Hi, we are soon to be off on our first camping trip and were wondering what size of gas cylinder would be suitable for a family of 4 for 1 week, using a double burner and grill.
Am also confused about the different types of gas available, are there any real differences of is it just down to price and personal preference.
Thanks
We use a 4.5kg butane cylinder and it usually lasts a couple of years! Butane is in a blue cylinder and propane is in an orange one. Propane is generally a more fierce flame and is much hotter but you don't get as much gas for your money, kinda like petrol and diesel. Butane is perfectly adequate for normal camping. Hope that helps and welcome to the site.
The Camping Gaz Chef (for example) is quoted as using 170g/hr for each burner plus 80g/hr for the grill so 4.5kg cylinder will last for around 26 hours of cooking with one burner full on all the time...
Last time I did the sums Calor Gas butane worked out significantly cheaper than Camping Gaz but you'll need the latter if you travel to the continent as Calor is only available in the UK. Make sure you get the correct regulator for the cylinder of your choice.
If you haven't got a cylinder already, look around your local tip, freecycle or ebay to get one without paying the £30 initial charge for your first bottle - I got two 4.5kg Calor bottles last year for about £6 each from ebay...
We always carry 2 CampinGaz cylinders, use to use 904's but now use two 907"s since we got the trailer, along with two 901's for the Gas Lantern, that way you never run out of Gas, as others have mentioned CampinGaz is expensive for use in the UK, but our camping is mostly in France, so CampinGaz it has to be.
For UK use I would go for BP GasLite, as the 5kg cylinder is transparent so you can keep an eye on the Gas level, which I think is a neat idea, HomeBase often have an offer on for the BP cylinders around March time, were they discount the cylinder deposit price and chuck in a free regulator for first time users.
If you are camping in the UK in summer, a 4.5kg Calor butane bottle will be ok. If going to France get a Campingaz 907 bottle. Whatever bottle you get, you will need correct regulator, rubber gas hose & correct size jubilee clips, all from your local camping/caravan shop.
If you have no bottle you will have to pay around £30 + cost of contents at a shop, but if you can find a bottle at your local tip you will save £30 & just exchange it paying only for contents.
We are off to France in June and have a Calor 7kg - we've been on 4 camping trips with it and i esitmate about 12 days of use for evening meals (abt an hour each time). Should we have plently left for a weeks holiday?
Also another question which i hope people can help me with - Can you take Calor Gas on Ferries?
Hi Vicki.
Looks like you will have enough Gas for your holiday, but why not just take an empty CampinGaz 904 cylinder and CampinGaz regulator with you, just in case your Calor cylinder runs out, as you won't find Calor in France, I got most of my CampinGaz cylinders for nowt, from the local tip, and some of them had a good amount of Gas in them.
Be carefull if you're going soon. Butane, calor or gaz, stops working as it nears freezing point, so on cold nights etc. it can stop working altogether. I think I remember from previous threads on is topic, that at about +3 dgrs. it stops working, then you would want propane, which works well bellow freezing, but I can't remember how much bellow. I use petrol stoves for winter camping.
------------- Canvas tent, paraffin light, petrol stove. Heaven
I'd rather be kayaking.
Spent up, not pent up, just had my new tent up.
When the ambient temp gets to about 5 deg C the rate that butane gasses off reduces quite considerably. the process of gassing off further cools the cylinder making the situation worse. A few years ago at Easter it took me over half an hour to boil a kettle on a ring that would normally take less than 10 mins. All the bottles I use now are propane (red).
Strange thing about the freezing of Butane, when we had that cold spell back in December the temps round here dropped to -12Deg C, which caused our CH boiler condensate outlet pipe to freeze up, so whist we had no heating I got our portable gas heater fired up, the 13kg Butane cylinder had been stored outside, and showed no signs of the Gas having been afected by such low temps, so I wonder why it had not frozen, is it possible that there may be an additive in modern Butane to prevent freezing?.
That is strange, during the the recent cold splell, I tried to use a single burner gaz stove to thaw out my car from the inside. Even though the car started to warm up, the gas went out due to loosing too much pressure. I fell back on the ever reliable Coleman petrol stove to thaw it out.
Post last edited on 17/01/2011 17:26:12
------------- Canvas tent, paraffin light, petrol stove. Heaven
I'd rather be kayaking.
Spent up, not pent up, just had my new tent up.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: How much gas? Confused
