Butane bottles in the USA

[MartyB]

I sailed from Europe to North America on my sailboat.
It has a butane gas system for the oven and cooktop. I understand I need to convert to propane and will do so in the coming weeks. In the meantime, what are my options as I ran out of butane in my campingaz bottles. Is it possible to refill in the States ? Could I buy a butane bottle that is not the small small ones for little camping stoves.
The boat is in Boston right now.
I just need to find a solution for a week or two while I wait to get my propane conversion.
Thanks!

[wholybee]

Butane and Propane are interchangeable gases. Often they are even mixed together. If you can find the correct adapter to connect a propane bottle to your boat, that is all you need to do.

I do not think it is possible to refill campingaz in the United States.

[deblen]

Google CampingGaz usa:
https://tridentmarine.com/product/eu...ers-1190-1625/

[MartyB]

Thanks guys! Found it on Defender.com !

[rounder]

N south Africa I filled propane tank with butane worked fine to Australia and back to road island

[dcondit]

Check your regulator. I was switching out butane to propane a few weeks ago on a new Hanse and found the regulator was actually a propane regulator and all connections worked with a new propane bottle. Everything worked perfectly after the bottle switch.

[SailingHarmonie]

Originally Posted by wholybee

Butane and Propane are interchangeable gases. Often they are even mixed together. If you can find the correct adapter to connect a propane bottle to your boat, that is all you need to do.

I do not think it is possible to refill campingaz in the United States.

Yes, interchangeable in use, not so much in storage.

Propane has a pressure almost 4 times higher than butane. At 40C propane has a pressure of over 200 PSI, while butane is only about 50 PSI. Even with a casual inspection of the two type of tanks it will be apparent the propane tank is much more robustly built.

So while it would be perfectly safe to put butane into a propane tank, it would be extremely dangerous to put propane in a butane bottle.

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by SailingHarmonie

Yes, interchangeable in use, not so much in storage.

Propane has a pressure almost 4 times higher than butane. At 40C propane has a pressure of over 200 PSI, while butane is only about 50 PSI. Even with a casual inspection of the two type of tanks it will be apparent the propane tank is much more robustly built.

So while it would be perfectly safe to put butane into a propane tank, it would be extremely dangerous to put propane in a butane bottle.

I wasn't suggesting the old tank be filled with propane. Rather it is trivial to convert a boat from using butane to propane. Depending on the original install, you might only need an inexpensive adapter for the new tank, or at most a new regulator. You could probably do it for $100 and 30 minutes. And a 20lb propane tank filled with propane is only about $50 available everywhere, grocery stores, 7-Eleven, gas stations.

I believe from the comments that is what the OP did, bought a campingaz to propane adapter to install a standard propane exchange tank in the boat.

[deblen]

Butane does not work as well in cold climate.
https://www.calor.co.uk/news-and-vie...ne-and-propane

[Starbuck]

SailingHarmonie say:

Propane has a pressure almost 4 times higher than butane.

No criticism of SH: this statement is true, but my ignorance was deep, so I ran off to research. When I finally found the information I needed, I re-formulated that sentence for myself to read:

Given the same volume constraints, [p]ropane has a pressure almost 4 times higher than butane per unit of weight.

Then it all became clear to me. If I put 5lbs. ea. of propane and butane into identical suitable containers, the propane will exert ~4x more pressure than the butane.

(Yes, a lot of that was kind of already loosely assumed in the context of the thread, but I couldn't assume that SH was drawing on it, and that was my problem.)

Why? My conclusion is that the propane is the less compressible gas of the two.

Sometimes I'm slow, but I get there eventually.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Starbuck

My conclusion is that the propane is the less compressible gas of the two.

They're both stored as a liquid, not a gas. At any given temperature, the vapor pressure of propane is higher. Liquid butane is somewhat (~20%) more dense at typical temperatures. The heat content when burned is about the same on an equal-weight basis for all alkanes. Butane and propane are both alkanes.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by wholybee

it is trivial to convert a boat from using butane to propane

You also have to adjust the air shutters on each burner since they blend based on volume rather than weight. Shutters that are adjusted for butane will be set to run too lean for propane.

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by Jammer

You also have to adjust the air shutters on each burner since they blend based on volume rather than weight. Shutters that are adjusted for butane will be set to run too lean for propane.

Not for Butane vs. Propane. That is only required for Natural Gas. In my travels I used both, switching back and forth many times. No problems at all.