How many trips on a full stock propane bottle?

[carterzest]

I seem to have a knack of bothering the service station attendants with filling up my tank prematurely every time just to be safe and keep the wife on with the adventures! Last weekends trip, I bothered a Hood River OR service station attendant with less than a $1.00 top off.

Here is my question...with a stock tank and no extend a stay adaptor which BTW is a future project......How many cooking sessions and approximately how long can you use your stove without having to refill?

I have a backup, backpacking one burner alcohol stove as a standby, but just wondering what your experiences are.

I do not use my refrigerator just a 90 can cooler that seems to work great for three-four days and a small chunk of dry ice in the refer box for eggs, milk and other pre frozen dinner and breakfast portions in sealed containers....

I also try to use only one burner at a time.....coffee first, then the rest.

thanks,
Jeffrey

From a recent thread, " who uses their stove"....this is my process pre camping and before trip prep to conserve propane.....

[jackbombay]

I've cooked for 2 people for 2 weeks, then 4 people for week, then 2 people for a month all from one fill, the stove still worked when I went to fill up, but the guy said the tank was empty. Much of that was in quite cold weather so we were drinking lots of tea too. That said, the only thing that runs off propane in my van is the stove.
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[GWTWTLW]

Dang Jeffrey! You're making me hungry again!!
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89 Syncro Westy - GW 2.5, now with a double knob job
@gwtwtlw

[carterzest]

[carterzest]

[erdonline]

OK, I'm ready for bed so I'm not going out to the van to look now for this info, but here's how you can find out how many hours the stove burners will work on high-

Propane has 21,000 BTU per pound, so take 21,000, multiply by the number of pounds a full tank holds, then divide by the number of BTUs of each burner.

Ed in CT

[GWTWTLW]

[danfromsyr]

So I need to wiegh the van before or after each campout?

[kevinbassplayer]

For me solo I can run the fridge and cook everyday for about 14+days before I need to refill

[MarkWard]

We went two weeks using the stove and the refrigerator on gas at night. A couple nights we had hookups so the fridge was on shore power. I would think at least 5 weekends. I carry a 1 pound with an adapter setup for an emergency that would tie into the stove. Have to have my morning coffee. We also carry a cooler for drinks. That saves opening the fridge alot.
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[beatrich]

Our van trips have usually been cooking twice a day, (once for coffee, once for food) and fridge on full blast and the propane lasted about two weeks. I am in for a tank revamp though, and was thinking a fill guage would be nice.

Those results have been pretty consistent over 3-4 trips.

[campism]

We bought our Westy two years ago with what the PO said was a full tank. We probably have 30-40 nights on it now, cooking mornings, sometimes evenings and always heating water for cleanup. No refill yet. I keep waiting to run out so I can pull the tank and repaint it.

[dpazos]

I did a twenty day trip using the fridge on gas 50% and cooking two times a day with just one tank.

[danfromsyr]

here's a hint to find out level ..

Run the stove top for half a minute-minute and toss some cold/chill/ambient temp water on the tank.
note the level line that will magically appear as the tank temp will be differant above and at the liquid propane level.


boy that sure beats hitting it with a hammer to hear if it sounds empty.
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[ckissick]

I spent a whole summer, maybe 80 days, solo, cooking with the stove every day (mostly dinner, but some breakfast and lunch, too - I like grilled cheese for lunch). Never used the propane on the fridge. I ran out while cooking at Bryce Canyon on my second-to-last night. So I went more than 2 months on one tank.
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Charlie
1950 Beetle
1983 Westfalia
1989 syncro Tristar
1966 Porsche 912
1989 Beck Spyder
2007 GTI Fahrenheit