Butane v Propane Forums

Drifter

I've had my motorhome for just over a year and I use 7Kg Butane (blue) for the gas supply. I have just realised, however, that this can be a problem in winter.

Apparently, Butane will only work when the tempreture is above minus 4 degrees celcius, as this is the evaporation tempreture of the liquified gas. I also notice that as the gas is used, the tempeture of the bottle goes down (release of pressure refrigeration stuff). On cold nights, the gas just stops flowing.

The calor gas supplier says that I should use Propane (orange bottle). I would be interested if anyone has any experience of this and is there any price or other drawbacks with propane ? The weights are different for the same size. Does it last the same ?

dodger148

Most all year motorhomers and ralliers use propane rather than butane to save messing about in cold weather.
Flow is reduced as temperature lowers not always down to freezing and could give the impression of an empty cylinder.
There is not a lot of difference in performance between the two and you shouldnt notice any difference. Before the pro butane brigade come back arguing, if I have to I should be able to show you figures as I spent my working life in the compressed/idustrial gas business and I probably still have tech data sheets about somewhere.

autostratus · Moderator

The biggest obvious difference (apart from the bottle colour Smile

)in use is the regulator if you use the 6.5/7 kg size.

The regulators are not interchangeable between Butane and Propane.
The Butane bottle takes a clip on fitting and is easy to swop between bottles even in a restricted gas compartment.
With Propane you need a LH screw fitting and it's more difficult to swop over and usually means taking at least one bottle out of the compartment. Why is it these darn bottles always run out when making the first cup of tea in the morning!?

We use 2 Propane bottles each with its own regulator and feed a manual change over switch mounted on the side wall of the gas compartment in order to make changing over more convenient.

Gillian

EOR

Hi,

Couple of points:

The regulator fixings on these bottles do indeed come with the snap-on fixing, however, just as common it also comes with a threaded coupling, but unlike the Propane bottle it has a male thread, where as the propane bottle has a female thread, hence the requirement for different regulators.

A point worth remembering is that ALL inflammable gas bottles are fitted with left-hand threaded coupling. So all non-inflammable gas's like compressed air, oxygen, carbon dioxide etc have the more common right-hand thread.

With regard to the outside ambient temperature and which gas to use all depends on your particular vehicle set-up. Most Motorhomes have external gas lockers with no thermal insulation which can easily be effected by the outside temperature. Another consideration is where your gas pipes are routed. If they are routed under the vehicle, they will be directly effected by the outside temperatures. Some vehicles don't strictly comply with inflammable gas storage regulations and are effectively stored within the vehicle, therefore these would be less susceptible to the outside temperature (subject to the routing of the gas piping installation).

I hope the above helps you decide on whether you need to take appropriate action.

autostratus · Moderator

Steve, thanks for adding to my pool of knowledge.

We have been caravanning and subsequently motorhoming since 1974. We have mainly used the 6.5/7 kg size except for the odd Camping Gaz when abroad or the 13kg Propane. I have never come across the screw type regulator for 7kg Butane probably because the need to buy a new regulator occurs very infrequently.

Thanks again for adding to my information bank.

Gillian

EOR · Last edited by EOR on Thu Feb 26, 2004 10:26 pm; edited 2 times in total

Gillian, May I ask why you purchase new regs on a regular basis?
__________________________________________________

Heres more info.

I forgot to say left-hand gas fittings have notches machined in to the corners as shown on the following two pickies

[img:4fbd8727f1]http://www.motorhomefacts.com/albums/Post ingPhotos-1/femalegasnut01.jpg[/img:4fbd8727f1]
[i:4fbd8727f1]Female fitting, normally found on butane regulators[/i:4fbd8727f1]

[img:4fbd8727f1]http://www.motorhomefac ts.com/albums/PostingPhotos-1/malegasbolt01.jpg[/img:4fbd8727f1]
[i:4fbd8727f1]Male fitting, normally found on propane regulators[/i:4fbd8727f1]
__________________________________________ ___________________

[u:4fbd8727f1][b:4fbd8727f1]Types of gas regulators[/b:4fbd8727f1][/u:4fbd8727f1]

[img:4fbd8727f1]http://w ww.motorhomefacts.com/albums/PostingPhotos-1/butane01.jpg[/img:4fbd8727f1]
[i:4fbd8727f1]Butane screw on regulator with female thread.[/i:4fbd8727f1]

[img:4fbd8727f1]http://www.motorhomefacts. com/albums/PostingPhotos-1/butaneclip01.jpg[/img:4fbd8727f1]
[i:4fbd8727f1]Butane clip-on regulator (as refered to by Gillian above).[/i:4fbd8727f1]

[img:4fbd8727f1]http://www.motorhomefacts. com/albums/PostingPhotos-1/camping_gaz01.gif[/img:4fbd8727f1]
[i:4fbd8727f1]CaminGaz (butane) regulator.[/i:4fbd8727f1]

[img:4fbd8727f1]http://www.motorhomefac ts.com/albums/PostingPhotos-1/propane01.gif[/img:4fbd8727f1]
[i:4fbd8727f1]Propane regulator with male thread.[/i:4fbd8727f1]

[img:4fbd8727f1]http://www.motorhomefacts. com/albums/PostingPhotos-1/propaneclip01.jpg[/img:4fbd8727f1]
[i:4fbd8727f1]Propane clip-on regulator as normally used with barbeque equipment and outside heaters.[/i:4fbd8727f1]
____________________________________________ _____________

I hope the above helps you identify what you have and what you need for any conversions.

nukeadmin · Site Admin

I must say Steve, such an informative post with images and information, couldn't ask for more, keep up the good work Smile

autostratus · Moderator

[quote:c1caa7241e="Averywildwildcamper"]
Gillian, May I ask why you purchase new regs on a regular basis?

[/quote:c1caa7241e]

Irregular basis, I think.

We started using Butane in 1974 when we bought a 2nd hand caravan which came complete with 2 bottles.
At some later date we started rallying with the Lunar owners Club and as we rallied through the winter we obtained Propane bottles and bought a regulator to match.
I seem to remember some years ago that the older snap-on type were thought not to be safe enough and we bought another snap-on Butane regulator.We had the bottles to use and exchanging blue for red and vice versa wasn't as easy as it is now.
When a few years ago we bought a motorhome we bought another Propane regulator so that we could connect 2 regulators to a changeover switch in the gas compartment.

Gosh, that made me think! Smile

Gillian

autostratus · Moderator

I'm sorry Steve, I forgot to say thank you for your information.

None of us are too old to learn (look at me on the computer at 70) and it is only by stimulating debate, information sufaces which can turn out to be extremely useful.

Gillian