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camping gas canisters Belgium and Holland

Posted: 23 Apr 2014, 11:04pm
by martin113
I am thoroughly confused and maybe I have been searching this forum for too long on this subject. Can anyone tell me what type of gas canisters are likely to be most available in Belgium and Holland, the piercing type, the clip on type or the self sealing type which you screw the stove on to? Thanks.

Re: camping gas canisters Belgium and Holland

Posted: 24 Apr 2014, 10:39am
by jamesgilbert
I don't have first-hand experience but as no-one else has replied yet, the Decathlon stores in Belgium have both the clip-on Camping Gaz cartridges and Primus/Coleman screw-on cartridges.

No sign of the piercing type, but I'd imagine they are available in other camping shops.

Re: camping gas canisters Belgium and Holland

Posted: 24 Apr 2014, 2:25pm
by andrew_s
I'm led to believe that the Camping Gas clip-on canisters are a lot commoner than the screw-on type, the screw-on type being limited to outdoor/camping shops.
I'd recommend getting an adapter to use clip-on canisters with a screw-on stove.

Puncture canisters have fallen foul of European health and safety regs. The stoves stopped getting sold several years ago (10 ?), and the canisters to use with old stoves have been getting slowly less common ever since.

Re: camping gas canisters Belgium and Holland

Posted: 24 Apr 2014, 2:37pm
by profpointy
Puncture canisters have fallen foul of European health and safety regs. The stoves stopped getting sold several years ago (10 ?), and the canisters to use with old stoves have been getting slowly less common ever since.[/quote]

Whilst I'm not all that keen on 'elf 'n' safety (gorn maad) a mate of mine was unfamiliar with that type and when looking closely saw that the spike on the stove had to puncture the can - so he just jammed the spike in, rather than screwing up the base as your are supposed to. Would have got away with it too had he not been using his (naked flame) carbide caving light. Blew the stove 50 yards into bushes, blew out the base of the gas can, though he got away with a singed jacket and sans eyebrows ! We were a couple of miles away talking on the radio, heard much swearing, then a bang, silence, the the bang again carried at the speed of sound direct.

Re: camping gas canisters Belgium and Holland

Posted: 24 Apr 2014, 2:49pm
by andrew_s
Even the screw-on canisters aren't completely idiot-proof.
I had a clubmate try to swap canisters without moving away from other running stoves, and get a flash across when the new canister was partly screwed on. The result was big flames firing out of the side. I applied a boot and kicked it halfway across the field, and the shock was enough to put it out.
That was on a caving jaunt too (Matienzo).

Re: camping gas canisters Belgium and Holland

Posted: 24 Apr 2014, 3:56pm
by profpointy
He was at the Berger entrance and we were at road head we heard the 2nd (direct) bang as well as on the radio . This was before camping was banned on the plateau

Re: camping gas canisters Belgium and Holland

Posted: 24 Apr 2014, 4:44pm
by jamesgilbert
andrew_s wrote:Even the screw-on canisters aren't completely idiot-proof.


There's also the classic camping accident where you put the pan on the stove without taking the lid off, to discover later that it was heavy not because it was full of water, but because you'd forgotten to take out the spare gas cartridge... :twisted: