Adapter to attach a camping stove to a propane tank?

Howdy, is this it?

Just be very careful running LPG or propane into a normal ‘canister’ stove. Propane will run at a higher pressure than the butane/propane mix we normally use, and you could turn your stove into a flame thrower. Keep the flame at medium or lower.

The higher pressure of propane is why BBQs etc have pressure reducing valves on them.

Cheers

Thanks Stephen and Roger.

The adapter linked helped my googling, which led me to discover exactly what you’re saying Roger, in this article:

https://adventuresinstoving.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-g-works-adapter-100-propane-for.html?m=1

Specifically that article says not to use that direct adapter with a Windburner as the regulator may get damaged due to the pressure. But I don’t think all is lost!

I hadn’t been looking for that adapter – I’d been wanting to go from a bigger refillable tank like this:

I’m really trying to solve for two issues:

1. Backpacking canisters are uncommon in small towns around Australia, and expensive when weight is no concern.
2. Using smaller canisters is not very environmental as a fair bit of steel is being formed each time, even if it’s recycled.

Problem 1 is pretty easily solved with an adapter to use aerosol style butane canisters, which are easy to find. I could also refill a lindel canister… but I don’t think that step is needed if everything is just being chucked in the back of car anyway.

Problem 2 presents the pressure issue from propane and I can’t find an adapter to go directly from a refillable tank to a camping stove anyway (probably for good reason!). However, there are many to go from a refillable tank to the smaller “coleman” tanks. The two fittings seem to get referred to as POL and BOM respectively:

https://www.tentworld.com.au/buy-sale/coleman-5ft-gas-hose-pol

I haven’t found one yet with a pressure regulator in-line, but there’s plenty of standalone ones that can be put ahead of the adapter:

https://www.tentworld.com.au/buy-sale/Companion-POL-2-75-KPA-3-8-BSP-Gas-Regulator-Low-Pressure

So… if I go:

1. Refillable tank
2. Regulator
3. POL to BOM hose
4. BOM to Lindel adapter (like link from Stephen)

I think I’ll be there with pure propane flowing at 2.75kpa thanks to the regulator.

I need to do some more research to ensure 2.75kpa is less than the max pressure of a camping canister and hence within the tolerance of the regulator on the Windburner, but my initial searching would indicate that pure propane is about 2-3X the pressure of a propane-butane mix dependant on temperature, and stats on this site indicate that regulating down to 2.75kpa is a massive reduction in percentage terms:

https://www.elgas.com.au/blog/1969-how-much-pressure-is-in-lpg-propane-cylinders-in-what-state

So my working assumption is that’s well into the envelope of safety of a stove intended for the mixed canisters.

Kind of a kludge solution, but if it’s all just sitting in the back of a car that doesn’t really matter and it makes the new Windburner a pretty versatile setup.

G’Day Lachlan

I’ve tried to do what you propose myself, never successfully. It’s a kludge and in the end not cheap either. Propane camping stoves are so cheap when on sale [ and they always seem to be on sale] that I found it wasn’t worth the hassle. What does seem to work for me is simply using the smallest possible propane tank. I have thought about an adaptor to shunt LPG from a 9kg tank to the 2kg tank but so far haven’t bothered

2.75 kPa is a bit high. If you could get the regulator down to under 1.4 kPa you would be within the range of a standard (screw-thread) camping stove canister.

I would definitely NOT try running unregulated propane into one of the little stoves with a so-called ‘regulator’. I do not think they are specified for that (and they are just a marketing gimmick anyhow). But you could run propane into a standard (simple needle valve) canister stove provided you kept the flame down. A simple metal needle valve can handle that.

Cheers

I’ve screwed many simple canister-top butane-mix stove heads onto the top of 1-pound (contents) propane cylinders through an adaptor and had no problems.

I then refill the one-pound propane camping cylinders from a 20-pound BBQ-grill bulk cylinder so the fuel cost is very low.

But Edward makes a great point about just using a $20 propane stove head since you’re not worried about the weight when car camping.  I do that sometimes when snow camping if we’re hauling a sled and/or I’m using the one-pound cylinder to run a catalytic heater.

In addition to working to lower temperatures, propane should burn more oxygen-rich, fuel-lean which may help to reduce CO emissions at altitude.  Not that you’re usually car camping at altitude unless you’re in California, Colorado, or Nepal.

I have to think a simple one-burner camping stove designed to run on propane will be cheaper than the parts you need to make this adapter setup – as well as being less work as others have mentioned. Even a basic 2-burner may be cheaper, and then you have 2 burners to play with. You are car camping, after all – go for 2.

Last white season I had a stove hose problem and could not buy a replacement [ a change of standard it seemed] a new 2 burner LPG/Propane stove cost me $36- on sale with a 3/8th hose included. Given the current exchange rate that isn’t too far from Davids $20-. Given that I keep the gas bottle in a milk crate and that crate hold most of the cooking gear I don’t find it too much trouble

However Lachlan if you want to play around Paypal me $9- for postage and I’ll send you all the bits and pieces I bought to try and do the fudge and I’ll include NC the little butane adaptor I have spare for you to play with  I have a Cobra adaptor and I don’t need  a second unit