Butane stoves are making me cry

I live in a poorly insulated apartment in Spain and it's cold right now.

Electric heat is sad and expensive. So I went with butane  because I used it in Chile and was pretty happy with it.

I have two stoves, different brands. They are both brand new as are the bottles of butane.

And the same thing keeps happening. The stove is lit, and after a couple of hours the flame spontaneously goes out.

After the flame goes out, the stove becomes almost impossible to keep lit. I get a spark but the awful things just won't stay lit.

This keeps up for a few hours. Then both stoves become usable again.

Humidity level in the apartment? Ghosts? Just nasty. Any suggestions welcome.

Rabi'a Elizabeth Brown wrote:I live in a poorly insulated apartment in Spain and it's cold right now.

Electric heat is sad and expensive. So I went with butane  because I used it in Chile and was pretty happy with it.

I have two stoves, different brands. They are both brand new as are the bottles of butane.

And the same thing keeps happening. The stove is lit, and after a couple of hours the flame spontaneously goes out.

After the flame goes out, the stove becomes almost impossible to keep lit. I get a spark but the awful things just won't stay lit.

This keeps up for a few hours. Then both stoves become usable again.

Humidity level in the apartment? Ghosts? Just nasty. Any suggestions welcome.

how big are the bottles and how powerful is the stove?

It's likely that the butane cannisters are cooling to the point where the butane will not flash from liquid to gas.

Solution: take the cannisters out, warm them (body heat?) and give them a good vigorous shake.

It sounds like you're using these for heat. Do you also have a pot on the burner at all times? I've noticed that a pot holds more heat inside the stove, warming the butane cannister a little.

Rabi'a Elizabeth Brown wrote:I have two stoves, different brands. They are both brand new as are the bottles of butane.
And the same thing keeps happening. The stove is lit, and after a couple of hours the flame spontaneously goes out.
After the flame goes out, the stove becomes almost impossible to keep lit. I get a spark but the awful things just won't stay lit.
This keeps up for a few hours. Then both stoves become usable again.
Humidity level in the apartment? Ghosts? Just nasty. Any suggestions welcome.

From your description, I feel the problem is with the safety measures that are built into the stove to try and make butane safer.

What do you feel is causing the flame to go out?  Maybe the humidity or a draft?

How long does the stove need to be off before it can be safely lit again without problems?

I feel that is the solution.  Heat for a couple of hours and when the flame goes out wait a certain amount of time until the stove can be lit to heat a couple of more hours.

Though the problem could be with the butane bottles instead of the stove.

What is the temperature in the apartment when you are trying to use the stoves?

I have read that if the temperature is too low and the bottle is close to empty the bottles act up.

Maybe someone with more knowledge of butane stoves will speak up with a better solution.

My guess is your stove has safety switch so that the burners don't overheat. If it gets too hot it will shutoff until it has time to cool down.

Someone has mentioned safety cutoffs, but I think a heater is likely to be designed to run indefinitely.

I think it more likely that the tank is getting cold. Try submerging the tank in a large bin of water. Even cold water from the tap will work.

I got the impression we were talking about butane campstoves like this. Did I understand correctly?

The butane stoves I get in Canada have a run time of 1.5 hours on high or 2 hours for my regular cooking temp, per bottle.

I wonder if there is some way to heat the person rather than the space?  Something like this? https://richsoil.com/electric-heat.jsp

I think it's what we'd call a space heater rather than a stove for cooking.

I lived in a poorly insulated apartment in Iowa during my last year at university. I suspect it's not as cold in Analucia as it was in Iowa that winter, but the plastic film window insulation kits did absolute wonders. Like seriously increased indoor air tempertures by a good ten degrees celcuius. However, I would then worry about carbon monoxide risk if I was using a butane powered space heater. This won't help you right now, but I suggest speaking with your landlord about investing in improvements in the building extreme cold and heat is likely going to be the norm from now on. In Mexico renter-landlord would each go half on this, or you could do figure out the best option, and propose and do the work with materials the landlord purchased?

as mentioned above it sounds like either a safety shutdown or the butane is not turning to a gas because its being used too fast. Slow down the flow rate a bit to see if it improves and the whole bottle can empty. If its a safety shutdown the lower rate will help keep it cooler. how big are the bottles of gas?

The safety of butane makes me think these are small bottles to use with a camp stove.

Since propane is available in Spain though not recommended for large bottles in the house I hope the OP will come back and clarify what kind of stove and how big are the bottles of butane.

I would tend to agree with the issue that the butane tank itself is getting too cold.  I know the boiling point of butane is just slightly below freezing, so you can actually crack open a butane lighter on a very cold morning and the liquid butane won't boil away.

Might be worthwhile to switch over to a propane-burning unit.  I have the 18000BTU unit found on this link.

https://www.lowes.com/pl/Mr-heater--Propane-heaters-Portable-space-heaters-Heating-cooling/4294765335?refinement=4294955058

What's great about it is that it utilizes a 20 liter barbeque tank, and can actually run up to three days off a full tank when set on low.  I've not had any problems with it shutting off.  When the tank is empty you just take it down to your local petrol station and get it refilled.