Butane boiling issues
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bobsbeer
Re: Butane boiling issues
If they won't swap for a bigger one, check your local scrap yards for empty 13kg ones. Our one usually has loads knocking around. Doesn't matter what condition it is in, Calor will swap it if it is a full Calor bottle.
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Wonkydonkey
- Drunk as a Skunk
- Posts: 847
- Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 9:37 am
- Location: In the Stables
Re: Butane boiling issues
I may well be dragging this thing back up from the past but as I was just going through a few old posts.
I thought I should clarify a few things,
Yeh I was wrong saying propane burns hotter,than butane. but that's not the whole picture. There is not a lot of difference in flame temp. There is lots of info on the net about this subject. I'm not going to pretend that I'm really clever and quote lots of data. All I'm saying is look at the bigger picture. I found information I think is worth a read.
I found it here, http://juxtamorph.com/butane-versus-pro ... is-hotter/
but will post the bit that I think is worth looking at a bit closer.
It’s the combination of higher flame temperature, and higher flame velocity, that allows propane or natural gas to perform better in our applications. In a commercial heating fixture like a furnace, the appliance is designed to extract as much of the total energy produced by the fuel as possible, so then the actual flame temp makes little difference, only the total BTUs per volume of fuel. For us, most of the flame goes right past the metal, and what matters is what portion of those BTUs manage to transfer to the metal, and how fast they transfer. Differences in BTU transfer rate are more important than actual flame temperature, since the metal as it heats is constantly trying to radiate its heat away again, and the flame must add heat faster than the metal gets rid of it. It’s a different requirement than what a home heating furnace would have.
Butane is not a bad fuel, just a less practical one in real life for many of us. Among other things, it’s often more costly, not as easily or widely available in larger-sized tanks, and the torches we generally use tend to be optimized, design-wise, for natural gas or propane, and butane, though it may work in them, may not work quite as well. The differences here may not be strong, though, and if you have butane available, and a torch designed for it, no doubt you can make it work just fine, if you wish. It may actually be a slightly cleaner-burning fuel, though I’m not sure about that.
Anyhow, make your own decision in which is best for you application
Cheers
I thought I should clarify a few things,
Yeh I was wrong saying propane burns hotter,than butane. but that's not the whole picture. There is not a lot of difference in flame temp. There is lots of info on the net about this subject. I'm not going to pretend that I'm really clever and quote lots of data. All I'm saying is look at the bigger picture. I found information I think is worth a read.
I found it here, http://juxtamorph.com/butane-versus-pro ... is-hotter/
but will post the bit that I think is worth looking at a bit closer.
It’s the combination of higher flame temperature, and higher flame velocity, that allows propane or natural gas to perform better in our applications. In a commercial heating fixture like a furnace, the appliance is designed to extract as much of the total energy produced by the fuel as possible, so then the actual flame temp makes little difference, only the total BTUs per volume of fuel. For us, most of the flame goes right past the metal, and what matters is what portion of those BTUs manage to transfer to the metal, and how fast they transfer. Differences in BTU transfer rate are more important than actual flame temperature, since the metal as it heats is constantly trying to radiate its heat away again, and the flame must add heat faster than the metal gets rid of it. It’s a different requirement than what a home heating furnace would have.
Butane is not a bad fuel, just a less practical one in real life for many of us. Among other things, it’s often more costly, not as easily or widely available in larger-sized tanks, and the torches we generally use tend to be optimized, design-wise, for natural gas or propane, and butane, though it may work in them, may not work quite as well. The differences here may not be strong, though, and if you have butane available, and a torch designed for it, no doubt you can make it work just fine, if you wish. It may actually be a slightly cleaner-burning fuel, though I’m not sure about that.
Anyhow, make your own decision in which is best for you application
Cheers
To Busy To Add,
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Wonkydonkey
- Drunk as a Skunk
- Posts: 847
- Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 9:37 am
- Location: In the Stables
Re: Butane boiling issues
And I forgot to say, I got my gas cylinders from a illegal traveller site, it's only on some sites but not all, they leave the empty cylinders behind. Not sure why ? I just like to recycle before anyone else claims them. I have had a few like this. And also I have seen old calor gas heaters dumped with the gas bottle, empty of course, but easy to exchange for a full one
To Busy To Add,
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tourer
- Hollow Legs
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- Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:09 pm
- Location: spitting distance of the Beacon hotel, home of Ruby red
Re: Butane boiling issues
I think the reality is in a cold climate we have to use Propane, I've been there done that (in the great outdoors) and it's a waste of time trying to use Butane. All that will happen is you will at some point say i need to use Propane.