camping gaz vs butane, i'm a bit frightened of the gas. it's like a bomb, isn't it?

[AitchTwoOh]

anyhoo i need to buy a stove, have borrowed a butane one so far and it's been fine. didn't buy the aldi stove cos i'm wary of the gas, but if someone can outline the pros and cons i'd be grateful. (and then LIVID if i've missed a trick not buying the aldi stove).
tia.

okay, sorry for being prickly.

i think my question is, if the little clicky cans are so convenient (which they are) why are you lot using the canisters?

and the answer may just be cost.

I'm trying to search for you on ukcs search engine but it is so spectacularly, mind achingly crap and jurrasic I think my BP has gone over 200. fgs.

it's not good, is it? and yellow... yowza.

I bet its cost, length of time before running out, ease of availability and possible the old chestnut boiling times.

I may be making this all up mind.

I cannot put 'gas' in the search engine (in the equipment topic) because it it 'too short'. jesus wept.
Ii was able to change the yellow to soothing green once but ukcs in its wisdom has decided to revert to migrane yellow for me.

boiling time was fine, so far as i can see. you can buy them in all the supermarkets, three for a fiver or less.

i wonder if i'm so scared of the little canister because of the way my parents used to SCREAM at us whenever we went near it? (our tent was blue and orange, slub ).

my sister is similarly wary of getting the canister, we were both frozen to the spot in aldi when considering buying that stove.

We use both. We have a 13 kg refillable canister for our gas BBQ at home, but for camping we have two stoves that take the thin canisters that are about the size of a can of hairspray.

We only ever camp for a couple of days though.

The big refillable canisters are much much cheaper but of course they are heavy to lug around

this help?

I put "camping gaz or" in the search and it got loads of results

i thangyew. see, that's more along the lines of what i was thinking, just to buy two of the wee stoves. i don't think we'll be doing long trips either.

although now i want a cobb.

Those aldi special days come round all through the season. I'm sure they'll be available again.

The other advantage of having a rusty looking bottle of gas stood outside your tent is that it makes you look a bit more hardy and capable. lucycat once told me that only camping newbies have pristine bottles. You need to get a battered one off e-bay.

i'm not going for hardy, i'm going for 'help me'.

although having said that i took longer to put up my tent with the aid of 'brian the busybody helpful guy who was avoiding his wife' than without.

I reckon if you can get both looks going simultaneously you will become quite alluring. To dh obv.

your dh?

ah x post.

yes you do not want to allure the brians.

MY Dh is far too busy being engaged with his own camping gaz bottles and guy lines to be watching other ladies.

we got our (empty) battered old camping gaz bottle courtesy of our local recycling centre.
Then exchanged it for an equally battered old full one, as we'd practiced putting our tent up in our garden, we felt quite hardy and capable campers on our 1st trip last year.

Was a different camping experience than crawling into our 2 man tent, and heating bags of food on our tiny burner. Camping now is so much more civilised

Here you go notthat much of an explosion really.

You've got to love Alan, he's fab.

Personally am more scared of the little gas canisters then the big 'bomb' ones.

I have read a few threads on ukcs along the lines of this one.

Those little canisters seem so flimsy and you are supposed to disconect them from your stove as soon as you have finished cooking, what do you do with it then? How are you sure it isn't leaking?

We have a smallish 'bomb' one, very expensive to buy initially, but cheap to get it refilled. It seem very sturdy so I trust it, I think it's only if your tent is already on fire that you would have to worry about it exploding. Ours does live in the shed at home though, as far away from the house as possible.

Wildy YOU LINKED TO THE TENT FIRE .

poor old Aitch will be getting a twitch.

I have to say though it after watching that for the first time i resolved to follow Alan's dad's advice and never ever cook in the tent.

You do have to love the conversation between father and son though . Alan is desperate to see the giant exploding ball of fire isn't he?

okay The camping and caravanning magazine it says:

Plus ponts for gas - easy to transpor, light and control.
minus - can be more expensive than other fuels, availability varies from place to place and butane ceases to 'gas-off' (technical term there) as the ambient temp approaches freezing. propane and propane/butane mixes work better at lower temps.

Gas containers: The larger the container the less expensive the gas becomes. [bingo!]

I can tell you about meths and petrol if you like but as you seem to have ishoos with explosions I'll refrain.

The thing is with the tent fire though Slubber, (and I'm sure Aitch will love it) is where are the bloody owners?

Alans dad does rightfully mention the dangers of cooking in a tent, but how could they have been cooking when they do not appear to be present?

I'm sure if they were present at their own tent pyre we would seen evidence of screaming and running.

Most odd, I have always had a sneaking suspicion that Alan did it.

I have a medium-sized bomb... I like it because it's big and sturdy, relatively cheap (once you have paid out for the container, which you exchange when you get new gas) and I like to disconnect it and keep it outside under the awning, then I can keep the stove inside and not worry about leaks.

I don't think the actual canister is going to blow up. My only worry would be a gas leak and IMO, if I can disconnect it and leave it outside, that's safer.

Also refillable bomb is greener, if that's an issue.

lol that we are calling them bombs now

Wildy, well quite. I bet they are all in the club house having a few beers. Thing is how else would a fire start in a tent? Surely the norty, unattended stove is the prime suspect, although the idea of fire-starter Alan has amused me greatly.