LPG cookers

Anyone use LPG cylinders for their gas cooker? Several of the houses we’re looking at use LPG for their cooking. Invariably from a couple of red lpg cylinders stacked outside c. 4-5ft high, 47Kg I think. I was just wondering how long a cylinder lasts (yes… I know that’s impossible to give accurately but very hand waving is fine) and cost to replace?

I use calor for cooking, or to be more exact for the stove top burners. The oven’s electric (Falcon if it makes any difference).

I’ve got two cylinders; one’s a standard 13kg one, the other 19kg (they were both 19 but I went on holiday and one of my kids ‘helpfully’ changed an empty one for a 13kg one…).

We cook quite a lot (or to be more exact my wife does) and I think we probably go through a 13kg bottle every 2-3 months or so. It costs ‘about’ 40 quid for the 13kg refill and 50 something for the 19kg.

Not sure I’d want to carry a 47kg one around much- I think the weight listed is the weight of gas, not the cylinder as well.

Thanks for the reminder that I should get around to getting a 19kg cylinder before Christmas…

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We hardly cook at all! Total cooking in the last week: Some sausages on the 'lean-mean grilling machine, a fried egg (to go with the sausages), a tin of baked beans, some soup, so I’d expect a big cylinder would last yonks! When I was at university we used to use the 4ft 6 cylinders, you get used to the weight and how to move them around. :slight_smile:

In the absence of mains gas I would just get an electric cooker and save the hassle of storing big gas bottles. Get one with an induction hob though, they are so much better. In fact I like our induction hob so much that I would continue to use one even if we moved to a house that had mains gas.

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Steve, many years ago I lived in a small village which was plagued by power cuts at time of high demand (Like Christmas Day) we purchased a Calor Gas Cooker and used it succsefully for many years.

I would check on the electricity situation and if they have any problems?

We have a Rangemaster range cooker, electric ovens and gas hob. Run it off bottled propane, a pair of 19kg bottles. Do a fair amount of cooking and a bottle lasts about 6+ months and costs iirc £45 approx. When a bottle runs out I phone the supplier and they renew it and email me the bill. Their office is walking distance (20 minutes) and they have doggie treats for Zhukov

Willy.

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Good point, I got rid of our oil fired Aga and replaced it with the all electric. I also installed a woodburner in the kitchen which has a cooking hot plate, and there’s a 2 ring camping hob in the shed. Always have a backup!

We cook everyday on a Stoves range cooker using two 19 kg propane cylinders connected by an automatic changeover valve. Electric ovens.
1 cylinder lasts 4-6 months cost around £45 ( about 6 weeks ago).

Note: if you get a new cooker you will need to order the LPG conversion kit - the burner jets are different and need to be fitted on installation.

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An induction hob was on the plans anyway but it looks like the current owners want to take the current cooker and I was going through all the options to tied us over until we refit the kitchen. An induction hob would need a high current mains feed so it was something I was going to, hopefully, put off until we get a sparks in to do a number of the harder jobs. Meanwhile I was wondering on a cheap lpg cooker or even simply an lpg hob to make do.

Some cookers have gas hobs but electric ovens, in which case you might already have a suitable heavy duty mains supply in place if you’re lucky.

You can also buy small freestanding induction hobs that sit on a worktop and plug into a regular mains socket. Easier than a small LPG hob with a gas bottle. We have one 2-ring one which we used alongside the Aga, cost about £70.

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I was worried about running costs (hypocritical I know when there’s a damn big Aga there gobbling up the paraffin 24hrs a day) but sounds like lpg costs aren’t an issue. If the current owners still insist in taking their old cooker (and, honestly! how much is a 20 year old cooker worth?) then I might just get an lpg hob to make do or perhaps offer what ever a new hob would cost and see what she says.

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Electric ovens run off a normal 13Amp feed… typically just plug into a standard mains socket. A desktop induction hob is also a possibility.

That would depend on the oven. It would normally be hard wired into a cooker point, and depending on how much power it uses it could run off its own circuit with 10mm T&E and a 32 Amp breaker, in which case you wouldn’t necessarily need to do any rewiring.

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Sorry… the last three ovens we’d had have all simply had a three pin mains plug on the mains cable.

We use LPG gas here for the cooker. Bunch of large canisters round the side of the building. However I couldn’t say how long they last. LPG is still metered. The gas company is responsible for checking them often enough so they don’t run out and replacing them automatically. We still get billed based on what the meter says we used.

They run our hot water and heating pretty much 24/7 for several months of the year. My impression is that it is more expensive than electricity but the comparison is hard. I went from a hot climate with 4 aircon on 24/7 for 6 months a year and electric cooker, to a cold climate with no aircon but gas on 24/7 6 months. The combined gas and electric bill in winter is astronomical compared to the summer electric bill in the last place. But I think countries also vary here.

We have a LPG hob, one 19kg cylinder (about £30) lasts us just under a year, we do cook a lot as well

Seventy quid for a desktop twin induction hob. That sounds like the way to go. Add a microwave and that’s our cooking sorted :wink:

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Hear, hear!

Induction hob is best of all, gas included - safer than gas, and most efficient of any, instant control, clean - and these days, unlike when we got ours 16 years ago, induction has become mainstream, with induction capable pans almost universal.

The only limitation is that they are not as good with woks as a purpose-built gas wok burner. However I have fairly recently seen an induction hob that included a wok ring, though I have no idea how effective it is.

If it were me, I’d not worry what the current hob fuel supply is, just change to induction at earliest opportunity.

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Ours is a 2 ring Electriq, not a brand I had heard of but it works well. If you’re interested I bought it from a place called AppliancesDirect who now sell them for £60.
Remember that you need compatible pans, anything with a base that’s non-ferrous doesn’t work.

……and don’t buy one if you have a pacemaker!!!

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You can get wok adapters too. Just bowl shaped chunks of metal that heat.

But to be honest, a lot of Asia just does stir fry in a flat frying pan at home. I went from being a wok snob to an IH frying pan convert after swearing that gas was the best for years.

The transition back to gas in this temporary flat has been painful. I have to say it, but after IH, everything else is rubbish.

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