Freezing Camping Gaz

toxicturtle

Guest
Hi Folks
Just back from a weekend away in the Carrick Forest, Strinchar car park. Brilliant star viewing first night and great buch o folk arrived the second for an outdoor birthday party! Only prob being it was that cold, the gaz froze and was wondering if a 12volt/watt heating mat to warm the gas bottle above freezing point would safely work.
 
Were you using Butane or Propane. You may know already but just in case Butane freezes much sooner than Propane.
 
Yup butane

Yeah is butane, had same issues wi "blueys" in the army but didn't think it would have been that cold in the van tho admittedly was cold enough to watch the waterfall starting to slush over. Have found a 30x15 cm 12 watt heat mat n was hopin it could stop it next time.
Cheers
 
It didn't freeze, it just stopped gassing. So what you had in the bottle was liquid Butane but no vapour.

To be honest, that method may work, but personally I wouldn't have anything electrical in the gas locker. If there was a spark, and a gas leak at the same time, then bang! Unlikely, but why take the risk. Just use propane for cold weather camping. Simply change the bottle and the regulator.
 
If the cylinder is in the van it only needs a tiny bit of heat applied to the top of the cylinder to get it going and then the van should soon warm so the cylinder should then keep going. We used to do this when we where tent camping by putting your hands on the top of cylinder but you may have to put a thin layer of material between metal and skin in very cold weather. If its well below zero then you need propane.
 
Somethig else we have always done in cold weather is to fill a large flask with boiling water last thing at night so we can have coffee without getting up in the morning. Whats left would have enough heat to get a campingaz cylinder going, no problem. If you don't want to slosh it about pour into plastic bag or rubber glove and put that on top of cylinder.
 
Yep, boiling water method is a much better idea if you are going to stick with the butane.
 
Gaz

Prob going to switch th propane then. Do they do the bottles about the same size?
 
Yes they do bottles of propane in 3.9kg, 6kg, 13 kg & 19kg

6Kg is the most common size for motorhomes. I always carry 2.
 
They will not swop a gaz cylinder for a calor but if you go to your local dump they will let you have a calor cylinder for a couple of quid which may well have some gas in and then you can swap it for full one ,when its empty, for any of the sizes above. To buy cylinders from calor will cost you a lot more and they are all second hand. Google calor for sizes and prices.
 
We have just made the switch from Calor butane to Calor propane. Don't know why we did not do it sooner:(
What a difference - no more cold mornings in a cold van - it was funny how the butane always worked when we did not need it to heat the van before getting up, but when we did it was frozen :confused:
All it took was a swap of a cylinder (no extra charge, and size is the same but contents slightly less - 3.9kg not 4.5kg - and I think the gas is marginally more expensive, but that may just be the increase in VAT), a new regulator and about 10 minutes of the OH's time:D:D
 
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