Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Just moved into the 20th century and started using a propane camp stove rather than the old Coleman liquid fuel stove that's been in the family since 1965. Really like the ease of use, and was impressed by how many little bottles of fuel we went through in a week, so I'm looking at options:

* Use a refiller. HF and others sell these for about $20, allows you to refill the little bottles from the big canisters (which we have one for our barbecue). Anyone use these and have any comments? Is it safe? This is clearly the most economical way to go.

* Buy a larger canister and plumbing. This looked like a good option until I priced it all out. Looks like about $60 for either a 5 lb or 11 lb tank, and then add in $20-30 for adapters and other plumbing. That would take a lot of camping to pay off.


Comments?


Thanks!!!

Forget about the price for a minute... which would be the most convenient for you?

Which would be the safest?

I think you already know the answer!

Mike...

mikeschn wrote:Forget about the price for a minute... which would be the most convenient for you?

likely the first scenario

mikeschn wrote:Which would be the safest?

I'm asking...

mikeschn wrote:I think you already know the answer!

Mike...

nope...that's why I'm asking. ;-)


Seriously, I'm trying to find if anyone has actual experience with the first scenario.

Hi your going to pay 20.00 bucks for the refill adapter, that's one third the way there. disposable is just that,use once and dispose of.as for me i will never reuse one.

In my mind, the most convenient is having a larger bottle. You won't run out of propane every half hour, and when you do run out, you can get it refilled at the campground.

Refilling 1# bottles is not safe.

So as I see it, there are 2 options...

1# bottles, that you use once and throw away
Larger bottles that the campground can refill.

Mike...

I agree. If you do a lot of cooking, you should bite the bullet and get the big bottle and hose kit.

BTW, you can sometimes find a bottle at a garage sale for a couple of bucks, that you can turn in at a propane exchange.

In fact, I may have the hose adapter in my garage that you need. You can have it for postage, if I do. Stay tuned...

CD

this is such a great place :-)

I DO have the right hose. At first it didn't look right, but I checked on the Coleman site, and mine looks just like it, but mine is 4 feet, not five.

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemanc ... 400&brand=


I have two botttles so that I always have one on the grill, and a full one in waiting, as they tend to run out when your food is half cooked -- Murphy's Law number 83. I bought an old tank at a garage sale for a couple bucks, and took it in for exchange. No need to buy a new tank.

CD

caseydog wrote:I have two botttles so that I always have one on the grill, and a full one in waiting, as they tend to run out when your food is half cooked -- Murphy's Law number 83.

Are you implying that there are people out there that don't have two bottles?

Mike...

mikeschn wrote:

caseydog wrote:I have two botttles so that I always have one on the grill, and a full one in waiting, as they tend to run out when your food is half cooked -- Murphy's Law number 83.

Are you implying that there are people out there that don't have two bottles?

Mike...

Well, folks who don't have 52,000 BTU, solid brass burner, Tim the Toolman gas grills might not. But, you know me.

A man has to have his priorities in order.

CD

caseydog wrote:
BTW, you can sometimes find a bottle at a garage sale for a couple of bucks, that you can turn in at a propane exchange.

Hey, you stole my idea. Earlier this summer, my tank was stolen from my barbecue. Since I was camping or visiting a friend's cottage during weekends all summer, I felt no rush to replace it. Anyhow, months passed and I brought some pressure treated wood from a demolished deck to the municipal special waste centre. I got there and saw two propane tanks sitting outside the entrance, so I threw one in the car, exchanged it on the way home and got a filled tank for 2/3 the price of an empty new one. I should have took both. If I can find a way to safely mount the tank on my trailer, I may just bring it with me when camping.

If you get a used bottle, check the date stamped on the handle area. Tanks must be reinspected/certified every 12 years, and a vigilant gas guy will not refill one that is out of date though some spazzed out teenager might.

As for refilling 1 pounders, you could always run a poll asking how many people have had one blow up. I'm sure someone will come forward

It sounds unsafe to me. Read the back of the refill adapter package. I have picked them up then put them back several times. I can buy a lot of canisters for the cost of 2 weeks in the burn unit.

I strongly recommend using Coleman hoses. I had a 20# with my teardrop and ran every thing off of it, l;amp, cook stove and BBQ. On two separate occasions I had fires break out. All the connections were apparently correct but there were still leaks. I traced the problem to a non-Coleman hose, replaced it with genuine Coleman hoses and no more fires. I do not remember what the brand the bad hose was.

With the patio heater, garage heater, gas grill, weed burner, turkey cooker and Lanza's glass torch, we have several 20 and 30 pound propane bottles. I'm not sure we actually have a "spare" anymore but there is at least one bottle for each device. This time of the year when the heaters are not in service, the propane pallet behind the shop looks kind of like a propane exchange..............

We have been thinking about converting the gas grill and Lanza's torch over to natural gas but the plumbing is not in place and the bottles are convienent
and we know that the glass torch will not burn as hot on natural gas as it does on propane. Biggest expense for her torch was oxygen until we got the oxygen concentrator and eliminated that big green bottle from her glass studio (the propane is plumbed through the wall with the bottle outside a window).

I've never refilled the smaller bottles but the way I understand it, when you do, there is less propane in the bottle than when purchased, so it runs out even quicker than a new one.

nikwax wrote:* Use a refiller. HF and others sell these for about $20, allows you to refill the little bottles from the big canisters (which we have one for our barbecue). Anyone use these and have any comments? Is it safe? This is clearly the most economical way to go.
Comments?
Thanks!!!

I bought one of those adapters and have been mostly disappointed. If I recall correctly, the instructions talked about how you will get a higher amount transferred to the small bottles by flipping the larger tank on its top (something I am no longer physically able to do). It also mentioned something else about cooling down the disposable bottle to aid in the transfer...easier said then done while camping. All I know is that when I was at Chain O Lakes, I could barely refill any of 2 or 3 small, mostly empty bottles off my 30lb tank (they didn't all sound the same when trying to refill, which concerned me) and my hamburgers were a little on the rare side for our last dinner since I forgot to bring my extension hose with me to attach to the 30lb tank on the front.

In this thread, Mike Schneider said, "Refilling 1# bottles is not safe". That's all I need to hear. At https://www.coleman.com/coleman/images/pdf/5071.pdf, Coleman warns not to refill disposable cylinders. A question to consider is how will you know that you haven't overfilled the disposable bottle past the point of where it might blow apart? Maybe you can't overfill it using a regular propane tank but I don't know...and I don't want to take the risk anymore so all this leads me to decide that I will never again try to refill a disposable bottle.

My 30lb tank is located on the front platform of my trailer and from now on, I will simply run a long hose to the back where my receiver-mounted Freedom Grill and galley-located 2-burner propane stove are.