How long will 20kg of propane last?

nathane

Active member
Hi Folks,

I realise this is an impossible question to answer but I'm keen to get as much insight as possible to help me work out what I do about gas.

We will mainly be 2 travelling together in our main camper but occasionally joined by our 2 kids in our defender. Using gas only for cooking. We will be fitting a three burner stove with oven.

We also drink lots of tea!

I'm currently thinking of chassis mounting a fixed tank and so want to have enough capacity to be able to not be too stressed about refilling. I will carry an MSR for multi day hiking trips which we will be able to use in emergencies but I'd rather have enough capacity to last between fills.

I'd love to hear experience of how long folks last on their supplies.

Thanks is advance.

Nathan
 

dwh

Tail-End Charlie
My camper van has a 5 gallon tank. Cooking only, not using it for anything else...all meals + coffee and tea...10 weeks.
 

nick disjunkt

Adventurer
We use a 13 kg propane tank in our truck for cooking only (3 burner with grill and oven) and it last us about 6 months. That's with hot drinks and cooking on the hob every day, and oven meals a couple of times per week. Cooker is a GN Espace levante, although any compact marine cooker will have similar consumption.
 

waveslider

Outdoorsman
Nathane - the standard answer to your question of “How long will 20kg of propane last?” is:


It depends on how big your leak is.....
 
My gas stove has 3 burners- 2 put out 5200 btu/hr, 1 puts out 7200 btu/hr. Figure an average of 6000 btu/hr. But usually stoves are used on low “simmer “ setting- maybe 1-2000 btu/hr. Except for boiling water.
So it’s not easy to estimate but my personal experience is that 2 cylinders between 9 and 11kg each when used only for cooking should last over 1 year.
It is good to have 2 gas reservoirs - when the 1st goes empty, you start looking for a refill source.
 
Last edited:

nathane

Active member
My gas stove has 3 burners- 2 put out 5200 btu/hr, 1 puts out 7200 btu/hr. Figure an average of 6000 btu/hr. But usually stoves are used on low “simmer “ setting- maybe 1-2000 btu/hr. Except for boiling water.
So it’s not easy to estimate but my personal experience is that 2 cylinders between 9 and 11kg each when used only for cooking should last over 1 year.
It is good to have 2 gas reservoirs - when the 1st goes empty, you start looking for a refill source.

Interesting thought, 2 tanks rather than one. Downside is cost, benefit might be ability to fit onto chasis more easily as well as redundancy. Thanks.
 

VerMonsterRV

Gotta Be Nuts
We live aboard a sailboat full time with 2 20lb tanks. We cook most of our own meals and bake with a 3 burner stove/oven. We will usually go about 2.5 months on one of the tanks. One other thing to consider, some places in the world propane is not available and you need to use butane. Seems to work ok.
 

grizzlyj

Tea pot tester
My current thinking is space for two approx 12kg bottles in a locker. One 6kg refillable Gaslow, one "locally" flavoured. That leaves some externally accessable storage above the plumbed in 6kg for hook up cables etc, the possibility of topping up the valved (so no overfilling) Gaslow from a variety of other sources, and if aiming to use a local bottle then that gives about a 3 month window to sort out new/different local bottle if and when required.
 

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