Gas Explosions

Gday Mick
Question....Have you ever seen or heard of a gas bottle 'blowing up' ? .....

Hey Mick
Its got nothing to do with the bottle it is the appliance that either needs a regulator or not and depends on the designed pressure of the appliance
As for your aerosols Butane has more bang power then LPG
Used correctly LPG bottles are inherently safe problems usually occur with the way they are used
Kev

Those small cylinders are butane.

Butane does not work well at lower temperatures, the liquid will not vaporise and what little does vaporise makes the cylinder even colder and eventually you finish up with no flame. In the Vic high country March and in the mornings I had to use my Coleman dual fuel burner. The butane was OK at night.

There are two different types of butane; N butane and ISO butane. ISO butane will vaporise at about 10 degree lower temperature.

R u using the stove indoors?

Mick

The good thing about those small disposable gas bottles, esp the Coleman ones, is that you can refill them from your 4 or 9 kg cylinder.

Bob

Those single $14 burner things have gone up with serious results.
All it takes is to place the burner surround upside down. There is, or should be a warning on it to ensure it is the correct way up before using it. Not saying it would blow up each time but it is a known problem. The surround must be inverted for storage in its case and then turned the correct way up for cooking. The aerosol bottles will last about 8 hours max. and then they are throwaways. You need to carry heaps of them to ensure you don't run out of gas at an inappropriate time.

As for the two burner stove, I wouldn't like to be without my Coleman gas two burner stove and BBQ plate accessory. Infinite control of each burner and it leaves my built-in four burner gismo on the camper for dead. With the plate, I can cook up an egg & bacon breakfast, or BBQ some meat.
Can run from the Coleman disposable cylinders, (which I also refill) or a larger gas bottle.

I have just invested in two 2kg gas bottles as they are more compact for traveling.
Sit one in each rear corner of the roof rack basket. I can use them for the stove, Hillbilly gas burner, or to refill the smaller canisters for use in the Coleman hot water system, or stove, if I choose.

Mick, dust off that 2 burner stove and look at smaller cylinders if the 4kg one is hard to carry.

Mick mate what are your exact concerns?

The small disposable packages certainly do reduce the gas volume involved in a given failure.

The single most common gas related problem is leakage and that leaked gas collecting and being confined in enclosed spaces....that gas and air mixture then getting ignited from various sources.

Gas fires and explosions from this cause are far from uncommon.

There is no substitute for carrying gas in a well ventilated location....that removes the vast majority of risk involved with gas.

The location and method of carrying gas has be agressivly addressed in the trades folowing a number of well publicised "accidents"....BOC, AIRLIQUID and a number of other gass suppliers will not allow you to load or drive out their gate with flamable gas in an enclosed vehicle....in fact they will insist that the cylinder is not in an enclosed space, properly secured and carried upright.

Any company with an informed OHS polocy, now has pretty strict and specific requirements for the carrage of gas on their vehicle.

Likewise the insurance companies have some pretty specific polocies.


Yet, still there are people in the 4wd, camping and caravanning community that flatly refuse to accept that there is an issue and continue to carry fairly large volumes of gas inside their vehicles..AND in the pasenger compartment.

There are even some plainly redicilous things done on some campers and caravans...from the factory concerning carrage of gas bottles in enclosed compartments.

As with everything there are escilating risks, and methods of handling them...so..what actually concerns you.

cheers