Butane or Proppane?

[T+T]

hey hey, we're about to set off on our travels around Europe and have a quick question about gas. we have a bottle of orange (which if I'm right is Propane) and a blue one (which I think is Butane) we've been told by someone that it's difficult to get Propane in France so we were considering just taking the Butane, any tips or advice? and will our cooker run on both? we've got a 1989 T25. we're travelling around France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco, so just wondered if anyone knows which is the best to take??

Thanks
T+T

[Ian Hulley]

The cylinder valve connections in France are different from dear old Blighty and Johnny foreigner doesn't exchange their cylinders for ours.

Ian.

[T+T]

Cheers, do you know about the other countries??

[andisnewsyncro]

Camping Gaz is available in all 4 places you mention. I've PM'd you as was starting to waffle on a bit

[rugchucker]

As above
Butane 907's are available throughout Europe

Propane is better when cold weather as it still vapourises below freezing point. Butane has a higher calorific value so burns hotter, but oesnt vapourise below zero

Des

[Ian Hulley]

If you're still relying on 907s good luck to ya .... they weren't even available here 2 years ago.

Ian.

[andisnewsyncro]

If you're still relying on 907s good luck to ya .... they weren't even available here 2 years ago.

Ian.

Maybe they were all in Europe ......

We always have a 904 or a 907 as a "standby", but generally just get a "local" bottle for an extended trip, most of them (that I've used anyhow) have an adapter available into which you can screw a Camping Gaz reg so it saves swapping regs over. It seems the closest there is to a universally available regulator. A new full local bottle is, in our experience anyway, always better value than swapping a small CG - 16 Yo Yos for a big orange Repsol Butano or 9 Yo yos for CG 904

More often than not we cook on a free-standing hob hooked up via this set up, if we need the fridge on gas we run a hose out through the drop out hole and hook it up that way, bottle outside as most are too big to fit in the locker. "Back Home" the fridge & van hob are on a Calor propane reg - it's just an old habit

Andi

[slobbo]

I've got a gas locker built into my van that is just big enough for a German or Dutch 5kg propane bottle. The UK ones are bigger in diameter and won't fit in the locker so I had a lpg fitter make me up a LPG filler so I can refill my 2 bottles from a petrol station that has LPG. (LPG is the same as Propane). I had to change the valves to UK valves. Works a treat. 1kg is roughly equal to 2 litres of lpg so I fill my completely empty bottle with 9 litres just to be safe.

Don't bother saying you can't fill LPG bottles at petrol stations because Gaslow sells the refillable bottles as do BP now I believe. A 6kg bottle exchange costs about £18 and a refill at the pump costs about £5 so it is much cheaper for me to refill.