Gas bottles Greece

[tony12345]

I have a Sadler 32 in Greece which I just purchased. Looking over the inventory I find there are two gas bottles - one is blue with no name/info and fairly old, the other is orange and says '4kg'.
Neither states the contents e.g. butane or propane.
I assume the blue one is Butane.
The blue one was connected and I confess I did not check if the regulator fits the orange bottle.
The chandlers in the yard in Salamina has orange bottles but I could not get him to clarify what gas is in them.
Is anyone familiar with the orange bottles? If so;
What gas does it contain?
Does it use the same regulator as the blue bottles?
If, as seems possible it is propane, does it need a different regulator even if the butane one fits?
Is propane OK to use on an oven made for propane or are they interchangeable?

What is the situation regarding refills/exchanges with gas bottles around the Islands?

Thanks and kind regards
Tony

 

[sailaboutvic]

I have a Sadler 32 in Greece which I just purchased. Looking over the inventory I find there are two gas bottles - one is blue with no name/info and fairly old, the other is orange and says '4kg'.
Neither states the contents e.g. butane or propane.
I assume the blue one is Butane.
The blue one was connected and I confess I did not check if the regulator fits the orange bottle.
The chandlers in the yard in Salamina has orange bottles but I could not get him to clarify what gas is in them.
Is anyone familiar with the orange bottles? If so;
What gas does it contain?
Does it use the same regulator as the blue bottles?
If, as seems possible it is propane, does it need a different regulator even if the butane one fits?
Is propane OK to use on an oven made for propane or are they interchangeable?

What is the situation regarding refills/exchanges with gas bottles around the Islands?

Thanks and kind regards
Tony

Hi Tony
I taken a guess but you can almost bet your bottom dollar I won't be far off .
It prop Butane , you will find lots of different colour in Greece , do the reg look like the type on camping gas bottles ?
Some time back the Greek started taken camping gas bottles and painting them different colours , it a real pain when you want to leave Greece , if you look close enough you might find ICG on the top of the bottles .
Although after what I said just worth checking .

 

[Flica]

When Coleman assumed the Camping Gaz range (both are part of Newell Industries), they decided in most markets, to concentrate on disposable, one-trip containers and abandoned refilling the 901, 904 or 907 refillables.
In Greece, the 907 size was painted a darker blue and sold as Petrogaz. Various other local refillers repainted the old bottles and refilled them under thier brand. Orange tends to be an house colour of Coralgas (Coral are a local cheapie Shell subsidiary). I use the Coral Gas polypropylene bottles, cheaper than the old Camping Gaz 907, nearly twice the gas, and non-rusting. However they are a lot taller than 907 or 4.5kg Calor bottles so usually won't fit the purpose-moulded locker most boats have fitted. I did find, in France and Portugal, a most excellent GRP/polypropylene Cube - which would fit - and cost half the price of Camping Gaz, and containers which had twice the LPG when filled and weighed the same.
In fact you'll find most fillers put a mix of propane and butane into their "blue" bottles and the Camping Gaz regulator is set for that. Use a true butane only regulator and you'll find containers empty fast and aluminium cooking pans are at risk of melting.
I do tend to fit the local supplier's regulator and use their refills wherever possible, it's easily the cheapest and least aggravating way . No Corgis on continental Europe.
Don't look for any consistent rules, anywhere in Greece, if you value your sanity!!!

 

[tony12345]

Thank you for your replies.
It seems I should keep both and see what happens when I try to exchange them or get them filled. I also need to check the regulator fit on the newer orange bottle.
Hopefully on next visit I'll find a local who speaks English and find out what is in it.
Cheers
Tony

 

[Chris_Robb]

Thank you for your replies.
It seems I should keep both and see what happens when I try to exchange them or get them filled. I also need to check the regulator fit on the newer orange bottle.
Hopefully on next visit I'll find a local who speaks English and find out what is in it.
Cheers
Tony

Tony - you might like to check how old your pipes are. When I changed insurers they insisted that I had a Gas check. I am glad I did as the pipe (9 years old) was in a bad state! As its potentially a dangerous thing, it may be worth getting a local gas fitter to have a look.

 

[macd]

Hopefully on next visit I'll find a local who speaks English and find out what is in it.

It's LPG, which sounds pretty specific but, as Flica wrote, can be either butane or propane or more commonly a mixture of both. To the best of my knowledge Camping Gaz has always been a butane/propane mix. Most boat cookers seem happy to run on either or both these days, although that wasn't always the case so elderly cookers, which needed re-jetting, might be suspect.

I can't imagine an aluminium pan is likely to melt on the hob unless empty, in which case it will. Al melts at a mere 650ºC or so, which is very much less than a blue gas flame. (And if the flame's not blue, something is fundamentally wrong.)

 

[billcowan]

In Greece anything goes when it comes to gas, one place I went the local greengrocer filled whatever bottle you took to him from a huge bottle he had out the back, the process was slow, so you came back later and he put the bottle on the veg scales to deturmine how much gas he was selling you. He never took his fag out of his mouth all the time.

But be sure that before leaving Greece, get all your bottles (even if full) swapped for pale blue Camping Gaz ones that you can trade everywhere else.

 

[tony12345]

Anything goes - yes so it seems. My main concern is that the regulator may be the wrong one for the gas in the bottle.
My experience with gas here in the UK (calor) is that butane (blue bottle) needs a different regulator to propane (red bottle).
Until I return to the yacht and try the fittings I do not know if the current regulator will fit all the bottles. Nor do I know what is in them or which regulator I should use. Hopefully the boat yard / local chandlery will be able to advise.

 

[RobbieW]

Anything goes - yes so it seems. My main concern is that the regulator may be the wrong one for the gas in the bottle.
My experience with gas here in the UK (calor) is that butane (blue bottle) needs a different regulator to propane (red bottle).
Until I return to the yacht and try the fittings I do not know if the current regulator will fit all the bottles. Nor do I know what is in them or which regulator I should use. Hopefully the boat yard / local chandlery will be able to advise.

AIUI since about 2004 caravan and boat regulators have been set at 30mb and will work with either butane or propane. The jets in appliances will also be setup for that pressure unless the appliance is quite old.

 

[rivonia]

The Gas bottles in Greece are either Orange, blue or Green. They are all LPG. The regulater should fit all.

 

[Cariadco]

The Gas bottles in Greece are either Orange, blue or Green. They are all KPG. The regulater should fit all.

There are also, Silver ones!!

 

[Carmel2]

Silver, green and orange come from Italy,......

 

[Davy_S]

The Gas bottles in Greece are either Orange, blue or Green. They are all KPG. The regulater should fit all.

Actually, the post by Robbie W is more up to date, the Bottles are a mix they are Propagas, you will also come across Yellow bottles, the Shell garages stock these, it is the same gas, when living out there we fitted a gas cooker, all the bottles work, the regulators are only 3 euro, and 30mb as Robbie said, we went into this in great detail for domestic use, we could exchange any colour of bottle, they all worked.

 

[rivonia]

The colour denotes the supplier of the Gas.

 

[Davy_S]

The colour denotes the supplier of the Gas.

My local Shell garage would exchange a Blue empty for a Yellow full bottle (13kg ish) then spray the Blue bottle Yellow. He sold the bottles for 2 euros more than the local shops, most tourists and motor home owners did not know that most shops take any colour of bottle in exchange, they probably spray the Yellow bottles Blue!