Portable Gas Heaters

[steverow]

A few weeks ago I bought one of those portable Gas heaters the type that runs on the areosol butane cannisters.Good little heater and has a ceramic plate so therefore catalytic with ventilation. I thought it would be great for our little weekender, and it is...but it goes through these cannisters like no tomorrow..about an hour each and at £5 for four not that cheap. Has anybody done a conversion on one to allow it to use calor or camping gaz which is going to be about half the price??

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[VicS]

If there is a conversion/adaptor kit available fair enough, but I'd be surprised.

Don't even think about any form of DIY lash up!

 

[oldharry]

A few weeks ago I bought one of those portable Gas heaters the type that runs on the areosol butane cannisters.Good little heater and has a ceramic plate so therefore catalytic with ventilation. I thought it would be great for our little weekender, and it is...but it goes through these cannisters like no tomorrow..about an hour each and at £5 for four not that cheap. Has anybody done a conversion on one to allow it to use calor or camping gaz which is going to be about half the price??

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers.

One word: DONT. As Vic says, dont even think about it.

If you ar going to use the larger size bottle, and it IS much cheaper, then do it properly with a purpose built appliance, and the gas bottle outside the living area. All you need is a flexible hose to connect the two.

I used a 1kw Minicat catalytic heater in a caravan, and it kept it very cosy. All the usual warnings about ventilation, oxygen depletion etc apply of course even with these.

 

[Fantasie 19]

Go for one of these?? 7 hours off one cartridge which cost a fiver - so roughly half as cheap as you're current choice???

 

[2nd_apprentice]

All you need is a flexible hose to connect the two.

Thought flexible hoses were specifically not recommended for gas installations, not to say illegal.
A paraffin greenhouse heater like this one would be more economical. If you shop around you can get them for around 40 quid.
Of course unvented heaters are far from ideal and condensation would also be an issue.

 

[steverow]

I'll leave it alone then!!

OK not to worry, I am experienced with gas safety, having been a fire officer in a former life.

Just thought that there may be a commercial conversion kit available somewhere.
I used to have something very similar in a Caravan we had years ago, I think it was called a Viking, very small wall heater, but that ran off Calor via the Caravan gas supply.
Would have done me nicely in the Fairline if I still had it. Never Mind.

Steve

 

[SolentPhill]

I have 2 of those, I used to get the gas from my local caravan shop at £5 per pack of 4 then it went up to £10 for the same thing.

went on ebay looked around found a deal and ended up buying 2 boxes at £3 a pack of 4 inc postage.

 

[prv]

Thought flexible hoses were specifically not recommended for gas installations, not to say illegal.

Don't think so - how else would you connect a swinging stove, or a bottle in a locker?

Best practice here is considered to be copper tube for long runs, but I believe the American regs prefer a continuous flexible hose from bottle to stove, on the grounds that then there are no joints to leak. Seems sensible to me.

Either way, I don't think it can be illegal here since the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) regs do not apply to seagoing vessels. Other rules for commercial shipping, large yachts, and chartering will then fill most of that gap, but I can't think of anything that would cover small private yachts.

Pete

 

[2nd_apprentice]

From my knowledge flexible hoses should be as short as possible and only used for connecting e.g. a gimballed cooker on one end and the gas bottle itself on the other. Of course this won't apply to seagoing vessels, it would cause problems in other sailing areas though.
Perhaps it's wise to see these regulations as a recommendation, there tends to be a good reason for them I would think:

Installation pipework made of unsuitable materials may fail, leading to gas leaks.
Installation pipework must be made of either of the following:

- seamless copper tube which conforms to BS EN 1057 with copper or
copper alloy compression fittings

- stainless steel tube or copper nickel alloy of a grade suitable for use in a marine environment with appropriate compression or screwed fittings.

Flexible hose can be used to connect the installation pipework to a gimballed
cooking appliance, or a domestic cooker or refrigerator, that needs to be moved
for cleaning. A gimballed appliance is one which is fixed on swinging mounts,
allowing it to compensate for the boat's movement. If a flexible hose is used it
must conform to Type 2 of BS 3212.

If there's only a single cooking appliance installed on your boat, flexible hose
can be used to connect it directly to the low pressure regulator. As flexible hose
can and will deteriorate in time, its use must be kept to a minimum and its
individual length should not exceed 1m (3ft 3ins). [7.12]

Flexible hose must be made of a suitable material otherwise it will rapidly
deteriorate and fail. To minimise the risk of this happening all flexible gas hose
must conform to Type 2 of BS 3212 or equivalent.

As all flexible gas hose has a limited life it is important to minimise the amount
that is used on your boat. Hose must therefore be of minimum practicable
length and not exceed 1m (3ft 3ins).

It's recommended that hoses are inspected regularly to check that they are still
in good condition, i.e. no brittleness, flaws, cracking, abrasion, or kinking, as all
these things could lead to failure. For this reason flexible hose used on your
boat must be readily accessible so it can be easily checked.

To prevent damage from abrasion and deterioration, flexible hoses must be
installed without stress or tight radius turns. Hose passing through bulkheads,
partitions, deck heads or decks must also be protected from abrasion.

Loose hose connections may also be a source of gas leaks. To reduce the risk
of these happening proper clamps, that are not likely to loosen over time, must
be used. For low pressure applications, flexible hose must either be a pre-assembled length fitted with integral threaded metallic ends, or alternatively
must be secured to nozzles by a metal crimped clamp or worm drive hose
clamp. Hose clamps fixed by spring tension must not be used.
Oversized or undersized hose clamp connections could cause gas leaks. To
prevent these from happening hose clips and clamps must be of the correct
size for the hose and at least 8mm (0.3ins) in width. Flexible hose must not be
used where it could be subjected to temperatures above 50°C. [7.13]

Sorry for going on about this! Perhaps I'm just too cautious when it comes to gas installations.
Reminds me of a trip with an Italian skipper. He kept spare gas bottles in the cockpit locker. Unsecured of course and without any screw cap. Since there was no legal obligation to do so he never had the gas installation checked or serviced during his ownership of the boat as it was "just fine". No need to turn the gas off at the bottle. He had been sailing like that for the last ten years.
Nothing ever happened, so why worry?

I booked a flight back home

 

[prv]

Perhaps it's wise to see these regulations as a recommendation, there tends to be a good reason for them I would think:

Are those BSS regs? Certainly not a bad starting point, although I know some of their stipulations are disputed. In this case I'm not convinced by their rationale that "hoses decay over time, so must be kept as short as possible". The one does not seem to follow from the other. If I were fitting out a boat from scratch I would seriously consider using flexible all the way, with 1) suitable mechanical protection in lockers etc and 2) the ability to withdraw it for inspection and replacement. I'm just wary of imperfectly-made joints down below.

Pete

 

[Slow_boat]

I went to the caravan shop and got a heater that gets through one little aerosol type cartridge in about 4 hours, which is plenty for an evening. The caravan shop charges about £6 for 4 cartridges.