quicky

[Dave&Olive]

are the propane regulator valves the same as the uk,might seem soft question but not to me

               Dave

[Ron Avery]

The control valves should be the same but most French 13 KG bottles have the old style left hand thread nut connectors and a screw down shut off on the bottle.

[Gyn_Paul]

As I remember it, the old-style UK regulators were left-hand thread for the butane, and right-hand thread for the propane, so you couldn't mis-connect them.

Here in France they are BOTH wrong-hand threads.

On a side issue, I run a water heater and cooker in a holiday home and use butane bottles in the summer, and propane in the winter using the same regulator (a butane one, I think) with no discernible difference. Except that the propanes seem to last a little longer and I have less need to get out of the shower, don a dressing gown and stagger outside dripping wet to change the bottle in the middle of a sunday morning.

paul

[Jonzjob]

Quick correction Paul, if I may.

The butain connectors are clip-on in the uk, except for the little stumpy 10lb bottles, which are LHD. Both the butain and the propain here are LHD, but the propain regulator is set at 37mb and the butain is 28mb (millibar) the same pressures as the U.K. (someone in France slipped up, -- the same?). There is something about the same pressures are going to be applied to both, the lower, I think?

Also the propain has a slightly higher calorific value than butain.

Paul the reason the propain lasts longer is stated above. The lower pressure means less gas used. The other thing about the 2 is that butain stops gassing off (not rude, 'onest admin!) at about 0 deg C and the prapain goes down to about -40 (not sure if that's F or C  ). That's why it's always used in big gas tanks, like the one in our old U.K. house and our new French house, in 6 weeks time YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

John.

[Gyn_Paul]

J - Now I'm really confused

I've brought old-style UK butane regulators over here and - of course - they work perfectly on Butagaz (butane & propane) bottles. Then I tried to connect an old UK industrial blowtorch which had a big, fat, high-output regulator which WON'T fit on a (Butagaz) propane bottle. It's painted pillar-box red and weighs a ton: I assumed it went on a UK propane bottle originally, now I don't know.

What else could it have been for ? Any ideas ?

The blowtorch worked fine with a french regulator on it, incidentally.

Have you noticed, by the way, that the modern UK pushfit regulators don't fit on the little French bottles like the Cube - No, that would be too much to expect!

paul