go one step further.

For installation, the big difference between the gases is the pressure. Butane is more efficient in heat than Propane, but Propane works at higher pressure, so your cooker, if it is not a new "dual fuel" type, will need new - smaller - jets. Otherwise, as someone else has said, it will melt the pan stand. Worse, it will burn with an imperfect gas to air mixture and will emit CO.

Dual fuel simply means that modern regulators work between the two pressures, and so they should be good for both but in reality, a cooker like the SMEV is designed for Propane and will only work properly (and safely) on that. It is a fact that big refineries such as Total/Fina/Elf are wishing to do away with Butane gas and so you may have difficulty in buying it in bottles in a few years time.

I am sorry John, but for the sake of safety I think this is a job for a qualified gas fitter.

 

[MauriceMynah]

It's just one of those things Vaughan, I fitted gas in a friends boat back in the 70's then changed the installation in my first boat, again back in the 70's. In the 80's I bought a GRP hull and superstructure (complete with floors and main bulkhead) I fitted that out installing the gas.

When I refitted St Christopher (mid 90s ) I did the gas installation, and when I replaced the cooker in Nyx, again I did it myself. On all those occasions it was with Butane, I've never used Propane before. I shall have to try to find the book of words for Nyx's current cooker to confirm whether it's ok for Propane but from what you've said Vaughan, it sounds like it should be.

One thing I have picked up within this thread is that it's a wise precaution to renew the gas regulators from time to time. I shall in future do that. How often though? Five years or ten?

[teadaemon]

There's no specific age limit on regulators or hoses, both BSS examiners and Gas Safe engineers work on checking the condition. As a rough guide though, replacing hoses every five years and regulators every ten wouldn't be out of place.