A4 gas canisters which one? battery or standard? or generic?

[graham2burton65@gmail.com]

please help..I'm very confused...again!

I have a lovely Brightspark stove, like many of you.
following advice I made sure it is the flame failure version.

the instructions specify an A4 'battery' 220g can.

These battery versions seem remarkably hard to get hold of. 
Question. What is the significance of the word battery in the title?

Ordinary A4 220g cartridges are stocked by many retailers. I suspect everyone uses them!

I have tried to speak to Brightspark, they were very unhelpful except to say I must use the battery version listed on their website.

I suspect it may be as simple as the gas mix.
thanks in advance
Graham B

[Jonathan Stuart]

Hi Graham,

Looking at the Bright Spark product specs, I am fairly sure Butane Battery is just a brand name. But it is specifically for their cartridges with butane / propane mix, which works better then pure butane in low temperatures. Most "conventional" done shaped camping cylinders use propane/butane but I believe the cartridges used in these stoves are often butane. I suspect Butane Battery is just to signify propane content.

These are standard cartridges so you can use any brand but if you want the same as Butane Battery then look for cartridges that contain propane. But you could use butane and that should work fine outside cold temperatures. Force 4 seem to have Butane Battery in stock.

[Peter Taylor]

"Butane Battery" is indeed a brand name for the cartridges which, until a couple of years ago, were sold directly by Bright Spark, hence the recommendation to use them with their stoves. They do differ from some cheaper cartridges on sale in that they do contain some propane rather than being pure butane. Propane evaporates more easily so it increases the pressure in the cartridge. Thus while it is often present in the dome shaped ones (which can withstand a higher pressure) it is probably only present in a relatively smaller proportion in the "Butane Battery" type cartridges and in other types is absent. It will increase the performance at low temperatures when butane is reluctant to evaporate. However that is probably only true for a new, or relatively new, cartridge since the propane will tend to evaporate quicker and get used up sooner during use than will the butane. A partially used cartridge is probably almost pure butane and will perform badly if it is cold.

I always buy the "Butane Battery" make, not so much for the propane, but because I've used an awful lot of them over the years in my boat heater and so far (offers prayer to the river gods) I've not had one leak, whereas I've heard of problems with some similar cartridges. Having to bail butane out of the cabin using a bucket is not a task I want to try!
Peter

[graham2burton65@gmail.com]

Thanks folks