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Is it all hot air?


mint
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[quote user="krusty"]

[quote user="powerdesal"]A butane regulator will not fit a propane cylinder and vice versa, hence it is not "accidently" possible to use the wrong combination of cylinder + regulator.

[/quote]

beware of miss information  , regulators in France have the same size connection so can be mixed up.

[/quote]

If you are correct then I bow to your greater knowledge. I was / am under the impression that one is a male fitting and the other a female fitting. They certainly should be but... France does its own thing - No

edit:  They should also be different colours, Butane blue, propane red.

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As I said earlier, France does its own thing. I find it very odd though, and potentially dangerous. The propane regulator states 148mb, normal outlet pressure would be (as far as I know) 37mb with 28mb on butane.

Are those regulators made in Europe or China?????? The reason I ask is that I have a butane regulator here in Sharjah which is also gold coloured and is definitely Chinese origin.

I will carry on checking to see if there is an ISO/BS/DIN standard.

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[quote user="powerdesal"]How on earth did we morph from gas regulators to sailors in bars??????????

[/quote]

Oh you can learn a lot from talking to sailors, and not just in bars. I did one trip on an LPG tanker of 1960s vintage and not only did they have an LPG fired stove in the galley fed directly from the cargo tanks but they had installed a gas fired BBQ on the poop deck. They insisted that all of this was perfectly safe. Beautiful little ship - about 540 tonnes displacement and mahogany fittings throughout. The crew were Spanish and raised chickens in a coop on the deck for eggs and meat. Mad as cut snakes, the lot of them.

Anyways, the stove and the BBQ had two sets of burners and two feed pipes with different regulators so that they could switch easily (and, presumably, safely) between butane and propane - whichever they were carrying at the time. The amount of gas they used was tiny relative to the 360 odd tonnes they carried and just disappeared into the oil loss figures.

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[quote user="Bugbear"]

[quote user="The Riff-Raff Element"]

 Mad as cut snakes, the lot of them.

[/quote]

That is a great quote RRE.

I joined the Merchant Navy in 1961 and did my training at Gravesend. Were you there?

[/quote]

Ah no - the ship was built in 1963 and I was laid down in 1966. The

trip took place in (I think) 1989. They built those ships to last!

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[quote user="powerdesal"]How on earth did we morph from gas regulators to sailors in bars??????????
[/quote]

That's why the original post was called hot air.  There certainly is a lot of the stuff around here.  No, don't take offence, that's just meant as a joke and I have learned all manner of things from your posts.  Thank you one and all!

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Ah the old chestnut, gas botles and regulators in France!

Firstly, yes, the standard bigger bottles of propane and butane normally share an identical connection.

Second, there are all sorts and type which include a bayonet fitting regulator for the dumpy propane bottles.

Butane kept outside will freeze in colder weather:  propane cannot be kept indoors.

New gas regs require braided steel pipes for feeding an external bottle into the house. Or non-flexible steel tubing.

The reason that synthetic rubber (Neoprene etc) gas pipes are dated is that the action of the gas degrades the moelcules of the polymer and the gas then starts to osmote and leak into the external air.

Running a cooker jetted and adjusted for butane on propane or visa versa will normally cause incorrect combustion and an abundance of CO (Carbon Monoxide), sooty anad weak flames and no adjusability. Some cookers require separate injection jets for different gases. At best, changing gas type means adjusting the air sleeve on each burner inlet to compensate for the different air : fuel mixture ratio. Same with an oven.

Boats and Bottle Gas: most modern boats are fitted with "Bilge Blowers": these suck out stale air (and any gas!) from the bilges (space between the floorboards and the hull),  and pump in sweet fresh air.

Petrol is the main danger on boats, when it mixes with either butane or propane, or LPG or indeed any fuel gas. It is far more combustible than the gas alone. Diesel powered boats are safer - and far cheaper to run!

Experienced skippers ALWAYS run their bilge blowers, even on diesel powered craft, as the primary stage in starting up the engine/s.

Some older members (like me, sad to say!), might remember one of the early TV cooks, Fanny Craddock and her robotic husband Johnny, who were lucky to be alive, after their cabin cruiser blew up totally on the Thames when gas from the cooker mixed with petrol fumes. Fanny lost all her hair and was badly scarred. Still, they were very lucky to survive the epicentre of an Air: Fuel bomb.

For the paranoid amongst us (which includes me) fit gas leak detectors, which will pick up all common fuel gases in minscule proportions and also a CO detector; CO detectors can now be purchased for as little as twenty quid. They should be fitted near any gas fueled device (Central heating boiler; oven, hob, fire etc) and pôeles, insertes etc.

Remember, Carbon Monoxide is approximately the same mass as air and can build up from the ceiling down.

http://www.safelincs.co.uk/section.php?xSec=42&referrer=google&gclid=CI-5vJH9-Y4CFQhDMAodsTEwtw

 

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Gluestick

That is the most comprehensive reply anyone could wish for!  So, I have checked everything now with regard to my cooker and all is in order.  I will get the CO detector, as you have advised, and then I shall rest assured that I have taken all the proper precautions.  Many thanks.

 

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merci bien , sweet dix sept ; vous et trés gentil !

Sorry, BB!

There was a bit about boats in there somewhere!

I'll sit in the back and won't way a word, promise. I've got a secondhand oar! I nearly got in at Wimbledon!

(With apols to Python and the Architect sketch)

 

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Gluestick

We've also decided to get a fire blanket.  Does all that now meet with your approval?

By the way, all now working so thinking hard about who we should have round for dinner.  Mixture of Brits and Frogs but, what proportion of which?

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