Green gas vs Propane price comparison.

[Mr Monkey Nuts]

So I keep hearing and reading that Propane is significantly cheaper than green gas, yet when I do the maths I get different results ....

 

WE Green Gas £9 for 300g = 3 pence per gram of gas (900/300)

 

Coleman Propane £10 for 465g = 2.15 pence per gram of gas (1000/465)

 

A saving of 0.85 pence per gram of gas used.

 

Plus the requirement to lube and use the adapter at £15

 

Means that of those 0.85 pence saved, it actually takes 1765g which equates to just under 4 bottles, to recoup the cost of the adapter from the 0.85p savings. (1500/0.85)

 

So you only start saving money from the 5th bottle? And then at about a third off the cost of WE Green Gas.

 

Now I'm not an economist, nor do I confess to be great at maths but 0.85 ppg doesn't appear to be a fantastic saving to me. Have I messed up the maths or is this another air soft myth busted?

[M_P]

A third off becomes significant if you use a lot of gas.

If you get the Coleman twin packs it's cheaper still.

[jcheeseright]

If you just buy the disposable coleman cans then yeah, it's not much cheaper... if however you get a 20Kg cylinder and refill your coleman cans from it the price becomes much more manageable. The initial outlay is larger obviously, but once you're all set you're looking at much less than a penny per gram of propane (typically between 0.2p and 0.3p per gram, depending on where you buy the gas).

[straffham]

WE gas is probably heavier as it has silicon lube in too?

[Mack]

The price of the colemans has went up a fair bit this few years aswell. When I first started using it you could get the twinpack for £14

[NH Shooter]

I was gonna say... I got a 6kg bottle from a boot sale for £15, full... Which only leaves refills, which are dead cheap. I don't use any other cans, just throw the tank in the car.

 

For the field, I have a normal store brought can of gas in case I absolutely, positively have to refill it... But I never do.

 

That makes that can .25p per gram, and refills around .35p per gram. At those prices, you save about £8 per tin... You would recoup your tank cost (£55, new) by the time your propane tank was at around 60‰ full... That remaining 60% would save you about £88 by the time it was emptied. The second tank would save you £116.50 by the time you used it...

 

Those 2 savings in real terms... That's £204 saved in 36 cans of store brought green gas.

[Lozart]

So it would be fair to say - not worth it if you have a gas pistol you use every now and then but definitely worth it if you have all gas rifles?

[cavninja]

I was gonna say... I got a 6kg bottle from a boot sale for £15, full... Which only leaves refills, which are dead cheap. I don't use any other cans, just throw the tank in the car.

 

For the field, I have a normal store brought can of gas in case I absolutely, positively have to refill it... But I never do.

 

That makes that can .25p per gram, and refills around .35p per gram. At those prices, you save about £8 per tin... You would recoup your tank cost (£55, new) by the time your propane tank was at around 60‰ full... That remaining 60% would save you about £88 by the time it was emptied. The second tank would save you £116.50 by the time you used it...

 

Those 2 savings in real terms... That's £204 saved in 36 cans of store brought green gas.

 

'Scuse me for being the noob, but could someone give me a quick run down on using heavier cylinders to fill your gas mags? How do you decent to a smaller container? Can you fill from your large cylinder directly to your mags? I get the benefits of using propane and I'm a total gas addict, can't see me ever owning an electric gun, sorry, just not for me. But the large cylinder offers huge savings and I still like to carry a cylinder with me in the field in case I need to top up.

Cheers for any help and advice

[Mr Monkey Nuts]

Cheers guys, this is the first time I have heard of refilling a smaller bottle, it would also allow the taller / slimmer bottles to be used.

 

I'm purely being lazy, but does anyone know of any links to get the correct adapers and regualtors?

Do you not need any flash protectors or anti static devices?, and how to you ensure that you don't overfill the bottle, they should only be 80% to allow for temperate gas expansion iirc?

 

 

 

This may help cav?

[cavninja]

Gleaming!!! That's excellent, thanks Monkey, i know you can buy propane adaptors in airsoft shops for filling gas mags, but where would you find an adaptor as in the vid fir decanting from large to small cylinders?

[jcheeseright]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2054897.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.Xpropane+refill+adapter&_nkw=propane+refill+adapter&_sacat=0

[cavninja]

Nice one! Cheers JC

[NH Shooter]

See... I don't want to faff with the extra can, so I just fill mags direct from the big one and use normal green gas for that odd top off, should I need it. If I need to gas up that much more, consistently... I buy another mag.

 

I don't like the idea of reusing those cans. I would just buy one of the remote jobbers...

 

http://www.actionhobbies.co.uk/VFC-Multi-Port-Plus-Simulator-Hand-Grenade-Gas-Charger_ARUPB.aspx#.U_XPWtBwb0w

 

Something like that...

[cavninja]

I see your point NH, straight from main bottle to mag, less fuss and hassel, but I like the option of being able to top up my mags with gas as and when, even mid game and having a smaller refillable can, could fulfill that need cheaply.

[NH Shooter]

http://airsoft-innovations.com/en/gascan-compact-filling-device

[cavninja]

http://airsoft-innovations.com/en/gascan-compact-filling-device

NH Sah!! you are truly a gentleman and a scholar! Genius!

[Airsoft-Ed]

I use Colemans in my GBBRs, the 465g bottles last me about 1.3 or so game days.

If I buy green gas on site it's about a tenner a bottle and I need about 3 bottles to last me a day.

£30 vs £7.20? You really think propane isn't worth it? Propane just seems to go further.

[Mr Monkey Nuts]

Propane for £7.20? Where from? The absolute cheapest I have found it is £9, even the caravan shops sell it for £11 a bottle.

 

Yes £30 vs & £7 is a cracking saving and i'm all on board for that, but what i'm trying to ascertain is if those are actually achievable figures?

 

I do respect your opinion, however what you are stating is purely anecdotal, I fail to see how when using two gasses of essentially the same product, one can yield 4 times the efficiency, with such a small volume change.

[jcheeseright]

you can get coleman gas cheap ish in go-outdoors with the discount card.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Yup, £7.20 a bottle from Go Outdoors once you pay a fiver for the discount card.

I don't know how it lasts so much longer either, but I just get a shit load more out of it.
I think it's because as you fill mags up there comes a point where the gas pressure in the bottle is no longer high enough to fill up a rifle mag.

The bigger bottles take a longer to reach this point because they hold a higher gas volume. So the bigger the bottle, the better, because you can fill from it for longer.

With the airsoft green gas cans it takes no time at all before there's not enough pressure in the bottle to fully fill a gas mag anymore.

[GiantKiwi]

Ambient Temp dependent.

 

A Colemans Propane Bottle will do roughly -

 

30 on GHK G5 Mags

35 on Prowin V2's

20-30 on WE M4 Mags

35-40 on WE SMG8 Mags

30-40 on G&P PMags

20-25 KWA Vector Mags

 

A WE Green Gas will do roughly -

 

15 - G5

15-20 - Prowin

10-15 WE M4 Mags

15 - SMG8 Mags

20 - PMags

~10 - Vectors

 

These are all taken from practice, Propane, even with colemans tanks works out a helluva lot cheaper. However, quite a few sites near me for example, have blanket bans on Propane for BS reasons (basically to sell their own stock at exorbitant prices)

 

The other thing you've got to factor in, with mags with exceptionally long gas times (cough, vector) the WE Green fill tip actually freezes shut, rendering the can unusable, where as using the AI propane adapter, negates the problem as its made from polymer rather than metal. Oh and the Madbull adapter, steer well clear of, its junk.

[cavninja]

Kiwi, cheers for the tips fella, great stuff, I'm getting myself kitted out to run on propane and to refill from a 20kg cylinder.

The advice and tips on this site are top dollar!

[Qlimax]

I use colemans, bought a bottle about a year ago for £9.99 off Amazon and works great. Still have third of the bottle left.

 

on a good day I get 3 full mags from one fill.

[Mr Monkey Nuts]

Oh and the Madbull adapter, steer well clear of, its junk.

 

That's interesting, what's your experience of them?

[GiantKiwi]

 

That's interesting, what's your experience of them?

Freezing, then snapping off. That was whilst filling a TM pistol mag as well, so not exactly a long fill time.