Newb question - gas bottles

[thebigred]

Hi,

Put down my deposit on my bongo today, very excited and busy making a list of things I'll need.

One thing is a bottle of gas. The van has a smev 2 burner hob in it, I'd also plan to use the gas for a bbq as well.

What's the general recommendation here? - I was going to go for one of the small 4.5kg butane calor bottles (as they seem to be widely available and I can't see us using a huge amount) but I've spotted on their site that it says it's only suitable for single burner appliances?

Do I technically need to go for something bigger?

Probably over thinking it, but worth an ask!

[Muzorewa]

A 4.5kg bottle is massive for a Bongo. Most use 907 (2.95kg) or 904 (1.8kg) cylinders. Ours has a 3-burner Smev and we use two 904 cylinders which is a neat arrangement (only one connected at a time) so when your gas runs out mid-bacon sandwich you can be cooking again in minutes. Otherwise with only one bottle, when you go away for a few days you're tempted to renew a part-used bottle so you're sure it'll last.

One 907 or a couple of 904 cylinders last well anyway. 907 more readily available and cheaper even though there's more gas.

More importantly are you thinking of camping in the depths of winter? If so you might want to consider propane instead of butane (just a different pressure regulator required). Theoretically butane's boiling point is between -1 and +1 degrees centigrade but below about 5 degrees it struggles to give off a flammable vapour so you get very poor performance on cold winter mornings. No such problem with propane whose boiling point is in the -40's.

[thebigred]

Thanks!

That's what I'm liking about these forums, I've never even heard of a 907 before - great to have access to all this knowledge!

Would a 907 power a small gas bbq as well? I'm only thinking of something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CARAVAN-CAMPI ... 1c3fe83717

By the looks of things it works out much cheaper to try and find some second hand bottles and then exchange - even so it seems quite expensive compared to calor, only thing is we are planning a 2 week trip to Ireland so might be worth going with this as I'm not sure from what I've ready calor is widely available.

[Muzorewa]

It should be plenty. We did a fortnight in Ireland in 2012 (see here for ideas http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... 37&t=55074 ) and did a fair amount of cooking, I don't recall having to change bottles so one 904 was enough.

[thebigred]

Awesome thanks for the link to your trip as well, working out what to do is next on my list!

That looks like a fair bit of driving, I've already told the O/H we can do a lap but might have to come back again to do the middle

[g8dhe]

Yup we are similar, we run a 907 which covers about 9 months of the year and carry a spare 901 cylinder (lasts about a week, under heavy use), when we run out either we change it immediately for a replacement 907 or put the 901 in place while we get a replacement 907, then when the 901 runs out we change back to the 907 and get a 901 at our leisure.