gaslow cylinder problems

peejay · Campsite DB Admin

Having had problems in cold conditions with my gaslow cylinder, a problem also encountered by another forum member (jacqui), I took the liberty of ringing gaslow last week and was forwarded a copy of the email sent to jacqui, see her original post here -

smifee

why can't a small blown air pipe be run from outside the van through the locker as they do for water tanks?

i'm sure as usual there's a reason why my simple idea won't work Rolling Eyes

jondeau

Hi peejay......I must admit that I find the whole subject becoming more and more complex. But your posting was most enlightening.

I am (was) a gas fitter, but from a different age...

To me, it appears that commercial considerations are once again taking precedence........(it is cheaper to produce butane than propane).

Safety wise, I do not think it would create any real problems.......but inconvienience wise.....??????

Such is the commercial world we now live in........

___________________

Would I turn a cylinder upside down and empty it ?

Even if I was wearing thick gloves and pointed the valve downwind, whilst in a remote area...........

No, I'm not going to risk being sued.

metalmicky

Very enlightening postings, never new they'd stick butane in with the prop'
do they do this in Eire or Uk ?

As for emptying them well let me digress, some 15 years ago I did my first offshore survival course and part of it was a day playing with smoke/flares and fires, especially cascading burning derv and this derv was ignited by 3 x 47K propane cyc's being turned on ,lit and then pointyed at the derv,

Over 20-30 mins we each had to try to bring things under control. not a chance the propane would not go out, the instructor just wandered up behind the cyc's and one by one turned them off !

Mike

peedee

Thanks PJ for further information.

Mike asked
[quote:1ed3587374="metalmicky"]Very enlightening postings, never new they'd stick butane in with the prop'
do they do this in Eire or Uk ?Mike[/quote:1ed3587374]

The original problem was brought to the attention of MotorhomeFacts by Jacqui in this posting [url]http://www.motorhomefacts.com/posts4117-0.html [/url]

It would appear in some continental countries, the Autogas (LPG) has quite high percentages of butane mixed with propane. The exact mixes probably vary with country to country and with the seasons. It would appear very little if any butane is mixed with autogas in the UK but whether this will remain so is another matter. No idea what they do in Eire,
but even if in the future butane is mixed with propane in the UK I cannot see it being a problem because it is only rarely we suffer prolonged very cold spells

peedee

trigrem

Interesting post as we are considering fitting Gaslow bottles.
As a comment to any possible problems in the UK if a Propane/Butane
is supplied I have used gas cartridges on backpaking camping stove which had a 85% Butane 15% Propane mix at -5 degrees C while I was still laying in my sleeping bag, with the cylinder resting on frozen ground and still managed to provide my morning cuppa, although sometimes I had to wrap my gloved hands around the cannister to make the water boil So I would think with a cylinder in a gas locker and off the floor it should not be a problem depending on the mix.
Doug

Anonymous

Hi All
Further to my original posts it is good to see the info from Gaslow. We have been trying to work around the problem as we travel. We always park where we know we will get some sun on the cylinders then we insulate the tanks as it gets cold.We have two cylinders one large one small. We use the small tank at night first then as it starts to freeze usually by 1-2am we switch tanks onto the large cylinder this is still freezing up but there is usually enough to get us through to the morning.Then we try to warm the bottles again. We have met other travellers with the same problem. One did suggest diverting warm air into the locker from our blown air heating system so we are looking at how we can do that.

Will watch any further developments with interest, we will still be in The Alpes for some time yet and temps have been between -6 and -17 degrees so will let you know if we come up with anything else to help!

Kind regards
Jacqui

Anonymous

There are thermostatically controlled heating belts made to around two demijohns for wine making, they are 240volts but as they would be very low wattage could be run from an inverter, if they were plugged in from outside the gas box I would not think fire hazard to be minimal.

Any thoughts?

Ken

Boff

Hi,

I wouldn't call this a commercial issue. The LPG tapped at fuel stations is intended for [i:7476af9730]automotive[/i:7476af9730] use. And here it is no problem as the gas is taken out of the liquid phase.

So refillable gas bottles can be considered a kind of "misuse" of this system. Which is, by the way, illegal e.g. in Netherlands!

Unfortunately I am not too confident regarding low power heating wraps: Evaporation of LPG can consume [b:7476af9730]a lot of heat[/b:7476af9730]. And the more gas is taken out of the bottle the colder the bottle gets. Ever seen a gas bottle on a construction site getting iced on a hot summer day? I have.

The chemical heat wrap might be more effective, but of course once it is "ignited" it can't be switched off anymore and 12 hours operation time is not too much.

[quote:7476af9730="smifee"]why can't a small blown air pipe be run from outside the van through the locker as they do for water tanks?[/quote:7476af9730]

Besides from being illegal (the gas box must always be sealed air-tight against the interior of the motorhome and the blown hot air comes from the heating and the heating air is drawn from, guess where...) it would also be quite dangerous: Just imagine a gas leak in coincidence with a defective heater where the flame is not completely isolated from the air vent system: Gas leaks into the gas box, from there through the air pipe into the heater. Suddenly the heater decides it is now cold enough to switch on again: [b:7476af9730]BOOM!!![/b:7476af9730]

Best Regards,
Gerhard

smifee

hi gerhard

oh dear i have got an illegal van Shocked

my gas compartment can only be opened from inside the van.

i think that the present compensation culture is the cause of the 'this packet of nuts may contain nuts' syndrome.

how far do we take 'if this fault happens at the same time as that fault '. we are told that we musn't use gas on the move and advised to turn gas supply off before travelling. the yanks run their fridge freezers on gas whilst driving and fill up with petrol with it running. how many filling stations have been blown up by this Question

i'll carry on with care life's too short for me to get safety obsession syndrome. i like a gamble. life will be even shorter if i make the wrong bet though Wink