Gas cylinder keeps freezing.

[flobadob]

We have a gas cylinder outside at the back of the kitchen hooked up to the oven. The thing is that during the current cold snap it is constantly freezing up thereby stopping the gas from getting to the cooker. At the moment I am filling an empty 2 litre bottle with warm water and pouring it over the top of the cylinder when I want to use the gas and it has worked okay so far.

It has happened other years too but I put an old t-shirt over it and that would stop it from freezing, however this cold spell is the worst for years so the t-shirt has no effect this year and the gas is freezing regardless.

My question is, is there anything I could do to the cylinder which will stop the gas from freezing rather than having to constantly run out with the warm water?

[Count-A-Strong]

Could you buy a hot water cylinder jacket and put this around it?

[buildersmate]

(To the tune of 'There's a hole in my bucket')
Then insulate it, dear flobadob, dear flobadob, dear flobadob.....................

[flobadob]

What do you call those things? They don't have any in the co-op.

[Count-A-Strong]

They're called 'hot water cylinder (or tank) jackets' .......rather unsuprisingly
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?linktyp
e=breadcrumb&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/ca
tegories<{9372016}/categories<{9372050}/categ
ories<{9372233}&ts=1263450811899&listerGaller
y=true

[Count-A-Strong]

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?linktyp
e=breadcrumb&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/ca
tegories<{9372016}/categories<{9372050}/categ
ories<{9372233}&ts=1263450811899&listerGaller
y=true

[Count-A-Strong]

sorry, don't know why that links not working but its B&Q. £11.98.

[flobadob]

Cheers count, I copied and pasted and see them now. I'll pick one up next time I'm in town. Do you think they will still work in an outside environment as I assume they are designed to be used internally in a hot press and whatnot.

[craft1948]

My washing machine, which is in the garage froze up last week.........the builder has just been and fitted a couple of what he called 'freeze heaters'..........they're apparently the same as greenhouse heaters and keep things above freezing but cost about 10p an hour to run/

[Count-A-Strong]

ANY excuse to have 'the builders' round eh craft?

flobadob - I think you might have to lift the bottle off the floor and warm the jacket up slightly before putting it around the bottle. should protect against the worst frost.

[Count-A-Strong]

Sorry, meant lift the bottle off the floor and put some polystyrene under it (do you remember Poly Styrene from X Ray Specs?)

[KARL]

If you are using butane (which I rather suspect) then switching to propane would hugely improve tolerance of low temperatures due to the lower boiling point of propane. As a fuel, propane has a higher calorific value so you pay more for it but you also get much more heat when burning it - I am uncertain precisely how a comparative analysis of price per kWh comes out but for the reasons given, I avoid butane for my uses (motorhome).

[tigerlelly]

For the future Is there room to build an insulated cupboard around it and put polystyrene pipe covers over the exposed bit of pipe? As a quick fix what about the gaardener's fleece that is put around plants to protect them.

[flobadob]

I think it is kerosene but I'm not 100% sure.

[Count-A-Strong]

kerosene is OIL - are you taking the P?

[MOFRFO]

Oh Boy, my mother has the same problem and I suggested the cylinder cover and lagging the pipes. B&Q doing great offers at mo on insulating products. Hope you get it sorted before the turkey is due in the oven, best of luck n have a great xmas, :))

[The Builder]

Flobbers ............... you in trouble again? lol
First time I've ever heard Buildersmate sing! .................. anyway, just wanted to agree with everyone ........... INSULATION
If you can manage it, build a little shed around the bottles, and stuff with insulation. Itchy loft roll will do as long as you keep it from getting wet.
I guess you have the big orange bottles .......... probably propane. Check this with Calor, but, if it's butane, just bring the bottle indoors for the duration. Run the cooker that way. It's no more dangerous than those "move-around" mobile heaters.

[KARL]

Insulation will only keep the temperature up if the cylinder is already warm, and then only for a limited time during which the temperature will steadily fall (insulation does not generate heat, it merely slows down its transfer). The colour of the cylinder does indicate which gas it contains (not kerosene) but different suppliers use different colour codes - your supplier will confirm what you have.

[heathfield]

A keen caravanner I know said that he found the hose from the bottle to his caravan cooker would become blocked by frozen gas. On examination, he found the hose contained a surprising amount of crud. Suspecting the crud was helping the gas freeze, he blew the hose clear using compressed air. He now does this on a regular basis, and swears that it's cured the problem.

[ChuckFickens]

I doubt it's propane, propane doesn't stop boiling (it's not freezing, it's dropping below it's boiling temp so there is no gas, just liquid) until about -40c, butane stops boiling at about -2c

Swapping between them isn't as easy as just changing bottles though, you'll need to change all the regulators and possibly the burners too

I do agree with KARL though, insulation won't stop the problem, it will just slow down the cooling of the bottle.

I also doubt that anyone has a problem with pipes getting blocked by frozen gas, propane freezes at -187c and butane at about -140c

[flobadob]

Yes, I got confused with all the (x)ane talk. It is indeed propane. As I say when I pour the warm water over the nozzle/regulator you can actually hear the gas starting to flow again, making a hissing noise. With any luck we'll get out of this cold spell soon enough and the old t-shirt will do the trick again. However I will try the insulation jacket if I can get one.